“Come mild wind and convey my sad feelings,” wrote Abeysekera. Ours too - for the poet song-writer, who died in his early fifties, in 1983, was a much-loved, much-missed literary and cricket all-rounder. Beginning his career at a jejune 20 years old, he went on to write the lines of well over 2,000 songs. His award-winning lyrics underwrote the careers of some of the island’s most popular singers; and called to mind a gentle, kinder world, where there was room enough for emotion, feelings – and, of course, love. “My eyes are closing, and your image alone is seen,” he wrote in one of his most renowned hits. His fascination with cricket won him a place as the first notable Singhala broadcaster on the subject, his agile creativity well up to the task of having to invent cricketing terms for actions then unknown in the Singhala language.

Illustration courtesy of the artist's Facebook Page.

The eleventh monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 56th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 237 – 245 CE. By any standards, Abhaya Naga was the sort of king a country might best avoid. Despite having both cuckolded and murdered his brother Voharika Tissa, the previous king, he still managed to last for eight years before dying a wholly undeserved natural death – just the 26th reigning Sri Lankan monarch to have so died. His gaining of the throne with the help of a mercenary Tamil army suggests also just how close the links were between the Anuradhapuran kings and the monarchs of south India – the Pallavas, Cholas, Cheras and Pandiyans.

Illustration: A Lakshmi Plaque coin showing on the obverse the Goddess Lakshmi facing, being showered by two mini elephants atop of poles; and on the reverse: a clockwise revolving Swastika tree. The coin was in circulation in Anuradhapura from 20 BCE to 297 CE, including during the reign of Abhaya Naga, King of Anuradhapura. Image courtesy of CoinTalk.

The fourth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), reigning from 474 – 454 BCE.

Abhaya, King Panduvasdeva’s eldest son, inherited the Vijayan throne from his father in 474 BCE. It is impossible to discern at this distance quite what passed for war and peace among his nine male siblings during his rule but clearly there was a rising dispute that only ended (for him) when in 454 BCE he had abdicated in favour of his bother Tissa. It is unlikely that Abhaya’s ousting took the pressure of what had become an incipient civil war as Panduvasdeva’s sons continued to vie for prominence, and survival. Spared his life, Abhaya retreated into a wise obscurity, sensibly declining his nephew’s later offer to retake the crown, settling instead for the far less pressured job of running the freshly minted city of Anuradhapura.

Illustration: The earliest known version of the Vijayan Flag, with the Lion shown. Courtsey of Narlaka Unleashed.

Claimed as the island’s oldest mosque, Beruwala’s Abrar Mosque dates back to 920 CE - but was brutally improved in 1986 by a Provincial Governor. Indeed, over the recent centuries, so much of the ancient mosque has been forcibly renovated that its tangible antiquity is more a whisper than a certainty. But its claims to a deep and real history are strongly grounded, for Beruwala, located on the SW coast of the island, is said to be the country’s very first Muslim settlement, established sometime in the 10th CE by a Somali Sheikh - Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn. A man much given to spreading the word of the Prophet to neighbours near and far, the Sheik was called "the most outstanding saint in Somaliland". The Sri Lankan Moor descendants of these early settlers make up the town’s majority population, and the masjid’s devotees, 3,000 of which can fit into its cool interior at any one time in answer to the shahadah, calling them in five times a day.

Illustration courtesy of the mosque's Facebook Page.

Night-time is lights-out time in Sri Lanka; the polluting sodium glare of millions of civic lights and lit shop windows is largely absent here, bringing no comfort to achluophobics but lots to the country’s many nocturnal creatures. By 9 p.m., in most towns and small cities, barely a bulb glows. Except for insomniacs, the eternally overworked and slavish party animals, a Sri Lankan bedtime is early, in time for an early Sri Lankan bed rise.

Illustration courtsey of CEB.

A historical Sinhala term for land that is granted to someone for the duties they render or the office they hold.

Illustration: A Sketch map of Kandy and environ in1815. Public Domain.

A Buddhist country with deep Muslim and Hindu traditions, Sri Lanka could never be accused of minimalizing religion. It is no surprise to learn that this was also said to be the country to which Adam fled when exiled from the Garden of Eden. If so, he may have experienced a sharp sense of déjà vu upon arrival - for if ever there is a natural environment akin to that described in Genesis, it must surely be Sri Lanka. Archaeological or documentary corroboration of the Adam-in-Sri-Lanka myths are, at best, elusive; but it is believed that he left a foot print on the top of the sacred mountain of Sri Pada (Adam's Peak). This is disputed by Buddhists who claim the footlike depression belongs to Lord Buddha. Hindus argue that it was left there by Hanuman or Shiva; whilst other Christians state it is actual a mark made by St Thomas.

But if his eponymous mountain has because a mildly litigious landmark, Adam can also claim the remarkable Adam’s Bridge, the causeway that links Sri Lanka to the rest of the Asian landmass. His association, post expulsion, with super large things is not surprising given that one of Allah’s hadiths have him at sixty cubits tall – some 27 metres high.

Illustration: The Angel of Revelation by William Blake.

Until a cyclone hit it in 1470 you could just about walk - at low tide - from India to Sri Lanka. Today, you will need scuba gear – to glimpse the shattered path that still remains on 48 kilometres of partially sunken limestone banks stretching in salty shallows between the two countries. Named for the Biblical Adam, this thread of 103 coral reefs separates the Gulf of Mannar in the south from Palk Bay in the north, and connects Rameswaram, a modest fishing town in India’s Tamil Nadu to Thalaimannar, a still smaller fishing settlement on the tip of Sri Lanka’s Mannar Island. These salty stretches of reef platforms, sandy beaches and mangroves offer a unique home to thousands of species of fauna and flora – fish, lobsters, shrimps, crabs; and the now highly endangered dugon, a marine mammal heralded as the original mermaid by ancient sailors; and closely – if unexpectedly - related to elephants. The very shallowness of the waters means that sea faring traffic finds the aera almost impossible to sail through; and various schemes have, since the 18th century, suggested dredging the watery gaps to create a shipping throughfare. The most recent of these nakedly destructive and environmentally vandalistic schemes, the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, sits atop on a dusty shelf policed by the governments of India and Sri Lanka - an on-off Plan that has been discussed since the mid-1950s and, thankfully, with a price tag of several billion US dollars, one that is unlikely to undergo a malign hatching.

Illustration Courtsey of Google Maps.

Few Sri Lankans, and fewer still visitors, have not taken the trouble to ascend Adam’s Peak, a 7,359 foot mountain in the south of the island, flanked by forest, home to elephants and leopards, glinting with rubies, and sapphires, and the source of three major rivers. So it is unsurprising that no less a tourist than Alexander the Great is said to have made a journey up the sacred mountain. It holds at its top a depression that is claimed by Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, and Hindus, as – respectively - the footprint of the Buddha, Adam, and Siva.

Albeit somewhat late in the day, Ashraff, a 15th century Persian poet describes the royal visit, proceeded, he says, by obligatory orgies and partying, in his poem “Zaffer Namah Skendari”. A century before, the sweetly-named Arab explorer, Ibn Batuta (“son of the duckling”) describes coming across a grotto at the foot of the mountain inscribed with the word "Iskander," an Asian variant of the name “Alexander.” Fa Hein, a Chinese explorer, describes his trip uphill in 412 CE. and the Italian merchant Marco Polo mentions it in his Travels of 1298 CE. But long before this many a Sri Lankan king has made the ascent, starting with King Valagambahu who apparently discovered the famous footprint in around 100 BCE.

Despite being the country’s second highest mountain, its unique teardrop shape leaves it standing out from the surrounding mountains like a giraffe among a zebra herd, its distinctive shape immortalized in the “Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor” in Scheherazade’s “Thousand and One Nights”. The engaging royal storyteller wrote of “marvels which are indescribable” and that “the mountain is conspicuous from a distance of three days, and it contains many rubies and other minerals, and spice trees of all sorts.” But perhaps what makes it most remarkable is the fact that it is respected as a place of pilgrimage for all the important religions on the island; and has been trouble-free for nearly its entire history.

Three paths lead to the top – the Ratnapura route, the Kuruwita route and the Hatton route. The pilgrim climb, regarded by all as exceptionally meritorious, takes several long hours, and is usually scheduled between December to April, a reliably dry period. More reckless pilgrims visit it out of season, battling heavy rain, extreme wind, and thick mist, more in search of rescue parties than God. The aim of all pilgrims to get to the top just before daybreak so as to witness a glorious sunrise prior to carrying out an variety of religious rites. It is not place for hermits: on weekends it is estimated that 20,000 people make the challenging ascent and up to five people a season die on the journey.

Illustration: A photograph by Unbekannt of Adam's Peak taken in 1926. Public Domain.

A comforting cross between the architectural outreaches of Kent’s Leeds Castle; and a cosy Cotswold Cottage, Adisham Hall overlooks the tea plantations around Haputale. Built in 1931, and standing proudly in a gentle time warp created by its architects R. Booth and F. Webster, it is as if the hit song of that year, Noël Coward’s "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" could still be heard drifting down its long green driveway. The house was built by Sir Thomas Villiers, a descendant of Lord John Russell, one of Britain’s most reforming prime ministers - but commerce not social enterprise ran in Villers’ veins – and he was to go onto become one of the principal businessmen of the colony. He retired in 1949, selling up and sailing back to England for the last ten years of his life. By 1963 his home had passed into the hands of The Benedictine Order and the house became Saint Benedict’s Monastery. Within its granite walls, many of the old rooms have been preserved, a Chapel created to house a chip of St Benedict himself; a shop set up to sell jams, cordials, and jellies; and inspirational quotations such as ”Lost time is never found again” dotted optimistically around its grounds and gardens.

Illustration: Adisham Hall courtsey of Diethelm Travel Sri Lanka.

A country’s structural divisions are rarely able to inspire even the merest flicker of excitement, but even so, it helps one’s basic orientation to have some sort of semblance of order. During the time of the Anuradhapura kings, the country was divided into 3 areas, but time has inflated this to 9 provinces. The quickest way to envisage them is:

Three Gaze Seaward;
Three Gaze over Hills;
Two are Very Flat;
One is tiny but busy.

The largest, the North Central Province, ranges over 10,000 square kilometres of dry evergreen forest and, though centred on the old capital of Anuradhapura itself, supports a modest population. At just under 10,000 square kilometres, is the long Eastern seaboard province, dominated by Tamils and Sri Lankan Moors and managed from Trincomalee. The sparsely populated Northern Province, run from Jaffna and dominated by Tamils stretches over nearly 9,000 square kilometres – similar in size and population to Uva Province, though Uva, centred on Badulla, with its massive lakes and reservoirs and mighty mountains is as different to the flat dry north as it is possible to be. At just under 8,000 square kilometres is the North Eastern Province, paddy and coconut rich flat lands that stretch from the capital at Kurunegala to the lagoons of Puttalam and supporting a population nudging 3 million. Next door, smaller in size and larger in population is the lush tea-rich Central Province, centred on Kandy - similar in size and population to the long seaboard Southern Province, centred on Galle. At just under 5000 square kilometres is Sabaragamuwa Province, sparsely populated and centred around the gem-rich town of Ratnapura, leaving the Colombo-dominated Western Province as the smallest in size (under 4,000 square kilometres) and the largest in population. For the determinately bureaucratic these 9 administrative divisions open out onto yet more complexity – 25 districts that are split again into 331 Divisional Secretary's Divisions, under which come 14,022 Grama Niladhari Divisions, centred around villages. Order is the greatest grace, as John Dryden remarked; and it is to be found all across Sri Lanka, should you wish to find it.

Illustration courtsey of DigiAtlas.

A modestly priced ($10 to $100 per carat) semi-precious quartz, agate occurs in a in a wide range of colours including brown, white, red, grey, pink, black, and yellow. Sri Lanka specialises in blue-tinted agate, said to pacify inner anger, and anxiety.

Image courtsey of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

A modest coastal town near Galle, noted for Geoffrey Bawa's Heritance Ahungalla Hotel.

Illustration: Heritance Ahungalla courtsey of TripAdvisor.

A Muslim dominated town on the south east coast, situated at the entrance to the vast Periya Kalappu lagoon.

Illustration courtsey of Devaka Seneviratne.

In buying the semi-precious stone Alexandrite, purchasers gain two jewels for the price of one - for the stone’s unusual light absorbing qualities give it the possibly of such different appearances that it is often known as an emerald by day and a ruby by night. Although relatively scare on the island, Sri Lankan alexandrite's exceptional quality has made it much prized within the jewellery industry; and for between $3,000 - $20,000 per carat, you could sport one for your next appearance in Hallo Magazine. Alternatively, you might search the world for the missing Naleem Alexandrite, a Sri Lankan gem of unparalleled quality – said to be the largest such stone in the world – weighing in at 112 carats. It was sold by a noted gem collector, Al Haj Naleem, in Beruwala but the onward chain of buyers has long since gone cold and it has not been recorded as having been seen anywhere since 2011 – a year of such unpropitious and unparalleled misery as to offer perfect cover for the shy gemstone.

Image courtesy of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

The thirty eighth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 21 CE – 30 CE.

Succeeding to the Anuradhapuran throne on the death of his brother, Mahadatika Mahanaga, King Amandagamani Abhaya’s rule ended abruptly when he was murdered by his brother, Kanirajanu Tissa. This seems - in retrospect - to be the tipping point for the Vijayan dynasty. The regicide unleased a murderous plenitude of competing ambitious amongst other family members, and within the wider nobility around the throne. Thereafter, murdering the sitting king because something of a dynastic craze. It was to take a further 29 years of feuding, assassination, and civil war for the once great dynasty to finally unseat themselves.

Illustration: The Ridi Viharaya, said to have been extended by Amandagamani Abhaya, King of Anuradhapura. Image courtsey of Time Out.

For one hundred and forty years Galle’s most majestic hotel was known as the New Oriental Hotel before being rebaptised in 2005 as the Amangalla. Its real date stretches back to 1684 when it was the headquarters of the Dutch. Now a glorious heritage hotel, with deep, humbling verandas, it has wisely chosen to restrict its number of rooms to better focus on the sort of luxury you know you deserve the moment you find it.

Image courtsey of The Amangalla, Galle.

Sri Lanka is one of the world best sources of high quality amethysts, a semi-precious gem ($20-$50 per carat) that occurs in transparent pastel roses to deep purples. Used in jewellery, as well as alternative healing, its supporters argue that it helps relieve stress and anxiety, fend off headaches, fatigues, and anxiety; and promote cell regeneration.

Image courtesy of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

Illustration: "The plumb-pudding in danger," by James Gillray published in 1805. The satirical cartoon has Britain's Pitt and France's Napoleon facing each other at a round dinner-table on which, in a dish, is a terrestrial globe in the form of a steaming plum-pudding. The two men are caving up the world, and in the negociations, Dutch Ceylon is surrendered to the British. Public Domain

As in most nations, magic and superstition are alive and well on the island, though perhaps not quite as strong as once they were. Integral to this are amulets – those varied charms that keep misfortune at bay. All too easily, demons are thought to manipulate weather, raise storms, direct lightening; determine droughts, or even a woman’s fertility.

The amulet is often a shell or a boar’s tusk enclosed in a case and containing a charm, engraved, or written out on a copper or gold plate or an ola leaf. It is worn as a bracelet or necklace – or even around the waist. The charm is weaponized by incantations. And in such a deeply Buddhist country as this, most children wear a 'Panchauda,' a gold or silver pendant decorated with the symbols associated with Lord Buddha’s life, with the charm incanted over an altar of flowers with incense burning all about. In Tamil Sri Lanka, many wear the Pottu – a mark on the forehead in red or black to protect the wear against the evil eye, a tradition which has also spread into many Buddhist families too. Similarly, the malign effects of the evil eye are also dissipated by animal teeth, cobra hood rings or horseshoes above doors. Prosperity and good fortune is more likely if you wear rings or bangles that enclose elephant hair.

But best of all – for protection against all life’s travails – is the Navaratna ring, made up of 9 types of gems:
Ruby (Sun);
Pearl (Moon);
Emerald (Mercury);
Red Coral (Mars);
Yellow Sapphire (Jupiter);
Diamond (Venus);
Blue Sapphire (Saturn);
Hessonite (Rahu, the ascending lunar position in astrology);
Cat’s Eye (Ketu, the descending lunar position).

And there are also a host of other more specific protection that can be turned to including shark’s teeth, to prevent muscular cramps when swimming; and a piece of iron in a child’s lunchbox to block evil spirits getting at the food.

Image courtsey of The British Museum.

The thirty fourth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of her reign being sometime around 44 BCE – 42 BCE.

Anula, Queen of Anuradhapura was to leave a mark on queenship that would the office centuries to recover from. She began her royal career in 50 BCE by poisoning her Vijayan husband, Choura Naga, King of Anuradhapura. She was to repeat the same tried and trusted trick in 47 BCE by poisoning his successor, Kuda Thissa. Choosing at this point to rule from a distance, she appointed her lover Siva, as ex palace guard, to be king in 47 BCE before having him poisoned. Thereafter the pattern was set. Siva I was himself poisoned within a year and replaced by a new lover, Vatuka, who had till then being living the probably blameless life of a Tamil carpenter. The following year the carpenter was replaced in similar fashion by Darubhatika Tissa, a wood carrier – who also failed to measure up. Her last throw of the love dice was Niliya, a palace priest who she installed as king in 44 BCE before feeding him something he ought not to have eaten.

At this point Anula must have reached the logical conclusion: if you want something done well, do it yourself. And so, from 43 to 42 BCE she ruled in her own name, the country’s first female head of state, beating President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga by well over two thousand years. Anula’s own reign ended at the hands of her brother-in-law, Kutakanna Tissa, who, having sensibly become a Buddhist monk during Anula’s rocky reign, remained alive and so able to rescue the monarchy. He did so by burning the queen alive in her own palace in 42 BCE, bringing down the curtains on a royal career that eclipsed that of the entire Borgia clan put together.

Illustration courtsey of Journo.lk.

A rock phosphate, Apatite is commercially used as a fertilizer and is mined in Sri Lanka at Eppawala, near Anuradhapura.

Image courtsey of Raimond Spekking.

The presence of iron within the crystal of this semi-precious stone is what gives it its cherished green-blue to blue colour variations. Abundant and comparatively affordable ($130 - $900 per carat), it is found in Rathnapura, Rakwana, Morawaka, Hatton, Nawalapitiya, Galle, Matara, Tissamaharama and Lunugamwehera. Its comparative inexpensiveness has not stopped it decorating some of the world’s more famous people, including the French Emperor Louis XV who owned the 109.92 carats Hirsch Aquamarine, Queen Elizabeth II who commissioned an Aquamarine Tiara, Eleanor Roosevelt who collected the gift of a 1,298-carrot aquamarine gemstone when she visited Brazil in 1936 - and the colossal 225,000 carrot Dom Pedro Aquamarine, named after the anachronistic Brazilian emperors, Pedro I and Pedro II.

Image courtesy of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

A sketch by Edward Lear of Areca Nut Palms, 1874. Public Domain.

A Sinhala term for a religious ceremonial procession or important ritual.

Illustration courtsey of kandyperherabookings.com.

The fourteenth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 215 BCE – 205 BCE.

The son Mutasiva, the Vijayan king of Anuradhapura, Asela took refuge in his cousin’s southern kingdom of Ruhuna when the Anuradhapuran Kingdom was overrun in 237 BCE by Sena and Guttik, a couple of opportunistic Tamil horse traders. It took 22 years of continual warfare before Asela was able to dislodge and kill them in 215 BCE. But his inheritance was a plundered and deeply weakened kingdom. He himself would have been worn down by decades of internecine warfare. He was to rule his newly acquired domain for just ten years, before losing both it and his own life in 205 BCE to yet another invader – this time to a prince of the Tamil Chola dynasty in Southern India – Ellalan.

In Sri Lanka it is not just what you do that matters. When and where you do it is just as important. A standard, well-entrenched discipline, astrology is widely used to ascertain the most auspicious time for important events – marriages, housebuilding, elections, company start-ups, naming ceremonies and many religious rituals. The well-regarded Sri Lanka Foundation adult education centre is among many to offer certified courses in the subject, and you don’t have to look far online or down most town streets, ministerial offices, or state buildings to come across one happy to chart your course.

Doing things in the right place at the right time is a matter of great importance. To determine such auspicious facts Sri Lankans turn, almost to a person, to astrologers and fortune-tellers. The starting point is most usually the person’s individual horoscope. This is determined by detailing all the planetary movements over the person’s lifetime and then writing them out on a Tailpot palm leaf.

In this the signs of the Zodiac are of course known by different names:
Aries (Mesha);
Taurus (Vrshabha);
Gemini (Mithuna);
Cancer (Kataka);
Leo (Sinha), Virgo (Kanya);
Libra (Thula);
Scorpios (Vruschika);
Sagittarius (Dhanu);
Capricorn (Makara);
Aquarius (Kumbha);
Pisces (Meena).

Most of the corresponding rituals are based on times calculated according to astrology and often based on agriculture. And it all starts with Mesha, or Aries. New Year begins not at midnight, but at the time determined by the astrologers, and the Sinhala and Tamil New Year only occurs when the sun moves from Pisces to Aries. Its exact calculation set by astrologers a week or so after the start of the year but the key Vesak Festival, which marks the dawn of the Buddhist new year, comes at least another month later. With its focus on this sun (of central importance to a farming community), moving into Aries heralds the Aluth Avurudda Mangallaya – the new rice festival. During this, the first rice is plucked and processed and donated to the temple, especially The Temple of the Tooth. It is typically followed by the Punyakalaya – a period of time devoted to religious duties. This is known as the nona gathe or neutral period - a little gap between the two years - when one is best advised to be wholly preoccupied with religious duties, including cooking Kiribath.

Illustration: Lord Buddha's horoscope picture courtsey of sirimunasiha.files.wordpress.com.

Had Andy Warhol ever taken the trouble to visit Avissawella, some 50 kilometres east of Colombo, he might have rephrased his famous quip to read “In the past, everywhere was famous for at least 15 minutes.” For Avissawella, sleepy town that it is today, was once the seething capital of a nascent and short lived kingdom, forged at the fulcrum of the island’s fightback against its first European colonial invaders. Briefly did Avissawella glitter as the capital of the Kingdom of Sitawaka, a realm ruled from 1521 to 1593 by King Mayadunne and his son Rajasinghe the First. A younger son and later brother of the more senior King of Kotte, Mayadunne had carved out his own kingdom in protest at his family’s collaboration with the Portuguese who had first arrived on the island in 1505. Endless battles against the Iberian invaders followed; and when the old king died, his son continued the fight, despite an avalanche of patricide allegations that set him and the Buddhist religious establishment at odds just when unity might have been a more helpful position.

Rajasinghe’s death - of a festering wound in March 1592 - effectively ended his kingdom’s fight and Avissawella returned slowly back into the background. The opening up of the interior of Sir Lanka in the early 1900s by trains and train track gave the area a new jolt of life Today, it is best visited for being a stone’s throw from Seethawaka Botanical Garden, which specialises in conserving the most threatened endemic plants found in Sinharaja Rain Forest.

Illustration: A sketch by Edward Lear of Avisavella in 1874. Public Domain.

Past the occasional roadside shop, barber salon and office for Birth, Deaths, and Marriages, and almost lost in the jungle many miles north of Dambulla, the tiny village of Avukana hints at a more glorious past with its stunning 14 metre statue of Lord Buddha. Academics (as they do) argue about whether the statue is 5th or 8th century - but whomsoever wins that fringe debate, there is no argument about the sheer beauty of the piece.

The lofty standing Buddha is captured by his unknown sculptor making a gesture of blessing - but the way in which his delicate pleated clothing clings with astonishing realism to his body indicates that the sculptor was familiar with two key regional art movements - the naturalistic Hellenistic Gandhara school, and the more sensuous Amaravati school. There is - in such records as do exist – a tantalising hint as to its creator. A mere 15 kilometres away, at Sasseruwa, stands an almost exact copy of this statue – almost, but not quite as good; and one fatally left unfinished. The local villagers tell of a competition between a master sculptor and his pupil to finish the commission first; and the master won. Sadly, as the two statues are at least 400 years apart in age, this lovely tale could only have some residual truth in a parallel universe – but it amply shows how rich and ready are local folk tales to help fill in the many gaps in the island’s long and sometimes impenetrable history.

Illustration: the Avukana Buddha statue courtsey of en.advisor.travel.

An historical Sinhala term for tax.

Illustration: The Hammillava Rock Inscription No 144 Inscriptions of Ceylon Vol II- S Paranavitane during the period of King Mahasen (277-304 CE). This early record ends with the sentence ‘ This is a legal enactment has been promulgated and recorded, having had it written on stone’. The line of this inscription mentions a Maha[ Ka]laka nakara [A revenue agency]. The lines regulate briefly an accounting system. Image courtsey of sirimunasiha.files.

The twenty-third (invader) monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 100 BCE – 98 BCE.

One of 7 Dravidian chiefs from the Indian Pandyan Dynasty that forcibly took the Anuradhapuran Kingdom from its barely-established new ruler King Valagamba in 103 BCE, Bahiya became king of Anuradhapura by the simple expedient of murdering his Dravidian master, Pulahatta. Until then he had previously served him as chief minster. Much of his own short rule was spent dealing with threats to his own safety – from the avenging Valagamba - busy waging an ever more successful guerrilla war from the south - and from his own Dravidian colleagues, one of whom, Panya Mara, was to murder him.

Illustration of a Pandyan Kingdom coin depicting a temple between hill symbols and elephant, from Sri Lanka, 1st century CE. Public Domain.

Like biblical flowers of the field, the island’s banks are a profitable wonder to behold, with numerous independent bodies whose branches bloom like mangos in the remotest of places. Awash with credit cards, loans, savings, deposit and current accounts and numerous other financial services, including Byzantine online facilities, banks are part of the great glue that makes the country work. Some, such as the Hatton National Bank and the Commercial Bank, are keen and efficient. Others, like the Bank of Ceylon and the People’s Bank are entrenched state-owned piggy banks whose colossal reach is slowly being eroded by nimbler competitors. A quarter of the twenty four banks licenced to provide commercial banking have but a single branch in the country, mysterious flag flying redoubts often located in the more agreeable office blocks. A further fifth own to just five or so branches per bank. The most networked eight banks share between them almost two and a half thousand branches – roughly one branch every twenty six square miles of Sri Lanka, a density that would make most Westerners envious as they witness the gradual evaporation of banking branch networks burnt away by online services. The 2023 national bankruptcy that devastated the country - and remains a source of great pressure – led the Central Bank to note recently that the “the financial sector is likely to encounter significant challenges in the face of the current economic environment with the contraction in economic output, sovereign debt restructuring, high interest rate environment, tax revisions and high exposure of the banking sector to SOBEs.” Despite this, the banking sector emerged through the crisis with striking resilience, dexterously navigating it way through treacherous currents and giving the country as degree of robust security without which levels of hardship would have undoubtedly reached wholly intolerable levels. Nearly forty percent of the banks have been able to maintain customer deposits of over five hundred billion rupees a piece, with a several recording deposits in trillions on their glowing balance sheets. The Central Bank list of licensed commercial banks are:
1. Amana Bank
2. Bank of Ceylon
3. Bank of China
4. Cargills Bank
5. Citibank
6. Commercial Bank of Ceylon
7. Deutsche Bank
8. DFCC Bank
9. Habib Bank
10. Hatton National Bank
11. Indian Bank
12. Indian Overseas Bank
13. MCB Bank
14. National Development Bank
15. Nations Trust Bank
16. Pan Asia Bank
17. People's Bank
18. Public Bank Berhad
19. Sampath Bank
20. Seylan Bank
21. Standard Chartered Bank
22. State Bank of India
23. Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)
24. Union Bank of Colombo

Image coutrsey of Amazon.com.

An Sinhala term for the most important lay officer in a devela, a shrine of gods.

Illustration of Ruhunu Kataragama Maha Devale Basnayake Nilame Pradeep Nilanga Dhala Bandara, courtesy of kataragama.org.

Sri Lanka is bat country, its incredible range of environments supporting 30 of the world’s 1400 bat species. Despite the best efforts of Batman and his friends, bats have a troubled reputation with their Halloween and Vampire blood-sucking associations, though only three are known to sip the liquid; and with them the long shadow of vampire bat movies, once the last word in classic Hollywood horror, is slowly abating.

Bats range in size from ones tiny enough to sit comfortably upon a thumb nail to those with a wing span of 1 ½ metres and a weight of 1.6 kilos. They are the only mammals able to truly fly, angels excepted, and are famous for roosting upside down from their feet, viewing the world like happy drunks, a propensity make worse by their extremely poor vision. Using ultrasonic sound and the full capacity of their renowned hearing, they navigate the world, dining off insects, pollen, fruit small beasts and even one another. They are worth observing from a distance for they are enthusiastic harbingers of diseases, especially those best able to leap from animal to human. Most live in large colonies and are much given to hibernation, a habit that accounts for their exceptionally long lifespan – with one bat recorded to have lived 41 years.

Image: Public Domain.

One of Asian’s most influential architects, Bawa’s buildings radically changed the way in which people lived and worked, his creativity inspiring generations of new architects throughout the region to challenge and transform the built environment.

The Guardian puts it best: "Bawa's portfolio of work included religious, social, cultural, educational, governmental, commercial and residential buildings, and in each of these areas he established a canon of new prototypes. Early experiments in what was known as tropical modernism were tempered by a growing interest in the traditional architecture and building materials of Sri Lanka. This led to the development of an architecture that was a blend of both modern and traditional, of east and west, of formal and picturesque, that broke down the barriers between inside and outside, between building and landscape, and that offered a blueprint for new ways to live and work in a tropical city."

Whilst this observation sets out well the context for his achievements, it has yet to capture the liberating experience of moving about within one of his buildings. His city houses most typically centred around an inner courtyard, one wisely constructed to keep the focus personal - all the better to keep the foolish world at bay. Within its cool quite spaces, there is intimacy, peace; the space to think and live with minimal interruptions. The homes he built in the countryside, not least for himself at Lunuganga, enlist fields, plantations, hills and valleys as extra rooms, the built landscape opening out onto the natural one, a series of interconnected rooms that sometime only seem to end on the horizon. His public buildings were clean massive confident occupations of space, rooms opening into one another, breathing together like a single organic city, a lofty forest of light cement, glass, wood and plants.

A lawyer, who retrained as an architect, Bawa spent much of his younger years partying or studying in Europe, especially the UK. Independence in 1948 brought him more firmly back to the country of his birth. A Burgher mix of Sinhalese, German and Scottish, he came from that slim, rich impossibly lavish section of society that flared briefly with barely a care in the world until the ethic and political demons caught up on the country’s daily life enmeshing it in civil war and economic chaos.

As many of his contemporaries fled, Bawa stayed put, building first his own home in Lunuganga; and then an architectural practice that promoted his new vision of architecture - not just in Sri Lanka but in India, Indonesia, Mauritius, Japan, Pakistan, Fiji, Egypt and Singapore too. His homes in Bentota and Colombo magnetised all who had talent and originality, local or traveller; and his parties and gift for hospitality are still talked about today.

His parents must have done something right for both Bawa and his brother were not just both gay – but also hugely talented landscape gardeners too; and their adjoining country house gardens would put to shame anything better known in Florence, Oxfordshire or the South of France.

Should your week ahead look a little pedestrian, give it some purpose and take a trip round all his surviving Sri Lankan buildings.

The easiest ones to visit are his old office – now the Gallery Café which offers a heart-warming menu of martinis; his old home in Colombo - Number 11; 33rd Lane, Bagatelle Road, Colombo 03 – now a museum, but one you can spend the night at; and his country house, Lunuganga in Bentota; also now a museum cum hotel. The balance of his surviving architecture is:

1948–97 LUNUGANGA GARDEN, Bentota. Open to the public.

1958–62 CLASSROOMS FOR ST. THOMAS’ SCHOOL, Galle Road, Colombo.

1960–61 HOUSE & SURGERY FOR DR ASH DE SILVA In Galle; a private residence.

1960–62 ESTATE BUNGALOW, Strathspey Estate, Maskeliya. By appointment only.

1959–60 OFFICES FOR AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION, Sir Marcan Markar Maw, Colombo.

1960–69 BAWA’S OWN TOWNHOUSE, 33rd Lane, Bagatelle Road, Colombo 3. Admission by ticket.

1961–63 BARTHOLOMEUSZ HOUSE, 2 Alfred House Gardens, Colombo 3, now The Gallery Café.

1961–62 NAZARETH CHAPEL FOR GOOD SHEPHERD CONVENT, Bandarawela. Open by permission.

1961–63 FLATS FOR MRS. AF WIJEMANNA on Ananda Coomaraswamy Maw., Colombo 7. Private residences.

1962–64 HOUSE FOR CHRIS & CARMEL RAFFEL, Ward Place, Colombo 7. A private residence.

1963–65 HOUSE FOR LEELA DIAS BANDARANAYAKE, Mount Lavinia. A private residence.

1963–64 MONTESSORI SCHOOL FOR ST. BRIDGET’S CONVENT, Maitland Crescent, Colombo 7. By appointment only.

1963–65 ESTATE BUNGALOW FOR BAUR & CO., Polontalawa, By appointment only.

1965–66 CLASSROOM BLOCK FOR LADIES COLLEGE, Ernest de Silva Mawatha, Colombo 7. By appointment only.

1965–66 YWCA BUILDING, Rotunda Gardens, Colombo. A public building.

1966–69 STEEL CORPORATION, offices, & staff housing in Oruwela. By appointment only.

1967–69 HOUSE FOR PIETER KEUNEMAN, now a beauty salon, Inner Flower Road, Colombo 3. Access by permission.

1967–69 BENTOTA RESORT, Railway Station & Tourist Village, Bentota. All public buildings.

1967–73 BENTOTA BEACH HOTEL, Bentota. A public building.

1967–74 SERENDIB HOTEL, Bentota. A public building.

1969–70 PUBLIC LIBRARY, Kalutara. A public building.

1969–71 OFFICE DEVELOPMENT opposite Matara Bus Station. A public building.

1970–72 4 ROW HOUSES FOR FC DE SARAM, 5th Lane Colombo 3. Only two remain, both private residences.

1971–73 HOUSE FOR STANLEY DE SARAM, Cambridge Place, Colombo 7. A private residence.

1972–74 HOUSE CONVERSION FOR MR & MRS H.E TENNAKOON in Bagatelle Road. A private residence.

1973–76 NEPTUNE HOTEL, Beruwala. A public building.

1974–76 AGRARIAN RESEARCH & TRAINING INSTITUTE, Wijerama Maw., Colombo 7. Access by permission.

1975–77 NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Vidya Maw., Colombo. Access by permission.

1975–79 OFFICES FOR STATE MORTGAGE BANK, Hyde Park Corner, Darley Road, Colombo. A public building.

1976–78 SEEMA MALAKA ORDINATION TEMPLE, Beira Lake, Colombo. A public building.

1978–80 INTEGRAL EDUCATION CENTRE, Subodhi, Bolgoda Lake. Access by permission.

1978–80 HOUSE FOR LIDIA GUNASEKERA, 87, Galle Road, Bentota. Now a guest house.

1978–79 TOURIST POLICE STATION, Galle Road, Beruwala. A public building.

1978–81 HERITANCE TRITON HOTEL, Ahungalla. A public building.

1978–80 STAFF HOUSING FOR THE MINISTRY OF POWER, Sarana Rd, Colombo 7. Private residences.

1979 THE RATNASIVARATNAM HOUSE, Bhaudaloka Mawatha, Geoffrey Bawa, Colombo .

1979–82 NEW SRI LANKA PARLIAMENT, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. Access by special permission.

1980–88 RUHUNU UNIVERSITY CAMPUS, Matara. Access by appointment.

1982–83 VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTRE, Ladies College, Inner Flower Road, Colombo 3. Access by appointment.

1982–83 PILGRIMS’ REST HOUSE, Anuradhapura. A public building.

1984–86 STABLE CONVERSION FOR SUNETHRA, Bandaranaike Horagolla. A private residence.

1985–86 HOUSE FOR RICHARD FITZHERBERT, Dikwella, Tangalle. Now a guest house.

1985–91 House for Cecil & Chloe de Soysa. Off Dharmapala Maw., Colombo 3. A private residence.

1990 REMODELLING & EXTENSION TO SINBAD HOTEL, Kalutara. A public building.

1991–94 KANDALAMA HERITANCE HOTEL, Dambulla. A public building.

1991–95 HOUSE FOR ROHAN & DULANJALEE JAYAKODY, Park Street, Colombo 2. A private residence.

1995–97 LIGHTHOUSE HOTEL, Galle. A public building.

1996–98 BLUE WATER HOTEL, Waduwa. A public building.

1997-98 HOUSE FOR PRADEEP JAYAWARDENE, Red Cliffs, Mirissa. A private residence.

1997–98 HOUSE FOR DAVID SPENCER, Rosemead Place, Colombo 7. A private residence.

Illustration courtsey of David Robson.

The Sri Lankan Sloth Bear is a unique endemic sub species of the very same Sloth bear that inhabits the Indian sub-continent in ever declining numbers from India to Bhutan, Nepal, and, until recently Bangladesh. It is a little smaller in size than its Indian cousin, with shorter fur and, sadly, sometimes without the cuddly-looking white tummy fur of its northern relative. Even so, it is no midget, typically measuring six feet in length and weighing in at up to 300 pounds for a male or 200 for a female. Once found in plentiful numbers across the dry zone forests of the island, they are now in serious and significant retreat, with an estimated 500-1000 bears in the wild today. The destruction of their habitats has been instrumental in their decline, but the fear they engender amongst village populations has also played it part. They are often hunted and killed, with a reputation for damaging property and killing or maiming domestic animals humans running like a wave of terror before them. The “sloth” part of their name is rather misleading for the bears are quite capable of reaching speeds of thirty miles an hour – faster than the fastest human yet recorded. Although willing to eat almost anything, their preferred diet are termites for which their highly mobile snouts are especially well designed. With nostrils closed, the snouts become vacuums, sucking out the termites from their nest. Long curved claws enable them to dig the nest ever deeper till the last juicy termite has been consumed. The claws are also handy for rapidly scaling up trees to suck out honey from bee nests. Evolution has cast the sloth bear towards the Grumpy Old Man side of the mammalian spectrum. Its poor sight and hearing leaves it very dependent on its sense of smell, so it can all too often be surprised by what seems like the abrupt appearance of something threating – like a human – which it will attack with warrior like ferocity before asking any questions. It is very solitary, living alone in the forest except for those rare moments when it seeks a mate. Reproduction is not its strongest skill, and most females produce a single cub that stays with them for two to three years, the first months of which are endearing spent living or travelling on its mothers back. D.J.G Hennessy, a policeman who had a couple of bears on his land in Horowapotana in 1939, noted the emotive articulateness of their paw suckling: “The significance of the notes on which the bear sucks his paw is interesting; a high whine and rapid sucking denotes impatience and anger, a deep note like the humming of a hive full of bees on a summer’s day indicates that he is contented and pleased with life, a barely audible note shows great happiness while a silent suck in which he usually indulges in just before going to sleep on a full stomach denotes the acme of bliss”.

Image courtsey of Tourism Sri Lanka.

The thirty sixth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 20 BCE – 9 CE.

Succeeding to the Anuradhapuran throne on the death of his father, Kutakanna Tissa, Bhathika Abhaya’s 29-year rule goes almost unmentioned in the chronicles. Given the turmoil of the previous decades caused by the regicide of six kings in a row, such silence was probably a blessing and Bhathika Abhaya appears to have died peaceably in 9 CE, which, when looked at from the dynasty’s later years (let alone its former ones), was an achievement to be celebrated.

Illustration of a stone statue of King Bathikabhaya facing the Ruwanweli Dágoba in Anuradhapura. Public Domain.

The fifth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 50th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 141 – 165 CE.

Inheriting the throne from his father, Mahallaka Naga, little is known about Bhatika Tissa’s relatively long 24 year reign, But if, as Thomas Carlyle noted, “silence is golden,” the kingdom’ s golden years continued; and the monarch, though obscure, must have a much deserved place amongst the dynasty’s more successful rulers. He natural death earnt him a place as just the 23rd reigning Sri Lankan monarch to have died in this way – no bad feat given that he was the 50th recorded monarch in the island’s history.

Illustration of the Anuradhapura Thuparamaya Chapter House said to have been built by Bhatika Tissa, King of Anuradhapura, image courtsey of AmazingLanka.

A Sinhala term for a monk or priest in a Buddhist order.

Illustration of monks at Polonnaruwa, courtsey of vacationindia.com/sri-lanka.

Even the most serene and pacific statue of Lord Buddha offers a dynamic lesson in the evangelising of fundamental Buddhist beliefs – but such insight is only readily available to those amongst us who can interpret the gestures he is pictured making with his hands and fingers. For if ever hands can speak, those of Lord Buddha most certainly do. There are at least 11 core messages encoded in such hand signals, known as “mudras,” some with the most subtle of further variants; and most, but not all, in common use in Sri Lanka.

Easiest is all the “Anjali Mudra” - a 1 on 1 respectful gesture of greeting, palms pressed together at heart level, thumbs resting on the chest. At the other end, and not for the faint hearted, is the “Uttarabodhi Mudra.” Here, index fingers touch and point up; all other finger entwin at heart level – a bold gesture of supreme enlightenment, brought about by connecting oneself with divine universal energy. This Murda finds its nearest cousin in the “Jnana” or “Wisdom Mudra” - thumb tip and index finger touching as a circle and facing inwards, representing spiritual enlightenment.

The most popular Mudra is probably the “Karana Mudrā,” made by raising the index and little finger and folding all other digits, to ward off evil, negative thoughts – and demons. And not a hundred miles away from this is the “Abhaya Mudra” – or “gesture of fearlessness," a pose made with the right hand raised to shoulder height, arm crooked, palm facing outward, fingers upright; left hand hanging down at the side of the body. In this pose, Buddha represents protection, peace, and the dismissal of fear. Popular too is the “Bhumisparsha” – or “Earth Witness Mudra.” Here, all 5 fingers of the right hand touch the ground, to symbolise Buddha’s enlightenment under the bodhi tree. The left hand - held flat in his lap - symbolises the union of method and wisdom.

The remaining 5 Mudras are more complicated, eclectic, or doctrinal - or, quite possibly, all three.

The “Varada Mudra” is a largely one-handed affair. Here, the left hand hangs at the side of the body, palm open, facing forwards with all fingers extended – a representation of charity and compassion, one finger each for: Generosity; Morality; Patience; Effort; and Meditative Concentration.

The “Dhyana” or “Meditation Mudra” is made with one or both hands resting on the lap and is a gesture of mediation made when concentrating on Buddhism’s substantial body of “Good Laws” and the attainment of spiritual perfection.

The “Vajra Mudra” symbolises the unity of all Buddhist beliefs, the erect left hand of the forefinger being closed into the right fist, the tips of both fingers curled together.

The “Vitarka” or “Discussion Mudra” has the thumb and Index finger touching, the remaining fingers pointing straight, the gesture reflected with both hands and indicative of talking about and communicating Buddhist teaching.

And last of all is the famous “Wheel of Dharma” or “Dharmachakra Mudra.” Here the thumb and index finger of both hands touch at their tips to form a circle that represents the union of method and wisdom. To really complicate (or enrich) things, the 3 free fingers of both hands are also extended, and carry their own separate meanings. The 3 extended fingers of the left hand symbolize Buddha, the Dharma (the doctrine of universal truth), and the Sangha (the Buddhist monastic order, of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen). Those of the right symbolize the 3 main tools for his teaching – namely: the Hearers - who practice the teachings they listen to and – after 3 lifetimes - achieve "small" enlightenment; the “Solitary Realizers” who cultivate merit and wisdom over a 100 eons to achieve "middling" enlightenment; and the Mahayana or 'Great Vehicle' - collectively, Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices.

Illustration courtsey of Mindworks.org.

The twenty first monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 66th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 341 – 370 CE.

A blessedly peaceful succession saw Buddhadasa take the throne from his father Jettha Tissa II – and a twenty-eight-year reign beckoned. The Mahavaṃsa has nothing but praise for this king, characterized as a "Mind of Virtue and an Ocean of Gems." Unusually though, the new king preferred medicine to wars, stupas, temples, monasteries and plotting, and his reign was noted for the exceptional medical care he extended to his subjects. He wrote a medical handbook, the "Sarartha Sangraha,” built hospitals, appointed Medical Officers, and established infirmaries and asylums for the benefit of the blind, and the lame. Stories abound of his role as doctor to various ailing subjects who he came across. He even took care of animals, including, it is said, a snake with a stomach-ache.

Perhaps his interest in medicine can also help explain the eighty sons The Mahavaṃsa credits him with creating, each one, the chronicle approvingly states, named after a disciple of Buddha. Two were to reign after his natural death in 370 CE. For 116 years the Lambakarna dynasty, recovering from its earlier subversive bout of regicide, had settled down to govern well, fostering a prosperous and growing state. They had, in the words of John Lennon, given peace a chance. In the reigns that were to follow, it was, alas, soon to be time again for bloodletting.

Illustration Credit: Ancient palm-leaf medical manuscripts with diagrams of the kind that would be familiar to Buddhadasa, King of Anuradhapura. Picture courtesy of Sunday Observer.

Constructed by loving gods with luxuriant, solid, confident proportions, the Water Buffalo (Bubalus Bubalis Bubalis) makes its many other bovine relatives come across as whispery ragamuffins. Their literary pedigree dates back at least to the Akkadian kingdom of 2,500 BCE. They are fine sturdy creatures, fit to grace any field or lawn. Black to slate grey with generously curved horns and reassuringly stocky bodies, they typically weigh 1,200 pounds, though double that weight has been recorded in some instances. They work hard – often up to forty years with little holiday, living tractors for threshing and transportation. The unlucky ones are raised for meat; the lucky ones produce milk is richer in fat and protein than that of dairy cattle; and all produce the dung that fertilizes fields or is used to light cooking fires.

Image Public Domain.

An illustration from Robert Knox's book "A Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon" of an execution by an elephant, published in 1681. Public Domain.

The Rusty-Spotted Cat (Prionailurus Rubiginosus) is the world’s smallest wild cat, smaller even than most domestic cats and one of the least studied and understood of the wild cat species. Covered in reddish fur, it is found in dry forests and grasslands and is largely nocturnal. Found only in Sri Lanka and India, its conservation status is threatened, with unending encroachments on its habitats fragmenting its home range.

Picture courtsey of UrLunkwill.

Double the size of a domestic cat, and weighing up to almost forty pounds, the Indian Fishing Cat (Prionailurus Viverrinus), though increasing vulnerable due to habitat loss, is found in Sri Lanka and across South and South East Asia. It has slightly webbed paws and, given its proclivity for fish, prefers to live around the island’s wetlands, rivers, lake and stream banks, swamps, and mangroves. Its striking yellow grey fur displays confident black strips along the head and upper back that fray into dots and stipples further down the body. The fur is specially layered to give it an extra barrier to water. Its lives up to ten years, with pregnancies lasting two months, after which two or three kittens are born.

Image courtsey of Pessac.

The Jungle Cat (Felis Chaus) appears to be thriving right across it distribution range – from Sri Lanka to China, the Middle East, to the Caucasus. Wholly sandy in colour, and roughly twice the size of the house cat, it lives its very solitary life feasting off birds and small animals. It has a variety of sub species, including one in Sri Lanka (Felis Chaus Kelaarti) but none so distinct as to excite cries for endemic status. It sticks to warmer locations within Sri Lanka, but abounds in grassland and forest - whatever offers the greatest cover and food.

Image courtsey of animalia.bio.

A semi-precious stone known to science as chrysoberyl, the colour of Cat’s Eye differ from semi-transparent golden-yellow to slightly greenish or brownish yellow. They exhibit a distinct, ever changing light band that glides across the surface, resembling the eye of a cat. They are found widely across Sri Lanka including Rakwana, Bulutota, Deniyaya, Morawaka, Elahera, Avissawella, Pelawatte, Horana, Matugama, Panadura, Rathnapura, Aluthgama, Ambalantota, Agalawaththa, Bulathsinghala, Kalapugama and Mestiya. Given their price range of $3 to $1700, there’s an affordable eye for almost everyone. The nation’s most notable cat’s eye was fished out of a paddy field in the late 1880s in Pelmadulla. The paddy was part of a 20,000 acre estate belong to Iddamalgoda Kumarihamy, the daughter of Iddamalgoda Basnayake Nilame. For decades the 700 carat stone lay unpolished, bequeathed eventually to the grand old lady’s grandson, a notable collector of cacti, who arranged for the gem to be cut and polished in 1930. The result was a stunning 465 carat cat’s eye, the largest cut example in the world, earning it the moniker "The Eye of the Lion". Other notable, if more modest, Sri Lankan cat’s eye can be found at Buckingham Palace (a 105-carat cat's eye passed down from Edward VII to Charles III); the 105 carat Ray of Treasure (now in the possession of the National Gem and Jewellery Authority in Sri Lanka); and the 58.19 carat Maharani Cat's Eye in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

Image courtesy of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

Proper caviar is almost impossible to find in Sri Lanka, though the odd tiny tin cylinder of the delicacy has occasionally shown up at the small food concession within Colombo’s House of Wine on Flower Road, next to the Prime Minister’s Office. However, the Faculty of Animal Science and Export Agriculture, at Uva Wellassa University, has busied itself investigating the most suitable methodology for producing simulated caviar using roe from Mrigal, a rare white Asian carp. The blinis are waiting, though the research, once so promising, appears to have stalled. Caviar’s absence – from even the fleshpots of Colombo and Galle, is the subtlest of reminders of how delicious are the foodstuffs more easily obtainable, the mangos, milk rice, tuna, spices, cashew, to name but a few.

A Sinhala term for a religious structure built over a relic, most typically a dome shaped monument.

The forty-third monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 44 CE – 52 CE.

The son of the Vijayan king, Ilanaga, and the penultimate kosher Vijayan king , Chandra Mukha Siva took the throne on his father’s death. His reign, about which almost nothing is known, is unlikely to have been much of a source of pleasure and strength to him though, for by 52 CE he had been murdered by his own brother, Yassalalaka Thissa.

The twenty fifth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 70th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE) the dates of her reign being 434 - 435 CE.

Chattagahaka Jantu is one of the island’s few transgender mysteries. Some chronicles mark her as a Queen; others as a King. A stepsister or stepbrother to King Soththisena, this gender defying monarch was to rule for less than a year, the reign entangled in the now lost tentacles of Lambakanna dynastic rivalries and alliances that were strangling both the dynasty and the country with a civil war it could ill afford. His/her death in 435 CE at the hands of a chief minister intent on putting in place a more pliable monarch had regicidal palace politics once again singing a song that would challenge any modern-day soap opera scriptwriter.

Illustration Credit: A Maneless Lion Copper coin. On one side, there is an image of a lion. On the other side, there are three or sometimes four dots. It is likely that these dots indicate the value of the coin. The diameter of this coin is between ½ - ¾ inches and it weighs between 15-40 grains. These coins were used from 3-4 A.D - including during the short reign of Chattagahaka Jantu, Queen of Anuradhapura. The coins have been found during excavations in Anuradhapura and the Northern regions of the island. Image credit: Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The extinction in Sri Lanka of the Ceylon Asiatic Cheetah (Acionyx Jubatus Venaticus) offers a clear warning to the existence of the island’s other great cat, the Leopard, whose numbers are plummeting. A distinctly different version of the Africa Cheetah, the Asiatic Cheetah once roamed the world from Arabia and the Caspian to South Asia - and Sri Lanka, until around ten thousand years ago. Today their numbers are so few that all but the most myopically optimistic enthusiasts, anticipate that it will soon cease to live in the wild at all.

Image Public Domain.

Kaolin - or China clay has been mined almost to exhaustion in Sri Lanka, especially as Boralesgamuwa. The main component in porcelain, it is also used in medicine, cosmetics, and toothpaste.

Image courtsey of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

The twenty-eighth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 62 BCE – 50 BCE.

Inheriting the throne in from his stepbrother Mahakuli Mahatissa, Choura Naga, was the son of the Vijayan King Valagamba – that luckless but plucky monarch who had been ousted by the very Dravidians he then ousted himself after years of interminable warfare. Chora Naga’s reign appears to have been a tale of woe from the start. By virtue of not being a whole-hearwted follower of the dominant Theravada Mahavihara Buddhist sect, his popularity and support was ever in question; and his real loyalties probably laid more with the Buddhist monks who broke away and formed the Abhayagiri-vihara in the 1st century BCE . His most enduring (and fatal) decision, as it turned out, was his choice of wife - Anula, who had him poisoned by 50 BCE, an act which cut through all and any doctrinal disputes with a crude finality.

The fortieth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 33 CE – 35 CE.

Son of the assassinated Vijayan king, Amandagamani Abhaya, Chulabhaya succeeded to the throne on the death of his uncle Kanirajanu Tissa after a relatively brief reign of 3 years. Brief – and suspicious. Quite whether his predecessor died naturally or not, remains one of the many Vijayan mysteries unlikely ever to be cleared up. Three years later Chulabhaya too was dead (causes unknown), and his sister Sivali took the throne. Whatever it was that promoted Chulabhaya’s own departure from this good earth, was clearly as strong a signal as could be made that the Vijayan dynasty was edging ever closer to the chasm and civil insurrection that would all too soon entomb them all.

A 19th century lithograph of the True Cinnamon Tree. Public Domain.

A chromolitography illustration by an unknown artist of the late 19th centuary of a cinnamon peeler. Public Domain.

Named from the Old French word for lemon, Citrine is a relatively rare semi-precious quartz gem mined in Sri Lanka in colours that vary from transparent and pale yellow to brownish orange. Selling for $10 to $50 per carat, it lives very happily at the affordable end of the bling world.

Image courtsey of gemcrust.fandom.com.

The Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus Hermaphroditus), more happily known as the Toddy Cat, lives in generous numbers across Sri Lanka, South and South East Asia. It is a small beast, little more than five kilos in weight, its stocky body painted with gorgeous markings: grey fur with a white forehead, white dots under its eyes and beside its nostrils – a sort of Panda in the making. Although primarily forest dwelling, it has acclimatised to urban life with alacrity, making its home in attics and unused civic spaces – and of course, palm plantations. And indeed wherever it can best find the fruit it most prefers. Like the golden palm civet, it is also famous in some countries for producing Civet Coffee, made from defecated and partially digested fermented coffee berries.

Picture courtesy of A-Z Animals.

When life was simple, long ago, and beige, like black or white, came in just one colour choice, it was thought that the island was home to just one endemic civet. But scientists, zookeepers, and wildlife photographs like Dhammika Malsinghe, Dr. Wolfgang Dittus, Dr Devka Weerakoon, and Channa Rajapaksha have in the past fifteen years worked hard to evaluate this assumption. By careful observation, the checking of paw prints, the measurement of bodies and assessment of markings, they have instead come to the conclusion – now widely accepted in the scientific community - that the country actually plays host to three endemic civets:

1. Wet Zone Golden Palm Civet (P. Aureus)
2. Montane Golden Palm Civet (P. montanus)
3. Dry-Zone Palm Civet (P. stenocephalus)

In fact, the debate about numbers on-going, with some scientists now claiming that a fourth civet also merits separate recognition: the Sri Lankan Mountain Palm Civet (Paradoxurus supp), found only in Dickoya, a refinement that makes Darwin's Galápagos finches look almost modest. But although each civet is zone specific and different enough to be so classified, it would take much effort on behalf of armchair naturalists to ever tell them apart. All three are golden beasts - more golden brown on their backs and lighter gold on their stomachs, though the Montane Golden Palm Civet is, the trained eye, a little darker all round. From nose to bottom they measure 40 to 70 centimetres – like large cats; and weigh in from 3 to 10 pounds. They are mild, secretive, forest loving creatures, living their life on trees and in high hollows, solitary and very nocturnal, munching their way through fruits and small animals. Occasionally they can be a more sociable: for four long months one lived very comfortably in the space between my bedroom ceiling and the roof, a home from home where it raised its many excitable and noisy offspring. Most curiously – and unexpectedly – their farts are widely known on the island to be so pleasant as to smell of the flower of the joy perfume tree – the Magnolia champaca, a scent immortalized in Jean Patou’s famous perfume, 'Joy', an odour that outsold all others, excepting Chanel No. 5. Civet Coffee, which can sell for $1300 per kilo, has thankfully yet to make any appearance on the island, associated as it has become with cruel farmed civet practices. The custom, in the past, was kinder, with partially digested and fermented coffee berries being collected from civet poo in the jungle and sold onto ridiculously wealthy Coffee Bubbas.

Image: Public Domain.

Clay deposits are found throughout Sri Lanka and mined especially in Nattandiya, Dediyawela, Boralasgamuwa, and Meetiyagoda. It is used widely in its ceramics industries, so much so that it is increasingly becoming a scarce resource.

Image courtsey of Olanka Travels.

Illustration showing a painting of coconuts by Edward Lear from 1874. Public Domain.

Illustration by S Shepherd C Bourne of Cleaning and Sorting Coffee in Colombo in 1870. Public Domain.

A photograph by Unbekannt of the Colombo Cricket Club Ground in 1912. Public Domain.

An historical term for an administrative division under Dutch rule; sometimes known as a commandery.

A painting (acrylic on canvas) by Lincoln Seligman of Cricket on the beach 2012. Image courtsey of the artist.

The seventh monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 52nd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya; the dates of his reign being 193 – 195 CE.

The son of King Kanittha Tissa, Cula Naga was to enjoy his throne for a mere two years before being assassinated by his brother, Kuda Naga - the 27th reigning Sri Lankan monarch to have been so murdered. This single act of regicide would have far reached consequences for it ushered in a period of deeply unstable government that was to last until 254 CE – 59 years.

Illustration Credit: The tusker and swastika is a small Copper coin. On one side of the coin, there is an image of a walking tusker, a stupa drawn using three half-moons, a swastika and a Bo tree with three branches inscribed in a square. On the flipside, there is a swastika, a trident, and a stupa. The coin would have been in circulation through the early Anuradhapura era including during the reign of Cula Naga, King of Anuradhapura. Photo credit: The Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

A watercolour by Clive Wilson of Dambulla. Image courtsesy of the artist.

The thirty second (interloper) monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being sometime around 47 to 44 BCE.

A forester or wood carrier by some accounts, Darubhatika Tissa was placed on the throne of Anuradhapura in 47 BCE by his terrifying lover, the widowed Vijayan Queen, Anula. Anula had come into her inheritance by murdering four earlier monarchs: her husband Choura Naga, the twenty-eighth King of Anuradhapura; his successor, Choura Naga, the twenty-ninth monarch; and her last two lovers, Siva I, the thirtieth monarch, and Vatuka, the thirty first monarch. Within a year Anula had Darubhatika Tissa poisoned too.

The twenty-sixth (invader) monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 90 BCE – 89 BCE.

One of 7 Dravidian chiefs from the Indian Pandyan Dynasty that forcibly took the Anuradhapuran Kingdom from its barely-established new ruler, King Valagamba in 103 BCE, Dathika became king of Anuradhapura in 90 BCE. It is likely that he achieved this by the simple expedient of murdering his Dravidian master, Pilaya Mara, who he had previously served as chief minister, although some stories credit Valagamba’s military campaign for his death. Much of Dathika’s own short rule was spent in an ultimately vain attempt to protect his crown from the avenging ex King, Valagamba, who was busy waging an ever more successful guerrilla war from the south. This was to culminate in Dathika’s own death on the battlefield.

The 5th of the Six Dravidian invaders of the Pandiyan Dynasty of South India; and the 76th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE).

Dathiya’s relationship to the previous king, Tiritara, is unknown; but his reign (447 – 450 CE) would have been troublesome and turbulent, extending over an ever-shrinking area as the Sri Lankan Moriyan rebel leader, Dhatusena, gained more and more of a foothold on Pandiyan-held territory. Dathiya was to die in battle against Dhatusena, the 10th reigning Sri Lankan monarch known to have died in this way.

Illustration Credit: Pandyian fish relief courtsey of Quora.

Deer abound across Sri Lanka, some – like the Ceylon Spotted Deer – increasingly vulnerable, prey to poachers and habitat loss; others – like the Barking Deer – flourishing and presenting little concern to the scientists who maintain the Red List of Threatened Species. Two species are considered endemic to the island – the Ceylon Spotted Deer, the Sri Lankan Spotted Chevrotain, with Sri Lankan Sambar Deer the subject of mild debate among patriotic environmentalists trying to assess if it is so significantly more evolved as to present nature with what amounts to a new sub species unique to the island. The remaining three species found in Sri Lanka are also found across Southand South East India – the Hog Deer, the Mouse Deer, and the Barkling Deer.

Image courtsey of FabFunky.

Once the seaside playground for the inhabitants of Colombo, which lies just a few kilometres up the coast, Dehiwala - Mount Lavinia has become a garden suburb of the city, through it remains a municipality in its own right. To its south stretch the many inlets of Bolgoda Lake, a marshy wetland and freshwater landscape on whose shores rise the glittering facades of the prized, secluded mansions of the nicely rich. The area also boasts an old, small zoo with something of a mixed reputation.

Dehiwala - Mount Lavinia’s diffident life as a collection of quiet villages during the Kotte kingdom and Portuguese and Dutch occupations came to an abrupt halt in 1806 when the colony’s British Governor, Sir Thomas Maitland, decided to build a private holiday home there on land known as Galkissa" (Mount Lavinia) - a small promontory with beaches on either side. In between governing and throwing parties, Maitland fell in love with a Portuguese Burger, a dancer named Lovinia, to whose house he had a secret tunnel constructed from his wine cellar. The affair must have ended by 1812 when Maitland was recalled to fight in the Peninsular War; and his house later became a hotel, one of the few in or near Colombo to look directly out across the beach into the Laccadive Sea.

Illustration Credit courtsey of MySL Travel.

Villagers and villages attached to a devale, or shrine to Buddhist gods.

Illustration by the celebrated artist Samuel Daniell -of a village scene between Galle and Matura about Six Miles from Galle in 1801 ( bodycolour over graphite on paper). Public Domain.

The ninth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 307 BCE – 267 BCE.

It was fortunate that when Sri Lanka’s paramount defining moment occurred, it had a king talented enough to make best sense of it. Devanampiya Tissa, second son of the Vijayan King, Mutasiva, is described by The Mahavamsa as being "foremost among all his brothers in virtue and intelligence". To get anywhere close to this remarkable leader head to the mountain of Mihintale, 16 kilometres east of Anuradhapura. There stands a modest, much weathered, armless stone statute of Devanampiya Tissa. Six feet high, he stands, gazing out across the grand ruins and remains of his religious citadel. It marks the spot where Sri Lanka became Buddhist. Gaze into his eyes – and note that, unlike so much other statutory and art, this one, argue the scholars, actually dates from very close to the death of this outstanding monarch.

Like the Vijayans, Buddhism also came from India - but it naturalised so completely across the island that it is impossible grasp any aspect of the country’s past or present, without first comprehending the centrality of this, its main religion. It arrived through a series of intimate stories in which faith follows friendship – for King Devanampiya Tissa had struck up a pen-pal relationship with the celebrated Indian Buddhist emperor, Ashoka. Gifts followed letters, and a missionary followed the gifts when Ashoka despatched his own son, Mahinda, to Sri Lanka. The young missionary prince was to live on the island for 48 years, out-living Devanampiya Tissa, and dying, aged 80 after a lifetime spent promoting Buddhism, the beneficiary of a state funeral at which his relics were interred in a stupa in Mihintale.

For it was at Mihintale that Mahinda first met Devanampiya Tissa. The king, it was said, was out hunting. Expecting a stag, the ruler instead found himself a missionary. A testing exchange on the nature of things followed, and then a sutra was preached. The rest, as they say, is history. The conversions began, and the country’s history took the most definitive turn in its long journey, becoming - and remaining to this day - a Buddhist country first and foremost, with all that this entailed. So great were the number of conversions that the king especially built the Maha Vihare (The Great Monastery) in the pleasure gardens of Anuradhapura to house the growing number of Buddhist monks; and for centuries after the building was to become the centre of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

The evidence for all this comes of course from The Mahāvaṃsa Chronicle, but it is likely that Buddhism penetrated the island much earlier. Even so, it took the backing of a king to ensure that the religion became so dominant so fast. And as it did so, it carried along with it some of the many rituals and ceremonies of the pre Buddhist cults, especially those associated with agriculture and demons. It also helped spread a common language and script, and with it, the power of the centre - for the king was also the formal guardian of the Sanga, the religious organization.

Clearly, Mahinda, the young missionary had painted a compelling picture of his new island home in his letters home. He was soon joined by his sister, the nun, Sanghamittā. She brought with her a golden vase in which grew a sapling of Bodhi-Tree taken from the very one under which Buddha himself is said to have attained enlightenment. Accompanied by a number of other nuns, Sanghamittā landed in the north of the island. She was met by King Devanampiya Tissa himself. The party were ceremonially escorted to Anuradhapura along a road softened with white sand. The Bodhi sapling was planted in the Mahāmeghavana Grove in Anuradhapura, where it still grows. Saṅghamittā later ordained Queen Anula and the women of the court in Buddhism and stayed on in the island, promoting the religion. She died in 203 BCE aged 79, her death prompting national mourning. A stupa was erected over her cremation site in front of the Bodhi-Tree in Anuradhapura.

Devanampiya Tissa built a monastery and temple caves at Mihintale, a site that over successive years grew and grew. Indeed temple caves rapidly became the architectural hit of the time with ordinary people funding a stone mason to do all the necessary work. Between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE nearly 3,000 such caves were recorded. Other notable buildings followed: monasteries, palaces, the 550-acre Tissa Wewa water tank, still in use today; and the Thuparamaya of Anuradhapura, the county’s first stupa - which enshrined the right collarbone of Lord Buddha and whose remains today stretch out over 3 ½ acres. Devanampiya Tissa’s death after a long reign brought to a gradual end a golden period of Vijayan peace and prosperity.

Illustration of Devil Dancers from a hand-coloured photograph dating to 1900-1920. Public Domain.

A coastal village near Matara, Dikwella is a much loved by sea-seeking tourists; and by those moved by impressive Buddhist temples. The little settlement boasts an 18th century statue of Lord Buddha that is 160 feet high. The statue sits outside a temple, much enlarged from its earliest beginnings 250 years ago. The temple is unusual in the space it gives to celebrating, in uncensored detail, what happens to sinners who fails to follow the path of enlightenment. Being swan into pieces, boiled alive or merely disembowelled are just three of the options available.

A sketch of a Sinhalese washerman in Kandy from 1898. Public Domain.

An industrial mineral found in Sri Lanka, dolomite is widely mined and used in the island’s ceramic, glass, paint, rubber, and fertilizer industries and in local lime manufacturing plants. It is scattered across the island in such areas as Anuradhapura, Habarana, Matale, Kandy, Ratnapura, Balangoda, Badulla, Bibile, Welimada, Ambilipitiya, and Hambantota. Calcite, a related mineral, is often found in the same deposits, and is used in construction.

Image courtsey of Hayleys.

Even accepting their preference for tropical and sub-tropical waters, it is invidious to write of endemic dolphins in Sri Lanka, given the creature’s ability to swim where it pleases, be it the Caribbean, Atlantic, Pacific, or any ocean in between. But the island is especially blessed in being able to attract quite so many species to so many parts of its off shore waters. Although all the common species are backed by plentiful numbers, their long term prospects are worrying and their (often long) life expectancy is threatened by fishing, pollution, noise, and climate change. Dolphin watchers can curse their bad fortune if they fail to see at least two or three of the most common species to swim with accustomed acrobatic ease around Sri Lanka – including:

1. Common Bottlenose Dolphin
2. Common Dolphin
3. Spinner Dolphin
4. Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin
5. Pantropical Spotted Dolphin
6. Risso's Dolphin
7. Fraser's Dolphin

Image Public Domain.

Sri Lanka’s diminishing herds of feral donkeys (Eques Caballos) are found mostly in Mannar, Talaimannar and Puttalam, descendants of equine immigrants that entered the great port of Maathottam near Mannar - once the shipping gateway to the ancient Anuradhapura Kingdom. Arab traders were probably most responsible for importing the beasts to carry their cargos inland. The species that lives here is said to be a direct decadent of the Nubian African Wild Ass, now extinct in its native Ethiopia and Sudan. Extinction also faces it in Sri Lanka, its habitat every diminishing; and hungry villagers occasionally helping themselves to what will become tomorrow’s stew. Ther are said to be under 3,000 still alive, through a wonderful charity, Bridging Lanka, has stepped in to try and nurse them back to happier times.

Image courtsey of dailymirror.lk.

In 436 CE the Anuradhapura Kingdom was invaded and conquered by six Dravidian chiefs. It was the fourth such invasion from its mighty northern neighbour that Sri Lanka had experienced; and was not to be the last. These particular chiefs originated from within the Pandyan dynasty, centred around Madurai - one of the four great families that were to vie with one other for centuries over control of Southern India – the other three being the Pallavas, the Cholas and the Cheras. Little is known about the cadet branch that invaded Sri Lanka – whether they were all related or all acted in unison or relay. It is thought that they were Buddhist rather than Hindu, and the few ancient sources that refer to them note their obliging donations to Buddhist establishments. Even so, they amply demonstrated their divergence from those Buddhist teachings that strongly opposed the use of violence, to show that they were not above its expedient application to win themselves a kingdom. They were to rule the Anuradhapura Kingdom for sixteen turbulent years. Two were to die apparently natural deaths; one was murdered by a rival and the last three were all killed in battle or skirmishes with Dhatusena, the leader of the gathering Sri Lankan resistance and a member of the emergent Moriyan dynasty. The order of these invader kings is as follows:

1. Pandu. The first of the Six Dravidian invaders of the Pandiyan Dynasty of South India and the 72nd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his five year reign being 436 – 441 CE.

2. Parindu, the son of King Pandu; the 2nd of the Six Dravidian invaders of the Pandiyan Dynasty of South India and the 73rd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE). He was to rule for under a year in 441 CE, being killed by his brother and successor. His assassination trod a familiar path amidst Anuradhapuran kingship, Sri Lankan or otherwise – for he is the 35th reigning Sri Lankan monarch known to have been murdered for the succession.

3. Khudda Parinda. The Brother of King Parindu and son of King Pandu; the 3rd of the Six Dravidian invaders of the Pandiyan Dynasty of South India; and the 74th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE). He is presumed to have died a natural death following an (albeit suspiciously short) six year reign (441 – 447 CE).

4. Tiritara, the 4th of the Six Dravidian invaders of the Pandiyan Dynasty of South India and the 75th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE). His relationship with the previous kings, Pandu, Parindu and Khudda Parinda remains opaque, but not so the length of his reign, which was to last under a year (447 CE). He was to die in battle against the future Sri Lankan rebel king, Dhatusena.

5. Dathiya, the 5th of the Six Dravidian invaders of the Pandiyan Dynasty of South India; and the 76th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE). Like his predecessor, Dathiya, his kinship with the other Dravidian chiefs is unknown. His reign was to last just three years (447 – 450 CE), ending with his defeat and death at the hands of Dhatusena.

6. Pithiya, the last of the Six Dravidian invaders of the Pandiyan Dynasty of South India; and the 77th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE). As with his two immediate predecessors, Pithiya’s reign ended with his defeat and death at the hands of Dhatusena. He reign had lasted barely two years (450 – 452 CE), and with his death the country plunged into deeper anarchy until eventually, Dhatusena, was to quell all other opposition and be crowed King of Anuradhapura himself.

Illustration Credit: Gold coin of Alupas, showing the fish symbol of the Pandyian Dynasty

"On the previous day [8 Jan 1493],” read the Voyages of Columbus, “when the Admiral went to the Rio del Oro, he said he quite distinctly saw three mermaids, which rose well out of the sea; but they are not so beautiful as they are said to be, for their faces had some masculine traits." In fact, what Columbus say that day in early January off the coast of Haiti was a dugong, a remarkable creature whose DNA happily proves that real mermaids do not possess any of the plastic Barbie-and-Kens DNA that mermaids are more typically imaged with in films, cartoons, and illustrations. Also known as the sea cow, it lives with bovine contentment, grazing on sea grass meadows in shallow bays, mangroves, the waters of inshore islands and inter-reef waters. Growing to around eleven feet in length, with poor eyesight but a good sense of smell, they propel themselves forward by flippers and tail, and although they can live to up to seventy years, they are so vulnerable as to be close to extension. Widespread legal protection has not stopped them being hunted, whilst habitat pollution and degradation has also decimated their numbers. In Sri Lanka, their meat was highly sought and considered to have medicinal and aphrodisiac properties; and diaries note that as recently as the 1950s over one hundred and fifty slaughtered animals were offered for sale annually in Mannar alone. Their cautious reproductive habits do not much help them either, with males taking sometimes as many as eighteen years to reach sexual maturity. The impressive Dugong and Seagrass Conservation Project reports depressingly that “large herds of dugongs were reported to have occurred in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka in the early 1900s; however, none were sighted during aerial surveys conducted of Palk Bay and the waters off western Sri Lanka in the 1980s, and their current status and distribution are unknown.” Even so, they have been uncorroborated reports of more recent sightings – including one in 2017 in Puttalam Lagoon.

Image courtsey of Australian Geographic.

Illustration by Henry Payne of The Duke of York and Cornwall at the Durbar in Kandy in 1901. Public Domain.

The sixteenth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 161 BCE – 137 BCE.

The son of King Kavantissa of Ruhuna, a southern kingdom established earlier by a cadet branch of the Anuradhapura’s Vijayan kings, Dutugemunu was able to benefit from his father’s lasting achievement in strengthening and enlarging Ruhuna. This he did not just to defend himself against the Ellalan, the Chola Tamil conqueror of Anuradhapuran – but also to see off the many more modest challenges that came his way from the many other fiefdoms that bordered his lands. King Kavantissa bequeathed to his son Dutugemunu a battle-ready country, but Dutugemunu was unable to focuses its powers beyond its existing borders until he had seen off a challenge to his own inheritance from his younger brother, Tissa. Living up to his various nicknames (rowdy, fearless, disobedient), Dutugemunu eventually defeated his brother but rather than putting him to death, the traditional punishment for such temerity, he promoted him to be one of his own generals.

With an army of chariots, monks, horses, a lucky spear, his favourite elephant (Kandula) and, states The Mahāvaṃsa, Ten Giant Warriors (Nandhimitra, Suranimala, Mahasena, Theraputtabhya, Gotaimbara, Bharana, Vasabha, Khanjadeva, Velusamanna, and Phussadeva), the new king of Ruhuna set off north to reclaim the family’s senior kingdom – Anuradhapura . Composed, as was normal of four units – elephants, horses, chariots, and infantry – Dutugemunu’s army was spectacularly successful, first mopping up the splintered Tamil statelets in the north before arriving outside the walls of Anuradhapura. King Ellalan, mounted on his elephant Mahapabbata, faced his younger rival, mounted on his elephant, Kandula.

The ancient texts report that the deadly combat was honourable but decisive, a spear thrust finally ending Ellalan’s life in 161 BCE. The records state that "the water in the tank there was dyed red with the blood of the slain'. And perhaps in acknowledgment of Ellalan’s fine reputation, Dutugemunu had his victim cremated properly and a stupa constructed over the pyre. “Even to this day,” comments The Mahāvaṃsa, “the princes of Lanka, when they draw near to this place, are wont to silence their music'.

For a glorious, albeit extended moment, it seems as if the Vijayan dynasty’s good times had returned. Dutugemunu's victory left him ruling nearly the whole of the island, from Anuradhapura to Ruhuna, and much in between. And as if to confirm the return of Vijayan hegemony, the construction of more buildings commenced. Anuradhapura expanded exponentially, its infrastructure, utilities, water resources so upgraded as to ensure that it would flourish for centuries to come, the longest surviving capital city of the Indian sub-continent. Still more spectacular was the building of many of its most celebrated structures. A large monastery, the Maricavatti, was erected, together with a nine-story chapter house for monks, with a bright copper-tiled roof; and most famous of all, what is today called the Ruwanweliseya, the Great Stupa which housed Buddha’s begging bowl. The building programme was not restricted to the capital alone – 89 other temples are said to have been constructed in the kingdom, along with hospitals and smaller tanks. Trade opened up with the west, the ports busy with merchants from Arabia, Persia and possibly even Rome.

But back at the palace, events were going less smoothly. Dutugemunu's heir, Saliya, having fallen for a girl from one of the lowest castes, was disinherited. The ailing king, dying before his eye-catching Stupa was finished, ensured the throne passed instead to his own brother, Saddha Tissa in 137 BCE.

Image courtsery of Lankapura.

A district in the North Central Province, Elahera is noted for its abundance of gemstones. It is estimated that 35% of the country’s gems are mined from this area - leaving the greater balance being mined in Ratnapura. Its history is one of rediscovery. Recent archaeological discoveries show Elahera as an active gem mining area for centuries - excavations revealing the remains of tools and even some engraved stones. The remarkable Polonnaruwa king, Parakramabahu the Great (1153 – 1186 CE) even permitted foreigners to mine there. But the burden of civil wars and repeated foreign invasions led to the mines being abandoned and overplanted by rice paddy. This insensible interregnum came to a sensational end in the 1940s when a Sri Lankan engineer spent an afternoon searching for a lost ring along the banks of the Amban River. He never found his ring - but he did discover a number of blue and red pebbles that were to gladden the heart of his bank manager. He kept the secret of the stones to himself, and it took a later discovery by construction workers of sapphires washed out in heavy rain for the gem rush to begin. By the 1960s the as area was once more back in the business of gem mining. Today it is noted for its blue, pink, yellow, violet, and "padparadschal' sapphires; spinels; rhodolite and hessonite garnets; chrysoberyls (including alexandrite and chatoyant varieties); zircons; green and "cognac" tourmalines; garnets, rock crystal quartz, amethyst, and topaz.

Image courtsey of Andrew Lucas/GIA.

Numbers of the Sri Lankan elephant, which goes by the beautiful Latin name of Elephas maximus maximus, are falling fast. The WWF put their total at between two and a half to four thousand, and although killing one carries the death penalty, habitat erosion and human-elephant conflict has pushed this largest of beasts into ever smaller areas. Smart, sociable, gregarious, and emotionally intelligent, it is unconscionable how widespread is the cruelty they face – heavily chained and marshalled to be more accessible for visitors. Even the leading elephant of the renowned Kandy Perehera was found to be suffering from such severe malnourishment, that it later died. Veterinarians International, a global charity, has built the country’s first bespoke elephant hospital and, like others, is doing much to reverse the institutionalized abuse they suffer. Just under one hundred people die in elephant attacks each year – compared to over three hundred elephants. One such death is remembered in Ruanwella from long ago - the 27th of September 1838. “Having heard of a tusker, Mr. Wallett, attended by two native boys, went in pursuit, and met it in a herd of 3. He fired one barrel and is said to have hit the animal; but the 2nd barrel of his gun missed fire, and the elephant rushed upon him before he could get another gun from his terrified attendants. It immediately crushed him to death, and went off for a few minutes; but, returning, thrust his tusks through the body, and tore all the clothes off it.“ Back then elephants were widespread across the island; today they are mostly to be found in the dry parts of the north, east and south east – especially in such wildlife parks as Udawalawe, Yala, Lunugamvehera, Wilpattu and Minneriya but also live outside protected areas. Although Sri Lanka has the highest density of elephants in Asia, as roads, villages, farms, plantations, and towns grow, they come into ever closer contact with humans, usually to their extreme disadvantage. Over a twelve year period to 2022, elephant fatalities have more than doubled to four hundred and thirty nine. Owning an elephant brings with it immense prestige and the more ambitious temples are as eager as tourist sites to host their own animal. Laws – and more importantly – the enforcement of laws protecting elephants remains often frontier territory.

Image Public Domain.

A noted sub species of Sri Lanka’s endemic elephant, Elephas Maximus Maximus, the Ceylon Marsh (Elephas Maximus Vil-Aliya) is a still rarer beast, barely seen outside the flood plains of the Mahaweli Basin. It is a vast animal, its size and habitat preference marking it out more than anything else from its cousin.

Image courtsey of The Partying Traveler.

Almost as rare as the dodo, the Sri Lankan pygmy elephant was first recorded in 2012 in the Uda Walawe National Park. Standing barely two metres tall, it was the first confirmed case of disproportionate dwarfism in a fully-grown wild Asian elephant. When filmed he was busy attacking (and winning) a duel with a rival twice his size.

Image courtsey of Brad Abbott.

The current and endangered Sri Lankan Elephant is considered to be a subspecies of Elephas Maximus Sinhaleyus, an elephant now extinct in Sri Lanka, Its treasured fossils, unearthed in Kuruwita, indicates that it last lived 100,000 years ago. Its similarity to the present-day elephant is likely to have made it all but impossible to tell them apart, the difference lying in such things as smaller molars and a wider spout. A scant dusting of other fossils reveal the existence of two futher elephant sub species that may have called Sri Lanka home before becoming extinct: Hypselephus Hysundricus Sinhaleyus and Palaeoloxodon Namadicus Sinhaleyus.

Image courtsey of Deraniyagala.

The fifteenth (invader) monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 205 BCE – 161 BCE.

King Ellalan is a striking and positive figure in Sri Lankan history, his Tamilness eliciting not even a scintilla of condemnation in The Mahavaṃsa, which notes instead “a Damila of noble descent, named Elara, who came hither from the Cola-country to seize on the kingdom, ruled when he had overpowered king Asela, forty-four years, with even justice toward friend and foe, on occasions of disputes at law.” Despite having taken the throne, Ellalan’s authority probably reached little further than the Rajarata, the traditional territory of the first Anuradhapuran kings stretching just north of the Mahaweli River. The Mahavaṃsa makes a special point to illuminate Ellalan’s many acts of justice and generosity. Just, to the point of terrifying, he is said to have even executed his own son for transgressing the law.

Virtuous though he was, Ellalan was, all the same, a dynastic footnote - for the Vijayans were not yet finished with their rule. The main line of succession had been destroyed with the death of King Asela, but a cadet branch existed in the southern Kingdom of Ruhuna. This Vijayan redoubt was ruled over by descendants of King Devanampiya Tissa’s brother, King Mahanaga. Ruhuna had never really been part of the Anuradhapura domain. Indeed, since at least the reign of King Surathissa the Anuradhapura Kingdom itself had begun to fracture, The Mahavamsa pointing out the presence of 32 semi-independent Tamil states coexisting alongside King Ellalan’s Anuradhapura.

At the time King Ellalan conquered Anuradhapura, Ruhana was fortunate enough to be ruled by the King Kavantissa, who pursued an implacable strategy of soaking up the little would-be challenging kingships the boarded his land. By the time of his death he had created a powerful southern state, one that was perfectly poised to help the family regain control of Anuradhapura itself. After a predictable sibling spat around the succession of King Kavantissa, his older son Dutugemunu emerged victorious following a series of trials involving elephants, the kidnapping of the dowager queen, and set-piece battles. With an army of chariots, monks, horses, a lucky spear, his favourite elephant (Kandula) and, states The Mahāvaṃsa, Ten Giant Warriors (Nandhimitra, Suranimala, Mahasena, Theraputtabhya, Gotaimbara, Bharana, Vasabha, Khanjadeva, Velusamanna, and Phussadeva), the new king of Ruhuna set off north to reclaim the family’s senior kingdom – Anuradhapura .

Composed, as was normal of four units – elephants, horses, chariots, and infantry – Dutugemunu’s army was spectacularly successful, first mopping up the splintered Tamil statelets in the north before arriving outside the walls of Anuradhapura. King Ellalan, mounted on his elephant Mahäpabbata, faced his younger rival, mounted on his elephant, Kandula. The ancient texts report that the deadly combat was honourable but decisive, a spear thrust finally ending Ellalan’s life in 161 BCE. The records state that "the water in the tank there was dyed red with the blood of the slain'. And perhaps in acknowledgment of Ellalan’s fine reputation, Dutugemunu had his victim cremated properly and a stupa constructed over the pyre. “Even to this day,” comments The Mahāvaṃsa, “the princes of Lanka, when they draw near to this place, are wont to silence their music'.

A variety of designs, mostly linked to the crown coat of arms, were used by the British in their government of Ceylon, before they eventually settled, close to the end of their occupation of the island, on a symbol unique to the country – that of an elephant, walking, as it had done since 1505 on the Portuguese Emblem, through coconut palms with mountains in the background.

Illustration: Public Domain.

The emblem used by the Dutch to administer Ceylon was almost identical to that of of the Portuguese – featuring an elephant walking though palm trees with mountains behind. But they added a key new detail, one that fitted very nearly with their entire economic purpose of being on the island at all – a few bales of the ultra-valuable cinnamon crop that they harvested across the island. More interesting each sub district they governed had its own version of the heraldic arms. In Trincomalee a mercenary soldier from Java is included. In Mannar a plant, hedyotis puberula, cherished for its dyes, was adopted. A fort and a bridge dominate the shield of Matara; and a single fort the shield of Kalpitiya. Ships features on the symbols of Chilaw and Puttalam; and a clay pitcher for Negombo.

From 1505 to 1658 the flag that fluttered over Portuguese Ceylon was identical to the one that flew over Portugal itself, featuring 7 gold castles and 5 blue shields within a red shield surmounted by a crown. But the emblem they used to rule the country was very different, displaying and elephant walking though palm trees with mountains behind.

National emblems differ from national flags in as much as they are used by the state to validate their administration of the country. Sri Lanka’s colonial overlords adopted emblems for the island featuring elephants that they ran alongside their national flags (or in the case of the Dutch, the arms of the VOC). But by 1972 the country has developed an entirely new Emblem, which is still in use today. It was designed by the Venerable Mapalagama Wipulasara Maha Thera, a Buddhist monk and artist and features the traditional lion of the national flag. The lion sits within a round frame of lotus leaves and rice grains, the Wheel of Dharma above his head and Sinhalese sun and moon symbols beneath him.

A suburb of Batticaloa, facing inland into a large eponymous lagoon.

A silicate mineral, feldspar is used in many industries including glass and ceramics, and as fillers in paints, plastics, and rubber. Deposits of it, and accompanying mines, occur in many areas of Sri Lanka - including Rattota, Namaloya, Koslanda, and Balangoda.

Image courtsey of Dave Dyet.

Although most people, government workers aside, work on Saturdays, the annual work load is lessened by the fact that Sri Lanka probably has more public holidays than any other country. Taken together, they would add an extra month to the year. To the many Buddhist festivals, Christian, Hindu, and Muslim festivals have to be added – some long ago merged with ancient animist and agricultural ones. It is striking, though not surprising in so religiously-minded a country, that so many of the festivals are also public holiday, regardless of their religious origins. Here is a list of the thirty three most notable ones, each one an opportunity to lay a glittering happening on the otherwise workaday weeks and months of the year:

1. Patti Pongal. A Tamil festival ceremony for gratitude to cows that occurs in January.

2. Duruthu Poya. Occurring in January, this celebrates the first of the Buddha's visits to Sri Lanka – and the start of the three-month pilgrimage season to Adam's Peak

3. The Harvest Festival. A Hindu festival over 14-15 of January to celebrates Surya, the Sun god; Indra, the bringer of rains; and the cow. Observed mostly by Tamil farmers, it marks the first rice harvest of the year. It is seen as an opportunity for decluttering too and houses are cleaned and painted, and floors decorated with the leaves of fruit trees. Sweet rice is consumed in generous quantities and cow horns are painted, with some even wrapped in saris.

4. Duruthu Perahera. Taking place at the Kelaniya Temple near Colombo, this Buddhist festival commemorates the third visit of Buddha to Sri Lanka, with attendant elephants, torch bearers and dancers.

5. Independence Day. On the 4th of January large stands are erected along Galle Face Green for the country’s leading figures to sit and watch the armed forces march past.

6. The New Rice Festival. A Buddhist festival held in January at the Temple of the Tooth.

7. Medin Poya. A Buddhist festival in March that marks Lord Buddha's first visit to the island.

8. Maha Sivarathri. A Hindu festival in February or March to honour Shiva by fasting and all-night vigils.

9. Eid-e-Milad an-Nabi. A Muslim festival held in March to celebrated the birth of the prophet Muhammad.

10. Bak Poya. A Buddhist festival in April to mark Lord Buddha's second visit to Sri Lanka.

11. The National Oil Anointing Ceremony. Organized by the Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Ministry and the Ayurvedic Department and held in April, the festival is meant to ensure good health for the year ahead. Whether many people outside the ministry know about it is debatable.

12. Sinhala & Tamil New Year. Occurring on the 13-14th of April, the festival brings together Tamils and the Sinhalese to celebrate New Year. A cross between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and News Years Eve, it is a time for families, milk rice and parties.

13. Good Friday and Easter Day. A Christian festival with a movable date, held to mark the crucifixion of Christ.

14. Vesak Poya. The Poya held in May is the most important Buddhist poya of the year, cramming in three anniversaries: the birth, enlightenment, and Nirvana of Lord Buddha. Every possible structure is decorated and at night paper lanterns, some of titanic proportions, flicker with gentle lights. Food is shared in huge quantities; the devout meditate and fast and the last pilgrims climb Adam’s Peak.

15. Labour Day. Held on the 1st May and a traditional bank holiday, though given the generous closing hours the banks often give themselves, an extra holiday seems superfluous.

16. Remembrance Day. Held in May, the day has had a significant identity change since it was first created by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to mark the defeat opf the LTTE. It was then called Victorty Day. But within five years, Rajapaksa’s successor, President Maithripala Sirisena had it renamed Remembrance Day.

17. Ramadan. A Muslim festival held in June to mark the Prophet Muhammad visitation by the angel Gabriel.

18. Poson Poya. Held in June this is the second most important poya day of the year and commemorates the arrival of Buddhism to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BCE. Festivals are widespread – but most especially glittering at Mihintale where the event took place.

19. Esala Poya. Held between July to August to mark Lord Buddha's first sermon and the arrival of the sacred Tooth Relic in Sri Lanka.

20. Esala Festivals. Throughout July and August Esala festivals are held at numerous temples, the dates held like poker cards to the chest until the very last moment, but always guaranteed to reach a climax for the full moon. The most famous of these is the Kandy Perahera, a pageant that runs for ten days with elephants dressed in silk, dancers, fire eaters, whip crackers and contented priests marching through the narrow streets of the hill city to crowds of thousands. Notable too is the Dondra Perahera held near Dikwella in southern Sri Lanka, and the fourteen day long Kataragama Perahera centred around the multi religious temple of Kataragama and attracting Buddhist, Hindus, Muslima and the Vedda, many of whom will have pilgrimaged there from other towns, and all of whom will plunge into the Manik Ganga for the cleansing water cutting ceremony.

21. The Water Cutting Ceremony. Held after the last Perehera procession in a number of places on the island – but most importantly on the Menik Ganga. The festival is designed to purify the clothes of the god that may have been polluted by sex. Once the auspicious time is determined - usually early in the morning - the object of veneration is placed in the river, accompanied by priests and even elephants,. People gather just downstream of it to splash and immerse themselves in the water, some of which, they hope, may derive from the holy object themselves. Flasks are filled, and – at least in more agrarian times – the multiple would go home, confident that the harvest was all but guaranteed.

22. Munneswaram. A Hindu festival often also attended by Buddhists that is held in the 1st week of August near Chilaw and dedicated – not least by lots of fire walking - to the God Siva.

23. Nikini Poya. A Buddhist festival moistly observed by monks to kick start three months of fasting in memory of Lord Buddha’s death. It is also known as Vas or Rain Retreat.

24. Vel Festival. The central Hindu festival of the year which celebrates the god Kartikeya (also known as Murugan or Kandhan) with elaborate processions, which feature chariots and spears.

25. Binara Poya. A Buddhist festival held in September to mark Lord Buddha's journey to heaven.

26. Dussehra. A Hindu festival that symbolises the triumph of good over evil that is held over September/October to honour the Mother Goddess Durga’s victory over the evil buffalo demon Mahishasura.

27. Vap Poya. A Buddhist festival held in October to mark the end of fasting and the Vas Retreat, and commemorate Buddha's return to earth. It is usually accompanied by Katina Ceremonies (the Month of Robes) when money is donated to monasteries to buy new robes for the monks.

28. Deepavali. The Hindu Festivals of Lights that marks the return of Rama from exile and the triumph of light over darkness. Many people, regardless of religion in Sri Lanka wish that the Central Electricity Board might pay a little more attention to the lessons that derive from Deepavali.

29. Il Poya. A Buddhist festival held in November to mark Lord Buddha’s ordination of sixty disciples to spread his teachings.

30. Hajj. A Muslim festival held in November to kick start the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.

31. Christmas Day. A Christian festival to celebrate the birth of Christ.

32. Unduvap Poya. A Buddhist festival of great importance in Anuradhapura which marks the arrival of the sapling of the bo-tree to Sri Lanka from India.

33. The Hakma Dance. An annual Adivasi Veddha festival that lasts two days focused on protecting the community and wild animals from diseases and to ensure a bountiful of bee honey harvest.

Image courtsey of Best Sri Lanka Travel.

A pen ink with wash on paper illustration by Lincoln Seligman of Fisherman Sri Lanka 2015. Image courtsey of the artist.

An art deco plantation manor close to Kandy, the Elephant Orphanage, Sigiriya and Dambulla, The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel has been described as “a little slice of heaven and a big dose of serenity.” Surrounded by jungle, and its own plantations of spices, timber, coconut, and rubber, it mixes collections of contemporary Sri Lankan art with European Modernism; and fuses classic Sri Lankan food with familiar European dishes. Restored with the help of the celebrated Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatte, the hotel is set beside the Galagedera Pass, where the Kandyan King Kirti Sri Rajasinha thwarted the attempt the Dutch East India army to invade the island’s last independent kingdom in 1765. The hotel is also the home of The Ceylon Press, a digital publishing initiative set up to tell the story of Sri Lanka.

Image courtsey of The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel.

A painting by Andrew Macara of Football in Bentota 1998. Image courtsey of the artist.

1470 was for Sri Lanka, the year a great storm fell across Adam’s Bridge and the Palk Straights, that modest sea channel that separates India from Sri Lanka. Running like a vertebra across the Palk Straights, Adam’s Bridge is comprised today of a series of are low islands and submerged reefs. But until 1470, at moments of extreme low tide, it was possible to practically walk across. Once this had been the main route south - until sea levels rose and storms wore away at the limestone islands.

The 1470 storm shattered much of the remaining limestone – leaving behind just a few islands and a watery thoroughfare that is still, to this day, too treacherously shallow for most ships to dare a crossing. Adam’s Bridge was a bridge no more. From 1470 onwards you would have to swim, or sail across. Emblematic of what was or might have been, but is no longer, the Bridge sits between the two countries, hinting at a unity that had already, hundreds of years before, fragmented so completely as to be missed by the earliest founding myths of both cultures. Its destruction made symbolically plain what was already nakedly obvious. Despite their proximity, their shared history and even their similarities, the two lands were wholly different. As the lost magnetic pull of the sub-continent become more remote, Sri Lanka continued on its journey forward, one in which it would continue to put down its own unique roots, to create a history to dwarf that of most other countries, ten times larger.

A Sinhala term for the Kandyan kingdom’s royal villages.

The third monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 48th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 113 - 135 CE.

Gajabahu was to rule for 22 years,. His governance is remembered for its predictable religious sensibility – and its military might, the two not often going hand in hand. He built monasteries (in Matuvihara and Rumika) and a stupa (Abhayuttara). More remarkably, he also co-opted the Hindu goddess Pattini to Sri Lanka. Several of her temples remain on the island, and she is still worshipped, the Buddhist patron goddess of fertility and health, an iconic ancient link that evokes deep and pacific links between the island’s two main religions that are often overlooked. She is even one of just five figures honoured in the annual Kandy Perehera, the country’s supreme Buddhist festival – which some historians date to around the reign of King Gajabahu himself. The king also managed to find her sacred anklet, said still to be hidden in the Hanguranketha Temple near Nuwara Aylia. This move which did not stop him also liberating the alms bowl of Buddha from India to Sri Lanka, a vessel with a history and provenance now every bit as complex as that of the Holy Grail.

But it is his military capabilities that are most honoured today, not least in the Sri Lanka Army’s infantry regiment, The Gajaba Regiment, or the country’s Navy with its ship the SLNS Gajabahu. For Gajabahu did that rarest of things: he took the fight with the Cholas, to the Cholas, leading an army to southern India to liberate the 12,000 thousand Sinhalese prisoners seized in his father's reign. Ancient sources also mention other visits to Tamil kings, this time more peaceful. Trade too seems to have flourished. Excavations at the ancient (now partially underwater) port of Godavaya in the far south have unearthed his regulations regarding custom tolls – as well as a collection of seventy five thousand Roman coins. Almost little is known of his personal life, and nothing to explain why he was succeeded in 135 CE by his father or son-in-law, Mahallaka Naga.

Illustration Credit: The Sri Lanka Navy Ship SLNS Gajabahu courtsey of The Sri Lankan Navy

A photograph by an unknown English Photographer of the Gal Vihara Standing Buddhist Statue dating from 1870-90 . Public Domain.

With a Victorian era guest list that reads like Who’s Who of the time, this iconic hotel is the only one in Colombo that still enjoys direct sea access – though to bathe off its slim rocky beach to invite prescient thoughts of mortality. It started life as a modest Dutch Guesthouse before the opening of the Suez Canal turned the tickle of eastward bound Europeans into a river. Continually enlarged and upgraded, most notably by Thomas Skinner in 1894, it became the city’s top luxury meeting point attracting an international A List. Gandhi, Noel Coward, Che Guevara, Yuri Gagarin, Nixon, Prince Philip, and Elizabeth Taylor all booked rooms. Vivien Leigh sulked in her bedroom, sent home in disgrace by her husband Laurence Olivier. Little has changed since her repeated calls to room service: it is just as lovely, weathering a recent upgrade with rare good taste. It is the best place to Wedding Watch as it hosts around one thousand society weddings a year. Enjoy them as you nibble Battenburg cakes on the terrace, sip Pimm’s and watch the Crow Man scare away the birds.

Image: Public Domain.

In a fair just and equitable world, one would go to The Gallery Café simply to appreciate its stunning architecture. The business address of the architect Geoffrey Bawa, this beguiling building leads you ever deeper into peace, like a benign Pied Piper. Once through the gates, the humid decibels of Colombo fall mute.

As you walk through the building, the inner courtyard patrolled by languid koi, the calm cool rooms beyond and a garden and verandas beyond that, the hustle of the city evaporates. Surrounded by Ugly Sisters, this Cinderella of a building just keeps giving, for it now houses one of the more edible parts of Shanth Fernando’s Paradise Road empire, the café’s menu guaranteed to lock you in for several happy hours; and its walls, home to a changing gallery of contemporary Sri Lanka art, guaranteed to infuriate, delight or seduce you, depending on what is on show. Rarely does one building satisfy so many desires.

The seventh monarch (possibly) of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being wholly unclear.

Ganatissa is but a shadow in the list of Sri Lanaka’s early Vijayan kings. The odds on his very existence are about evens for most of the early documents omit his life altogether. However, scholars, worrying about the improbable length of King Pandu Kabhaya’s reign (437 to 367 BCE), have suggested that Ganatissa filled in the royal register between kings Pandu Kabhaya and Mutasiva.

There are many so-called garnet species, the reddish shades being the most popular, and the blues the rarest. The greater their ability to transmit light, the greater their value as a semi previous stone. They range in price from $500 to $7000 per carat. From the Pharaohs to Jackie Onassis Kennedy, the gemstone has long been a favourite of jewellers worldwide. Sri Lankan garnets span a wide spectrum of colours, from deep reds to vibrant oranges, gentle pinks, and even green.

Image courtesy of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

A mineral sand increasingly in demand, garnet sand is used widely across many industries as an abrasive. Although commercially relevant deposits of it exist in such areas in the south as Dondra and Hambantota, it remains little exploited in Sri Lanka.

Image courtsey of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

Once common throughout South and South East Asia, the Gaur, or Indian bison, is moving inexorably towards extinction, with a just 21,000 mature specimens still living. Related to yaks and water buffalo, they are the largest of all wild cattle and out ranked in size by other land mammals only by elephants, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus. The Ceylon Gaur (Bibos Sinhaleyus Deraniyagala) is a distinct sub species that used to be found in Sri Lanka but was last spotted by British adventurers in 1681 in the menagerie of King Rajasinghe II of Kandy. Proving its ability to juggle many varied priorities (political reform, economic stability, improved educational standards etc etc.), the Sri Lakan government recently proposed to its Indian counterpart that they send half a dozen gaur to the island as part of a reintroduction programme.

Image Public Domain.

Thanks to the extreme old age of its rocks (90% are between 500 to 2.5 million years old), Sri Lanka’s gems are so numerous as to often just wash out onto flood plains, and into rivers and streams. Indeed, the mining of alluvial deposits by simple water-winnowing river mining was for long the classic technique used to find gemstones, separating them out from the river sand and clay by simple sluicing in wicker baskets. Tunnel mining represents a more scalable technique. Typically, pits of 5 to 500 feet in depth are dug, with tunnels excavated horizontally from then. The clay, sand and gravel is then sluiced with water in conical baskets to separate out the heaver stones that then settle at the basket base. At a much more industrial level, backhoe earthmover machines, ablaze in their environmentally challenging acid yellow or orange livery, are used to excavate the top soil. Twenty five percent of the country’s total land area is potentially gem-bearing, but the greatest concentration of mining is around the town of Ratnapura which accounts for 65% of mined gems, the balance mostly coming from Elahera, a district in the North Central Province.

In the precise lexicon of intentional jewellers, there are just 4 precious stones: diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. All others – and these number some 200 – are judged semi-precious. Sri Lanka is home to 75 semi or precious gems – including two precious stones - rubies and sapphires, the latter being the gem that is unmistakably twinned with in popular imagination. Amongst its better known semi-precious stones are Spinels, Amethysts, Sapphires, Garnets, Rose Quartz, Aquamarines, Tourmalines, Agates, Cymophanes, Topazes, Citrines, Alexandrites, Zircons,and Moonstones. All are valued according to a strict criteria: Cut, Colour, Clarity, and Carat (weight). What marks out the precious stones is their hardness, as measured on the so-called Mohs scale. This ranks minerals on a scale of 1 to 10. Diamonds score 10; Rubies and Sapphires 9 and Emeralds 7.5-8. Only a diamond can scratch another diamond, but a Ruby, for example, can scratch an Emerald.

Sri Lankan Sapphires, the country’s principal precious stone, are usually blue but also come in a variety of other colours that depend on the chemical composition of the stone: variants of red, orange, yellow, green, purple; pink, gold sapphires, and lavender. Its green sapphires are its most distinctive, exhibiting a colour that is not found among the sapphires mined in other gem-producing countries. Rubies, classically distinguished by red tones, actually go through a gradient from pink to purple, to slightly brown. Sri Lakan Rubies are noted for their lighter red and pink colour.

The country’s gem mining recorded history reaches back to at least the 2nd century BCE, with the mention of a gem mine in The Mahavamsa. However, if biblical rumours of King Solomon’s wooing of the Queen of Sheba with gifts of priceless Sri Lankan gems, are to be believed, the country’s gem mines can be back dated at least another 700 years. In 550 CE a Greek trader, Cosmas, wrote that "the temples are numerous, and in one in particular, situated on an eminence, is the great hyacinth [amethyst or ruby], as large as a pine cone, the colour of fire, and flashing from a great distance, especially when catching the beams of the sun - a matchless sight". A later traveller to the island, Marco Polo, wrote in the 13th century CE that "the king of Ceylon is reputed to have the grandest ruby that was ever seen, a span in length, the thickness of a man's arm; brilliant beyond description, and without a single flaw. It has the appearance of glowing fire, and its worth cannot be estimated in money”. Hard on his heals was Ibn Batuta who noted that "in the Island of Ceylon rubies are found in all parts. The land is private property, and a man buys a parcel of it and digs for rubies. He finds white stones, deeply cracked, and it is inside these that the rubies are formed. He gives them to the lapidaries who scrape them down until they split away from the ruby stones. Some of them are red, some yellow, and some blue, which they call nailam (saffires)".

Today, the country’s gem industry is high regulated and its exports are one of the country’s main foreign revenue earners, with sales escalating from around $40 million in 1980 to over $473 million in 2022. This places it in 4th position, below that of Garments ($4.7 billion); Coffee, Tea & Spices ($1.6 billion); and Rubber ($1.06 billion). This phenomenal acceleration dates in part to two bouts of government intervention: the establishment of the State Gem Corporation in 1971 and the 1993 Gem and Jewellery Authority Act. By these moves, the government centralised and professionalised the issuing of gem-mining licenses and the leasing government land for mining. They extended control over sales and exporting and made it mandatory that gems discovered within mines could be sold arbitrarily; but must instead be presented at public auctions, with the government receiving a share of sales amounting to 2.5%. The industry’s value chain is a long one. Gem miners sell their stones to dealers, who sell the rough stones to cutter-polishers. Historically, these have usually been Ceylon Moors descendants of Arabians traders. The glittering stones are then sold to wholesalers and onto retailers, where the greatest profits are to be made. The Sri Lankan Export Development Board claims that right across this chain some 650,000 people are employed – through the figure is difficult to verify.

An illustration of a photograph by Alfred William Amandus Plate of gem mining around 1890. Public Domain.

Happily widespread, the Ceylon Gerbil (Tatera Indica Ceylonica) is a distinct variant of the Indian Gerbil. Well distributed across the island, it lives in small colonies inside nests lined with dry grasses at the end of deep labyrinthine burrows. It is notably unneighbourly, aggressive and territorial with gerbils from other colonies. Like most gerbils it is exhaustively fertile, with pregnancies lasting under a month that produce up to nine young - who will themselves reach sexual maturity within four months. It is tiny – little more than 4 centimetres head to tail and clothed in brownish grey fur, all the better to pass unnoticed.

Image courtsey of nature-southasia.blogspot.com.

The sixteenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 61st recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 254 – 267 CE.

One of three plotters (the other two being Sangha Tissa I and Siri Sangha Bodhi), Gothabhaya had conspired to kill the reigning king, Vijaya Kumara in 248 CE. Like his co-conspirators, he came from a more modest cadet branch of the Lambakanna Dynasty but was made of stern stuff. As the first of his murderous partners, Sangha Tissa I, was killed by the second, Siri Sangha Bodhi I, Gothabhaya set out to gain the crown in just the same tried and trusted way.

According to The Mahavaṃsa, he needn’t have bothered for Sangha Bodhi I killed himself in a manner that was both anatomically impossible and socially impressive. Quite how he really met his death remains a mystery. The important thing was that the king was dead, leaving Gothabhaya to rule. What the new king lacked in charm, charity, and religious tolerance, he made up for with the sort of firm government that took the fizz out of regicide. For 14 years he ruled it with the proverbial rod of iron. A man of deeply conservative religious beliefs, he was unimpressed by the Vajrayana movement, a form of tantric Buddhism that was making slim but noticeable appearances into his kingdom. The movement was closely aligned with Mahayana Buddhism and seen by many as incompatible with the Theravāda Buddhism that had been practiced on the island since the 3rd century BCE.

The king did all he could to thwart it, even banishing 60 monks for such beliefs. But what he kept out with one door slammed shut, he inadvertently let in with another. For he entrusted his son’s education to an Indian monk named Sanghamitta, a follower of Vaitulya Buddhism. This doctrinal strand was even more radical than the Vajrayana doctrine the king was so busy trying to eradicate. Like a time bomb, the impact of this private religious education on his successor, was set to go off the moment Gotabhaya died. His death, in 267 CE, left behind a divided country. Several ministers refused to participate in his funeral rites and his son and heir, Jetta Tissa I, a chip off the monstrous old block, had sixty of them rounded up, staking their impaled heads in a mournful circle around the old king’s body.

Illustration Credit: The Abhayagiri Monastery, whose monks King Gothabhaya banished for embracing the Vetulya doctrine. Photo credit: courtesy of Alchetron and taken before the stupa was restored.

The definitive jewel in the collection of excellently run Tangerine Group Hotels, The Grand Hotel was built by the Duke of Wellington’s adjutant, Sir Edward Barnes in 1828, a holiday home fit for the busy Colonial Governor he was. In his short time governing, he arranged the construction of the Colombo and Kandy road, the first census of the population, and introduced coffee to the island. By 1843 the home had become a hotel, to be added to over the decades with a Governor’s Wing; a Southern Golf Wing, Tudor facades; and all the other opulent necessities of a first class colonial hotel. Its Edwardian luxury is now mediated by such things as a Mindfulness Studio, a dizzying range of restaurants and bars, and gardens large enough to keep at bay the ever greater crowds who cleave to the cool climate of Nuwara Eliya.

A photograph by Alfred William Amandus Plate of The Grand Hotel in Nuwara Eliya, taken in 1890-1910. Public Domain.

Home to Dutch governors and British squaddies, The Grand Oriental Hotel was turned into a luxury billet back in 1875; and fights on still. Its bar offers one of the best views of Colombo Harbour.

An illustration by Unbekannt from the turn of the 20th century of The Grand Oriental Hotel in Colombo. Public Domain.

Graphite, also known as Plumbago, has long been a major mineral export for Sri Lanka, thanks largely to its exceptional purity. It is a key ingredient in lubricants, and lithium batteries and with the explosion of electric cars and electronics has seen demand growing exponentially. It is, of course, also used in pencils - as Sarvesh Murthi observed: “It is always better to write your feeling in GRAPHITE than in INK, as it’s much easier to erase them and start fresh.”

Image courtsey of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

A village with uncertain pretentions to becoming a town, Habarana is situated bang in the middle of the northern part of the island. It is the gateway to the Minneriya National Park, elephant safari central, where, at the right time of the year, the big beasts gather in their migrating hundreds.

An illustration of a photograph by Alfred William Amandus Plate of Hakgalla Gardens from the Lotus Pond, Nuwara Eliya in 1890s. Public Domain.

An illustration by Cornelis Steiger of Hammenhiel Fort. Public Domain.

Nestling in the heart of the hill country south of Ella, Haputale is a craggy cool world of lush tea plantations, and misty cloud-festooned mountains. The town is largely Tamil - yet also houses a miniature Anglican church, St. Andrew's, circa 1869; and, in an adjacent valley, an almost abandoned 1st BCE Buddhist cave temple, reached through the remains of an ancient Ambalama, its tiny stupa protected by overhanging rocks. From its famous pass the southern plains of the country open out, a luxuriant panorama of tea, tea, and tea. This was a view much enjoyed by Sir Thomas Lipton, the once penniless, probably gay, Glaswegian tea baron, who did so much to put the island’s tea into the living rooms of homes the world over. His Seat, literally a seat to sit down on, in order to enjoy the view, is now probably one of the most visited outdoor armchairs in the world, with tea-loving tourists flocking to perch on its planks. And just outside the little town is Adisham Hall, the faux Tudor country house folly built by a much later tea baron, Sir Thomas Villers.

Curiously Sri Lanka lacks rabbits – though it does have a hare. Just the one. And an endemic one too, a distinct variant of the Indian Hare. The Ceylon Black-Naped Hare (Lepus Nigricollis Singhala) is a mere fifty centimetres head to body, and distinguished by having a black patch on the back on its neck. It is notable also for its dozy daytime habit – being more of a night creature, leaving the day for sleeping alone in the grassland that is its preferred habitat. Blessed with excellent sight, hearing, and smell, it can usually outrun any would-be enemy; and remains happily widespread across the island.

Image courtsey of David Hosking.

Dating back between 800,00 to 100,000 years ago, the fossilised remains of a hippopotamus’s jawbone, showing the presence of a couple more teeth than exist in the current living hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), are all that is left to prove the once lively presence on Sri Lanka’s rivers of this great land mammal, the largest after the elephant. Hexaprotodon Sinhaleyus, a distinct sub species, probably fell afoul of early climate change when rainfall become significantly less heavy, so putting pressure on their preferred habitat.

Image courtsey of Kemonofriends.

Of Sri Lanka’s 10,000+ places listed as offering accommodation, the greater majority are privately let villas and apartments, supplemented by homestays. Less than a quarter of its accommodation is classified as a hotel – 2,500 in all. A third of these hotels are 4-star and less than 8% (200) are rated as 5-star.

For a small island still greatly overlooked by international visitors who are more accustomed to visit Thailand, the Maldives or India, this may seem more than sufficient – but most of the 200 5-star hotels are small private operations that focus on providing authentic boutique experiences rather than long corridors of identical bedrooms.

The hotel chains that dominate the rest of the world – Taj, Sheraton, Marriot, Starwood, Meridian, etc. – have yet to put in much of an appearance in Sri Lanka. Even so, as tourism roves forward on its somewhat uneven upward trajectory across the island, local chains – such as Jetwing, Cinnamon, Resplendent, Tangerine, Teardrop, Taru and Uga - are developing a growing reputation for exceptional hospitality that can be evenly experienced in any of their branded hotels.

Most hotel development has, of course, followed the tourists and so hugs the coastline from Negombo, near the airport, to Yala in the far south, with the greater number coalescing around Galle. A much more modest sprinkling of other 5-star hotel dusts such locations as Kandy and the cultural triangle, with a few outstanding examples reaching out into the north and east.

Although it is invidiously partial to pick out the best, here are the most likely contenders for happy stays in 2024.


COLOMBO

1. Colombo Court Hotel & Spa
Affordable, and very environmentally-minded, this much overlooked boutique hotel is within walking distance of many of Colombo’s nicest haunts. Sitting just off the traffic jam that is Duplication Road, it is a habitat of rare calm and tranquillity, its lush pool and rooftop bar among its many subtle delights.

2. Cinnamon Grand
The flagship hotel in a chain of Cinnamon Hotels, the Grand is a stone’s throw from the President’s Office in Colombo. Despite its rather corporate, blocky architecture, its secret weapon is its people. It tends to make a point of knowing who you actually are and what you really want. From lavish pools to flaky croissants, themed restaurants to battleship-large reception desks, it offers all you would hope for from a large, successful hotel.

3. Galle Face Hotel
With a Victorian era guest list that reads like Who’s Who of the time, this iconic hotel is the only one in Colombo that still enjoys direct sea access – though to bathe off its slim rocky beach to invite prescient thoughts of mortality. It started life as a modest Dutch Guesthouse before the opening of the Suez Canal turned the tickle of eastward bound Europeans into a river. Continually enlarged and upgraded, most notably by Thomas Skinner in 1894, it became the city’s top luxury meeting point attracting an international A List. Gandhi, Noel Coward, Che Guevara, Yuri Gagarin, Nixon, Prince Philip, and Elizabeth Taylor all booked rooms. Vivien Leigh sulked in her bedroom, sent home in disgrace by her husband Laurence Olivier. Little has changed since her repeated calls to room service: it is just as lovely, weathering a recent upgrade with rare good taste. It is the best place to Wedding Watch as it hosts around one thousand society weddings a year. Enjoy them as you nibble Battenburg cakes on the terrace, sip Pimm’s and watch the Crow Man scare away the birds.

4. The Grand Oriental Hotel
Home to Dutch governors and British squaddies, The Grand Oriental Hotel was turned into a luxury billet back in 1875; and fights on still. Its bar offers one of the best views of Colombo Harbour.

5. Hilton
Weathering a troubled birth, the Colombo Hilton was nevertheless one of the first globally branded hotels to wash up on Colombo’s then more parochial shores. It was finally launched in 1987, a year which, but for this, the country would chose not to dwell upon. Civil war raged, Jaffna was besieged and a serious of murderous race riots broke out. But to honour the hotel’s thirty years of indefatigably providing guests with all the best services of a major hotel (and one of the best brunches on offer in the city), a stamp and a first day cover were issued by the Sri Lanka Post in 2017.

6. Jetwing Seven
Jetwing is the island’s leading independent hotel chain with over thirty hotels and villas operating to standards and dining most other international hotel chains might be smart to pay attention to. Jetwing hotels promote strong environmental values; and their Colombo hotel offers one of the best sunset views in the city, its abundant bar enfolding a pool and languid seats from which to enjoy the urban panorama.

7. The Kingsbury
A splendidly straightforward 5-star hotel situated at the top end of Galle Face Green with views onto the Old Parliament, the sea, and the docks. Yue Chuan, one of its several restaurants, serves up some of the best Chinese food in Colombo.

8. Mount Lavinia Hotel
Built in 1806 by the British Governor, Sir Thomas Maitland, Mount Lavinia gained immediate fame for its not-so-secret tunnel linking the governor’s wine cellar to the home of his burgher lover. Successive governors would go on to use it as their out-of-town seaside retreat, enjoying its smart siting on a rock overlooking the sea and two pleasant beaches, restyling it in 1830 as an Italianate palace. With two hundred and seventy five rooms, it has been operating as a hotel since 1947, much loved as a wedding venue and brunching spot.

9. Maniumpathy
By checking in at the beautifully restored walawwa that is Maniumpathy, you can pretend that you are anywhere but in a big city. Cool, quiet, and calm, the little hotel, despite having changed hands multiple times, is a great option for anyone wishing to replace big brand hotels with something on a much more human a scale.

10. Number 11
Hidden down the 33rd Lane that turns off Colombo’s Bagatelle Road is Geoffray Bawa’s private town house, a rambling architectural marvel and museum which, whilst not run as a regular hotel, lets out two rooms to visitors. With demand far outstripping supply, getting to stay there can prove tricky – but lucky guests then have the great good fortune of having the entire museum, with its gorgeous assemblage of curios and masterpieces, all to themselves once the day trippers have gone.

11. Shangri-La
One of the milestones in Colombo’s journey from a overlooked and embattled post-Independence past into a more materialistically glamorous future was the creation of the high rise Shangri-La Hotel. Built by the Chinese as a sort of off-shoot of their Belt-and-Braces mission, it overlooks the sea at Galle Face Green with half a dozen bars and restaurants, and lavish bedrooms well able to match the best in any other globally branded five star hotel. Just a stones throw away is China’s greater investment in the country - Colombo International Financial City, a 300 acre, $15 billion, special economic zone reclaimed from the sea which, the suits claim that will be a place that “fuzes the culture and energy of a nation with best international practice.” Whilst the exact meaning of this penetrating solipsism is hard to unpick, and the planned architecture so modernistically predictable as to make it tricky to know whether you are in Dubai, Shanghai, or London Docklands, Pricewaterhouse Cooper insists it will add almost twelve billion dollars to the country’s annual GDP.

12. Taj Samudra
One of the oldest luxury hotels in Colombo, the Taj was constructed before astonishing premiums was put on the capital’s sea facing land. It therefore enjoys a rare calming green skirt of lush gardens and wings that go out rather than up. Scion of the Taj India chain, it offers its guests everything they might hope for from a massive corporate hotel, including excellent restaurants (especially YUMI), a useful hair salon – and, hidden in its gardens, all that is left of the once mighty Colombo Club, established in 1871 for the purpose of establishing and maintaining reading, billiard, card, and refreshment rooms in Colombo for the benefit of the members”.

13. Tintagel
The graceful Colombo residence of the Bandaranaike families and scene of the assassination of S.W.R. Bandaranaike, Tintagel is now an impressive boutique hotel run by the Paradise Road designer and entrepreneur, Udayshanth Fernando. If sinking into unquestionable peace and luxury is your principal need, this is the place for you.

14. Uga Residence
The landmark hotel in a small and growing local chain, Uga Residence is a 19th century mansion that has morphed delightfully into a lavish boutique hotel. Set like a delightful navel in the heart of the city, its bar offers an inexhaustible range of whiskeys.


CENTRAL

1. The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel, Kandy
An art deco plantation manor close to Kandy, the Elephant Orphanage, Sigiriya and Dambulla, The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel has been described as “a little slice of heaven and a big dose of serenity.” Surrounded by jungle, and its own plantations of spices, timber, coconut, and rubber, it mixes collections of contemporary Sri Lankan art with European Modernism; and fuses classic Sri Lankan food with familiar European dishes. Restored with the help of the celebrated Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatte, the hotel is set beside the Galagedera Pass, where the Kandyan King Kirti Sri Rajasinha thwarted the attempt the Dutch East India army to invade the island’s last independent kingdom in 1765. The hotel is also the home of The Ceylon Press, a digital publishing initiative set up to tell the story of Sri Lanka.

2. Helga’s Folly, Kandy
No list of Sri Lankan hotels would ever be complete without Helga Blow’s famous anti-hotel. Sri Lanka’s last great eccentric, Helga Blow, Dior model, and niece of the eminent architect Minette de Silva, returned to her homeland in 1988. Seeking therapeutic distractions from a tortuous divorce, she set about decorating her home with the extraordinary murals that still adorn every spare inch of wall space. Home became a hotel and guests can still find Madame Helga (as in the Kelly Jones Stereophonics song), walking the lush corridors of her eyrie in Philip Treacy hats, doyenne of “an eccentric collision between Faulty Towers and Absolutely Fabulous”.

3. The Kandy House, Kandy
Built by the last Chief Minister to the Kandyan kings just before the British overran the kingdom, The Kandy House is discreet, deeply peaceful luxury hotel outside Kandy. One of the first really outstanding boutique hotels on the island, it attracts such guests as Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and Princess Michael of Kent and Madhur Jaffrey, the grand dame of Indian cookery whose Sri Lankan Fish Curry remains the apogee for any ambitious pisces cisternina.

4. Queen's Hotel Kandy
The crown has slipped slightly at this once grandest of grand hotels. Built by the last King of Kandy before being grabbed by the British Governor, The Queen’s Hotel opened as one of the island’s top hotels in 1869 attracting the great, the good and the wickedly wealthy. Its bar served Lord Mountbatten of Burma and every luminary before with rounds of cocktails and peppery gins. From its priceless position next to the Temple of the Tooth, guests can watch the birds on the Sea of Milk, as the lake opposite is called. Now more of an elderly stolid county maiden than a glamorous queen, it remains a decent and charming place, especially for those in search of shade, beer, and a rest from the relentless tide of busy Kandyans shopping and sightseeing just beyond its doors.

5. The Suisse Hotel, Kandy
Originally built in the 17th century by a minister of the Kandyan king, the Suisse hotel got its name when it was sold to Madam Burdayron, an intrepid Swiss hotelier. Lord Mountbatten gave her a block booking from 1943-45 when he took over the entire hotel as the Headquarters of the South East Asia Command. It is now run as a ninety room hotel owned by the Ceylon Hotels Corporation, standing in four acres of gardens, and offering a service and décor that is serviceably vintage.


SOUTH

1. Amangalla, Galle
For one hundred and forty years Galle’s most majestic hotel was known as the New Oriental Hotel before being rebaptised in 2005 as the Amangalla. Its real date stretches back to 1684 when it was the headquarters of the Dutch. Now a glorious heritage hotel, with deep, humbling verandas, it has wisely chosen to restrict its number of rooms to better focus on the sort of luxury you know you deserve the moment you find it.

2. Amanwella, Tangalle
Amanwella is the sort of hotel that guests often chose to arrive at by seaplane. One of 34 Aman hotels spread across 20 countries, it has a deep knowledge of how to best please its demanding guests. Shy celebrities, discarded Western prime ministers - all have found their way to this uber stylish retreat of infinity pools and gourmet menus that overlook the golden beaches of Godellawela near Tangalle.

3. Cape Weligama, Weligama
One of Resplendent Ceylon’s Relais & Châteaux hotels, Cape Weligama is made up of 39 villas and suites gathered loosely together, village style, on a headland overlooking Weligame Bay opposite Mirissa. Expect nothing less than the best.

4. Fort Bazaar, Galle
A seventeenth century merchant’s townhouse in downtown Galle Fort Bazzar is now home to a boutique hotel of handsome guestrooms, delicious food, and verandas from which to watch the busy world worry past.

5. The Fort Printers, Galle
A small eighteenth century building, Fort Printer’s is now run as a boutique hotel. Its restaurant serves some of the very best food on the island, a dazzling gustation played out on Sri Lankan, Lebanese, and Pakistani themes.

6. The Fortress Resort & Spa, Galle
Situated near Galle, this seaside boutique, overlooking sandy beaches and stilt fishermen, is spacious, luxurious, and calming. It polished bedrooms, yoga and excellent menu foster such as sense of well-being as to bring even Lazarus back to life, where he to drop by unexpectedly.

7. Galle Fort Hotel
A gem merchant’s grand mansion; RAF barracks; post office; bakery; lapidary; and playground for local cricketers - this small, ultra-luxurious, boutique hotel in downtown Galle saw many iterations before it settled most happily down upon its present one.

8. Kahanda Kanda, Galle
Kahanda Kanda is the star hotel in a small group of luxury South Coast boutique hotels (The KK Collection) founded by George Cooper, a British interior designer. Its two siblings are The Villa Bentota, and KK Beach. Kahanda Kanda, perched on a very private hill near Koggala Lake, is an indulgence of sequestered English country style villas that have happily woken up in a more tropical wonderland than Hampshire, Harrogate, or Hartlepool.

9. The Last House, Tangalle
Said to be the last building created by Asia’s famous architect Geoffrey Bawa, the Last House overlooks a sandy beach near Tangalle, its capacious gardens enclosing a calm and beautiful building of just five bedrooms that offers every necessary luxury.

10. The Long House, Bentota
The most glamorous of a collection of Taru villas and hotels, The Long House overlooks the sea in Bentota, its artfully designed spaces and rooms, gardens and menus offering all that is needed to satisfy a seaside sojourn.

11. Lunuganga, Bentota
You can now do better than briefly visit Geoffry Bawa’s country house estate – you can stay there too. “ Each vista,” wrote Michael Ondaatje, “each location feels like another elegy or another voice—the first person, then the third person, the vernacular, then the classical. You discover you wish to be at one location at noon, another at twilight, some when you are young, others later in life.” The estate stretches across a peninsula, the lagoon water of Dedduwa Lake on both sides; and views of water dominating the gardens as much as the many statues do - classical and animal, urns, pots, and follies. The house itself gazes out through the branches of a massive frangipani tree onto its sequestered landscape, the hotel side of it now managed by Teadrop Hotels, a local chain that knows all that is needed to be known about comfort.

12. Malabar Hill, Weligama
Ten very discreet villas make up this luxury retreat high on a hill surrounded by paddy fields and less than three miles from Weligama’s surf crazy beach. From its menus to its infinity pool, the hotel is beautifully thought through, a gloriously successful expression of hospitality and striking architecture.

13. Owl and the Pussycat Hotel & Restaurant, Galle
Thalpe’s homage to Edward Lear provides everything you might want from a small boutique seaside hotel. Overlooking the ocean, its pool and restaurant, bedrooms and open spaces are just the place to sit back “hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, (to dance) by the light of the moon”. Lear himself made a brief visit to the island in 1874, travelling by train, mail coach and one-horse trap to the South, Ratnapura, Colombo and Kandy, painting his way from place to place and leaving behind 76 landscapes that beautifully capture the alluring charm of the tropics to a jaded western eye.

14. Pedlar's Manor
A stylish private hotel created within an old manor; Pedlar's Manor is located in Unawatuna near Galle. It has but a handful of rooms, a heartfelt collection of vintage cars and the promise of almost-perfect peace in what has become one of the busiest and most visited sections of the Sri Lankan south.

15. The Sun House, Galle
The ideal place to avoid the tourist crowds of Galle – and yet still be as close to it as any lover, The Sun House was built by a Scottish spice merchant in the 1860s. Elegantly casual, with gardens of frangipani and an enviable menu, it is the kind of hotel that truly makes itself your home.

16. Wild Coast Tented Lodge, Yala
Described as “a chic safari lodge,” this cluster of cocoon-like seed pod ocean facing villa-etts lies adjacent to the famous Yala National Park. Whilst offering both utter seclusion and all the amenities of a luscious hotel, it also has on hand a well-informed team of young naturalists to help you make sense of the wildlife.


TEA COUNTRY

1. Amba Estate Sri Lanka, Ella
Just a short drive out of Ella lies the Amba Estate, which rather modestly defines itself as a farm stay. Set amidst lofty mountains, it is much more than that – a 130 acre organic farm, the centre of the growing artisanal tea movement on the island and a true social enterprise that delivers on its stated mission: “to maximise local employment and incomes, while preserving and restoring the natural environment.” With stunning walks and tea tasting like no other, a stay here gives you all the pleasure of earning a gold star, with none of the accompanying and often irksome typically effort.

2. Ceylon Tea Trails, Hatton
Established by Resplendent Ceylon, Ceylon Tea Trails is a rare Sri Lankan inclusion in Relais & Châteaux’s list of Leading Hotels. The mini chain specialises in super luxury hospitality and has five properties across the island. Tea Trails, near Hatton, comprises 5 separate planter’s bungalows perched at 1,250 metres and overlooking a working tea estate and is the kind of place Louis XV might have dropped into for a decent cup of tea, had his armies ever strayed out of India in the 18 th century.

3. The Grand Hotel, Nuwara Eliya
The definitive jewel in the collection of excellently run Tangerine Group Hotels, The Grand Hotel was built by the Duke of Wellington’s adjutant, Sir Edward Barnes in 1828, a holiday home fit for the busy Colonial Governor he was. In his short time governing, he arranged the construction of the Colombo and Kandy road, the first census of the population, and introduced coffee to the island. By 1843 the home had become a hotel, to be added to over the decades with a Governor’s Wing; a Southern Golf Wing, Tudor facades; and all the other opulent necessities of a first class colonial hotel. Its Edwardian luxury is now mediated by such things as a Mindfulness Studio, a dizzying range of restaurants and bars, and gardens large enough to keep at bay the ever greater crowds who cleave to the cool climate of Nuwara Eliya

4. Jetwing St Andrew's, Nuwara Eliya
The Sri Lankan hotel chain, Jetwing, has made a potent name for itself by rolling out outstandingly good modern hotels. But - at least once - it has combined the best of this tradition with a rare historical twinning. St Andrew's, its Nuwara Eliya hotel, is one of the country’s most iconic heritage hotels, and began life in 1875 as the Scot’s Club. A somewhat tortuous life then lay before it - as a hotel flickering between boom and bust, a rest centre for soldiers and sailors, a refuge for Tamil labourers – before finally being bought by Jetwing in 1987. Since then, it has gone from strength to elegant strength, big enough to be impressive but small enough to be personal

5. Living Heritage, Koslanda
Tucked away inside an area known as God’s Forest, Living Heritage is a most personal hotel, a one-off home-from-home type of place close to Adam’s Peak and Lipton’s Seat. With understated elegance and a focus on ecology sustainability, it connects its guests most gently to its wonderful surrounding wilderness.

6. 98 Acres Resort & Spa, Ella
Its panoramic lookouts stretch across and beyond its own 98 acres of tea near Ella that surround this organic grunge-lux hotel. Made up of a series of chalets perched on a hilltop, its style is laid out in generous helpings of real wood, granite, railways sleepers and large windows whose sweeping views will out compete most other holiday photographs.


EAST

1. Jetwing Surf
The 20 ocean facing cabanas of Jetwing Surf offer a deliciously comfortable and luxurious bolt hole from which to enjoy the surfing rigors of Arugam Bay.

2. The Spice Trail, Arugam Bay
Arugam Bay, rated as one of the top ten surf destinations in the world, remains – just – one of the surf world’s better kept secrets – but now is now beginning to attracts plane loads of dudes with boards set upon a week or so skimming its waves. For most hotels, it remains frontier country but for those who wish to go a little further up the pecking order of comfort and luxury, it offers The Spice Trail, a hotel on the main beach with an ethos of local provision as to gladden even the hardest environmental heart.

3. Uga Bay, Pasikuda
The beaches of the far eastern seaboard are long, sandy, and still relatively little visited, though a number of group-oriented resorts have set up shop on its coves. The best however is not in the least bit group oriented. Uga Bay in Pasikuda is a rare hotel in the area because it knows all about the magic “X” in “luxury” – as you would expect from an Uga branded hotel. Simple, sophisticated, and scenic, it gives you access to all the best sea sports, from a base of reassuring indulgence.


NORTH

1. Heritance Kandalama
The Kandalama Hotel is the indubitable jewel in a small group of large hotels owned by Aitken Spence and operated under the brand name Heritance. Aitken Spence is one of the island’s most conscious conglomerates, with businesses in such diverse fields as plantations, garments, financial services – and, of course, hospitality. Overlooking a lake near Dambulla, the Kandalama has gained much of its reputation for being one of the unquestioned masterpieces created by the architect Geoffry Bawa. Built in 1981, the hotel is literally wrapped around a cliff and so well planted that it is all but impossible to tell where nature ends, and the reception desk begins. Across one kilometre, its one hundred and fifty two rooms rise up seven floors almost invisibly, the entire exterior of the building clad in jungle vegetation. An architectural marvel, it has minimal environmental impact – yet within is everything you would expect of tropical modernism: simple, stunning, efficient, open. Its views over the great lake below are unmatched, as is the entertainment value of having a shower on the top floor with monkeys gambolling outside the windows.

2. Jetwing Lagoon, Negombo
Facing the ocean on the further reaches of the Negombo Lagoon, Jetwing Lagoon is the best positioned and most restful of one of a number of Jetwing hotels in Negombo. It owes much of its stunning design to the fact that it was one of the first creations of the architect Geoffrey Bawa back in 1965, but it owes to Jetwing its abiding fine hospitality.

3. Jetwing Mahesa Bhawan, Jaffna
Getting one of the (just) four rooms at this Jetwing villa is as good a reason to be happy as any. An art deco villa tucked away in Jaffna city, it serves the sort of delicious Tamil food that necessitates a glad rescheduling of the rest of the day’s activities. Few tourists venture as far north as Jaffna, but its dazzling history, kovils, shallow seas and fishermen’s villages make it the sort of place wiser visitors might chose to retire to forever.

4. Uga Ulagalla, Anuradhapura
Only those who have spent time in Anuradhapura can be said to get a real insight into Sri Lanka. The ruins of this once-mighty capital are mesmerising and breathtaking - and Uga Ulagalla offers a rare touch of luxury within which to reflect on all that you might have seen. Set inside almost 60 acres of garden, this restored 150 year old mansion is as good a reason to hope that the nascent Uga brand might go on creating more such lovely hotels.

5. Wallawwa, Negombo
Despite being most conveniently close to Colombo’s Bandaranaike Airport, Wallawwa is as far removed from a typical airport hotel as it is possible to get. An 18th century manor house, run with precision elegance by Teardrop Hotels, its eighteen rooms are the perfect place to land into if your flight to the island has proven to be too bumpy.

6. Water Garden, Sigiriya
Created by the architect Channa Deswatte, and within sight of the vast rock fortress of Sigiriya, the Water Gardens comprises 30 villas artfully arranged around a series of lakes. Minimalist, low-key and calm, it is a happy place within which guests can recover from the often life-threatening climb to the top of Sigiriya Rock.

Image: Galle Face Hotel, Public Domain.

The forty-second monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 35 CE – 35 CE; and then, after an interregnum, 38 CE – 44 CE.

Nephew of the slain Vijayan King, Amandagamani Abhaya, Ilanaga managed to dethrone the sitting monarch, Sivali, King, Amandagamani Abhaya’s daughter in 35 CE. In so doing he turbo-charged the unrest and insurrection that was beginning to terminally eat away at the kingdom. Within months Ilanaga had fallen out with the Lambakarna clan, a most significant noble family within his court. In the consequent turmoil he had to flee the country, leaving the Lambakarna in nominal and no doubt, fluctuating charge. Hunted somewhat ineptly, Ilanaga managed to hide in hill country, before catching a ship to south India. He was to return 3 years later at the head of a borrowed Chola army to take back his throne in 38 CE. His reign lasted another 7 years ending with his surprisingly natural death in 44 CE.

Ilmenite, extracted from ‘black gold’ mineral sand is a major industrial mineral produced in Sri Lanka for export. Its deposits also contain relevant amounts of Rutile and Zircon – all ingredients used to make Titanium Dioxide, a raw material required for the productions of paints, plastic, and paper industries; and titanium metal. It is extracted from beach sand mined at Pulmoddai.

Image courtsey of Rob Lavinsky.

An illustration of The Issurumuniya by Felse taken in 1926. Public Domain.

A sturdy, burgeoning town on the indices of major roads to Colombo, Katunayake, Gampaha, Negombo and Kandy, Ja-Ela is, more interestingly something of an etymological puzzle. “Ela” in Singhala means stream – but “Ja” in both Malay and Singhala, means Javanese. Quite how the name came to be is a trail long gone cold. Buddhist invaders from Java are recorded as having briefly ruled over Jaffna; and possibly elsewhere on the island; whilst later Dutch colonists favoured Sri Lanka as a place of exile for the many Javan chieftains they destoned as they conquered Indonesia. Little but such tantalising cross cultural names remain and almost none of the descending Malay Moors speak Sri Lankan Malay today. To paraphrase Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “tomorrow we disappear into the unknown. This account I am transmitting …may be our last word to those who are interested in our fate.”

“It is far better,” wrote Tipu Sultan, shortly before being killed by the future Duke of Wellington in Srirangapatna in 1799, “to live like a lion for a day then to live like a jackal for hundred years”. The Sultan, who, of course, saw himself as the lion, was mere passing on the relentlessly poor press releases the beasts had endured since creation - in Arabic holy writ, the Bible; even in Buddhist Pali literature which depicts them as inferior, greedy, cunning creatures. Small wonder then that their numbers face increasing pressure. The future of the Sri Lankan Jackel (Canis Aureus Lanka) generates little of the media alarm that surrounds other, more politically correct species. Much threatened by habitat loss and infected by dog borne rabies, the Sri Lankan Jackel is second only to the Leopard in the pecking order of island predators. A skilled hunter, slightly smaller than a wolf, it is, like them, a pack animal and scavenger, and will eat anything from rodents, birds, and mice to young gazelles, reptiles, and even fruit.

Image courtsey of Chandika Jayaratne.

An illustration by Cornelis_Steiger of Jaffna Fort. Public Domain.

An early 20th century French illustration of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, the sacred Bo tree in Anuradhapura. Public Domain.

The seventeenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 62nd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 267 – 277 CE.

Jetta Tissa I was the son of the previous king, Gothabhaya, and something of a chip off the monstrous old block. To deal with unruly minsters at his father’s funeral, he had sixty of them rounded up, staking their impaled heads in a mournful circle around the old king’s body in 267 CE. This display of strong-armed governance under yet another king was probably precisely what was needed to help keep at bay the lurking regicidal tendencies inherent in the Lambakanna dynasty.

Jetta Tissa’s decade long rule is unlikely to have been a comfortable ride for those around him. Indeed, states the Mahavamsa Chronicle “he came by the surname: the Cruel” It then elaborates, with evident dismay, the steps he took to move patronage and resource from the orbit of Theravada Buddhism to Vaitulya Buddhism. Even so, he was to die in 277 CE, just the 29th reigning Sri Lankan monarch out of a list of 62 to have died a natural death. Modest as this rounds, it was still something of a major achievement.

Illustration Credit: Muthiyangana Raja Maha Vihara in Badulla town which was renovated by Jettha Tissa I, King of Anuradhapura. Image courtesy of Lankapura.

The seventeenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 62nd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 267 – 277 CE.

Jetta Tissa I was the son of the previous king, Gothabhaya, and something of a chip off the monstrous old block. To deal with unruly minsters at his father’s funeral, he had sixty of them rounded up, staking their impaled heads in a mournful circle around the old king’s body in 267 CE. This display of strong-armed governance under yet another king was probably precisely what was needed to help keep at bay the lurking regicidal tendencies inherent in the Lambakanna dynasty.

Jetta Tissa’s decade long rule is unlikely to have been a comfortable ride for those around him. Indeed, states the Mahavamsa Chronicle “he came by the surname: the Cruel” It then elaborates, with evident dismay, the steps he took to move patronage and resource from the orbit of Theravada Buddhism to Vaitulya Buddhism. Even so, he was to die in 277 CE, just the 29th reigning Sri Lankan monarch out of a list of 62 to have died a natural death. Modest as this rounds, it was still something of a major achievement.

Illustration Credit: A reconstruction of the Lohapasada Brazen Palace Lowamahapaya whihc was restored by Jettha Tissa I, King of Anuradhapura; image courtsey of 3D Warehouse

The twentieth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 65th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 332 – 341 CE.

Jettha Tissa II inherited a secure throne and a prosperous country from his brother, King Sirimeghavanna. Little is known of his reign except that it is likely that he was able to extend the dynasty’s reputation for good governance over his entire reign. He was to die after a nine year reign, the 32nd reigning Sri Lankan monarch to have died a natural death.

The Ruwanweli Stupa in Anuradhapura that was built in 140 BCE and would have been a deeply familiar sight to Jettha Tissa II, King of Anuradhapura. Photo courtesy of Hand Luggage Only.

Illustration by S Shepherd & C Bourne of Jewellers of Galle in 1872. Public Domain.

A 19th century French engraving of Jewish women in Ceylon. Public Domain.

A Sinhala term for a provincial secretariat.

A Sinhala term for a governmental assistant who helps or supports a government agent or the provincial secretariat.

Snug within its mountainous walls, the kingdom of Kandy resisted colonial occupation until the British tricked their way inside, in February 1815. An ancient Singhalese prophesy had foretold that no foreigner would ever rule the kingdom if it was unable to piece its mountains. And so, when constructing the 1820 road from Colombo to Kandy, the British did just that, choosing, it is said, to include a tunnel on the road – the Kadugannawa Pass, a small section of pierced rock for which the little village of Kadugannawa claims its gentle fame. Many dispute the veracity of the story, but it has a wily charm about it and so deserves to be true even if it is not.

The construction of the road itself, a mere five years after capturing the kingdom and the country, was something of an engineering feat – and one carried out by the relatively junior Captain William Dawson. Although he never saw the completion of his work, being bitten by a poisonous snake three years before it was completed, his memory lives on in the village’s Dawson Tower, erected in his honour, and still standing. A wayside Ambalama, or resting place for weary travellers, was also erected in the village which has, since the opening of the National Railway Museum in 2009 also become a favoured place for ferroequinologists, eager to photograph old motors, trains, rail autos, trolleys, carriages, and other railway memorabilia not still used on the current railway grid.

A Sinhala term for the standard coins issued in the 1st and 2nd century CE by the Anuradhapuran kingdom. Also known as kahapana, they were made of various metals and so differed significantly in their weight.

Half way between Tangalle and Hambatota lies the island’s oldest bird sanctuary – Kalametiya. From November to March its thousands of acres of mangrove, lagoon and wetland provide twitchers with the best possible opportunities to spot some 150 species from Black-Capped and Stork-Billed Kingfishers, Brahminy Kites and Reef Herons to Jungle Fowl and Glossy Ibis.

On the edge of the vast Puttalam Lagoon, running up the island’s western seaboard, and facing inland is the coastal town of Kalpitiya. Once a beneficial participant in the pre and early Medieval maritime trade that ran from SE Asia to the Horn of Africa by way of India, the town became a notable part of Portuguese Ceylon in the early 17th CE before passing into Dutch hands and equipped with a star fort in 1667.

Almost all this early history-in-stone is now a wreck, fragile archaeological lines demarking the boundaries of barracks, a prison, warehouses, a Jesuit chapel, a commander’s, house, and a graveyard. The church font stands there still, surrounded by a few forsaken gravestones. Though of little value as a harbour, Kalpitiya nevertheless commanded the entrance to Puttalam harbour which bestowed on it a certain modest authority, later exploited by the Dutch to help maintain their monopoly on cinnamon. The coconut groves and salted fish that provided it with its basic economy linger on, though today the area is being rediscovered by tourists lured by the prospect of kitesurfing and scuba diving, dolphin and whale watching. Parts of it have even been declared a marine sanctuary, from whose reefs, and swamps, mangrove and dunes live a wide variety of marine life – including the elusive and almost extinct. Dugong.

A photograph by Alfred William Amandus Plate of the Banyan Tree at Kalutara around the 1890s. Public Domain.

A Sinhala term for the self-selected or appointed headman of a group of labourers in the plantation sector.

The thirty ninth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 30 CE – 33 CE.

Succeeding to the Anuradhapuran throne by (doubtful) virtue of murdering his brother, Amandagamani Abhaya, Kanirajanu Tissa’s own reign terminated after just 3 suspiciously short and turbulent years when in 33 CE, Chulabhaya, Amandagamani Abhaya’s son suddenly became king. For all but the very short sighted, Kanirajanu Tissa’s abrupt death made it abundantly clear that the Vijayan dynasty were more focused on forwarding their own self-destruction than they were on ruling their country.

The sixth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 51st recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 165 - 193.

The reliable historical record is mute on the reign of Kanittha Tissa, except to say that he was the brother of the late king, Bhatika Tissa, and the son of King Mahallaka Naga. The reign was apparently calm and uneventful, and was to last 4 years longer than that of Bhatika Tissa’s. “No news is good news,” noted a later English king renowned for being “the 'wisest fool in Christendom.” And so one might assume of this indistinct reign. Certainly, in the years that followed, the administration would have looked – along with 4 of the 5 previous ones, as the lush salad days of the Lambakarnas. Kanittha Tissa’s successor, Cula Naga, was not so fortunate.

Illustration Credit: The Abayagiriya Rathna Prasada said to have built by Kanittha Tissa, King of Anuradhapura; image courtsey of Theeshya Dulmini

A small island and harbour town north east of Jaffna, Karainagar has seen cross border footfall since before records began. To the north stands a lighthouse built by the British in 1916; and to the south Fort Hammenhiel, a Portuguese-cum-Dutch fort that guarded the entrance to the Jaffna peninsula until repositioned by the British as a maximum security prison; a hospital for infectious diseases and finally a base for Special Operations. After Independence, it was used a prison for JVP prisoners, including (in 1971) Rohana Wijeweera, before being taken over by the Sri Lankan Navy as a place to detain errant sailors. It has now become a luxury hotel, where, its management claim, “a feeling of exclusivity is rampart;” and where guests “can experience real time living and sleeping within an actual cell.”

A Sinhala term for the Sinhalese caste of fishermen.

An illustration of the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya taken by an unknown photographer in 1880. Public Domain.

The twentieth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 109 BCE – 103 BCE.

Inheriting the throne from his Vijayan brother, Lanja Tissa, in 109 BCE, Khallata Naga’s reign was a textbook of misery from its rebellious start to its abrupt and homicidal finish just 6 years later. From the outset he found himself unexpectedly busy quelling rebellions initiated by his own family – but to no avail. He was killed by his own chief general just 6 years later, his death doing much to normalize the treason, regicide, and rebellion that was to later bring down the Vijayan dynasty itself.

The 3rd of the Six Dravidian invaders of the Pandiyan Dynasty of South India and the 74th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE).

Acquiring the throne by dint of assassination, Khudda Parinda terminated his bother Parindu’s reign before it was even a year old. He himself was to reign for a suspiciously short six years, though there is no mention in the ancient chronicles that his own death was anything but natural. It is highly probable that his actual rule would have extended over a very foreshortened version of the original Anuradhapura Kingdom’s boundaries for by now the island had become enflamed by anti-Pandiyan resistance, led by Sri Lankan Moriyan rebel leader, Dhatusena, from his base in the south of the island.

Illustration credit: Pandyian Emblam courtsey of Quora

A Sinhala term for a masked drama.

An historical Sinhala term for the administrative unit of a province of the Kandyan kingdom. It was later used under British rule to describe a revenue district, overseen by a Mudaliyar in low country districts or a or Korale Mahaththaya in upcountry districts.

Illustration of a watercolour of Kosgoda Beach from 1835. Public Domain.

An illustration by Cornelis Steiger of the interior of the church in Jaffna Fort, seen from the South side. Public Domain.

The eighth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 53rd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 195 -196 CE.

Kuda Naga was to gain his throne by murdering his brother, Cula Naga. By so doing, he ushered in a period of deeply unstable government that was to last until 254 CE – 59 years - and was to count himself as one of the greatest losers. His act of regicide must have earned some considerable censure for he himself was murdered after barely a year by his own brother-in-law, Siri Naga I.

Illustration Credit: The tusker and swastika is a small Copper coin. On one side of the coin, there is an image of a walking tusker, a stupa drawn using three half-moons, a swastika and a Bo tree with three branches inscribed in a square. On the flipside, there is a swastika, a trident, and a stupa. The coin would have been in circulation through the early Anuradhapura era including during the reign of Kuda Naga, King of Anuradhapura. Photo credit: The Central Bank of Dri Lanka.

The twenty-ninth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 50 BCE – 47 BCE.

Kuda Thissa, step nephew to the previous king, Choura Naga, and his now-widowed queen ,Anula, was to enjoy his throne for just a few years. His uncle, Choura Naga, had met his end from a draft of poison administered by Queen Anula, and the very same was to happen to Kuda Thissa, who departed this earth from a surfeit of poison in 47 BCE.

In the blandest of terms, a Kumarihaami might be cautiously described as an elderly lady who enjoys considerable influence within her family and community. But this in no way captures the degree of social richness, and power - shot through with often obstinate and glittering eccentricity - that is a proper Kumarihaami. A cross between a dowager duchess and an exiled Queen, her word is law and her recommendations ignored at your very considerable peril. Nancy Aster, the Empress Dowager Cixi or the fictional Dowager Countess of Grantham in “Downtown Abby” are all good foreign examples. Sri Lankan examples today can be found in any town or village on the island. Or, better still, on the pages of many a contemporary Sri Lankan novel, not least Ashok Ferrey’s “The Ceaseless Chatter of Demons.”

A Sinhala term for dried fish, most typically sourced historically and in the present day from the Maldives as Maldive fish, and used as a key ingredient in many Sri Lankan dishes.

The thirty fifth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of her reign being 42 BCE – 20 BCE.

With the ascension of the monkish Kutakanna Tissa to the Vijayan throne a modicum of stability returned to Anuradhapuran politics. Having had his murderous predecessor, Queen Anula, burned alive in her own palace, Kutakanna Tissa settled down for 18 apparently uneventful years before dying, peaceably, in 20 BCE.

An illustration of a photograph by Alfred William Amandus Plate of Lace Makers in the 1890s. Public Domain.

Governing from 66 CE to 436 CE, the Lambakarna were Sri Lanka’s second recorded royal dynasty, carrying the country into what historians call “the common era” and helping to more deeply embed a unique Singhalese culture across the entire island.

Originating possibly in India, it is likely that the Lambakarnas claimed descent from Sumitta - a prince who formed part of the escort that had brought the Bodhi-tree from India in 250 CE. From this botanical pilgrimage, they would go on to become one of the island’s great barons, alongside other such families as Moriyan, Taracchas and Balibhojak. The Lambakarnas’ own power derived from their position as hereditary guardians or secretaries to the king. They took a prominent part in religious ceremonies. But there was more to them than merely carrying coronation parasols and flags. They were connected to the military, to weapon manufacture and, as writers, must have been involved in much of the important administration of the kingdom.

The Lambakarnas managed the transition from one of several aristocratic families to ruling family with what at first appeared to be consummate ease. After the ruinous excesses of the last Vijayans, the new dynasty seemed to grip the one fundamental axiom of successful kingship: govern well, live long. They were to rule all or much of the island (depending on the period) over two distinct periods.

The first of these (The First Period) was to last for 369 years, through the reigns of 26 monarchs, from 67 CE to 436 CE.

It took the dynasty a blissfully long 126 years before regicide, that most corrosive of leadership viruses, to catch up with it in 193 CE. The sickness lasted for six decades, during which time being a king most typically meant an early and random appointment with reincarnation.

Matters appeared to stabilised from 254 CE. For 116 more years kings came and went with calm succession. But then, once more, the regicide virus reappeared - this time with a more comprehensively malign impact. For six more decades the country drifted as kings most typically succeeded one another at the point of a sword or a draft of poison. The invasion, when it came in 436 CE, put a one-year sell by date on the Lambakarna’s last king. King Mittasena was to enjoy his crown for just a year. Decades of focusing on the succession rather the defence or betterment of the country had left the kingdom so insufficiently capable as to be the perfect sitting target for the country’s fourth invasion from Tamil Nadu. It was the first serious Tamil invasion the Lambakarna dynasty had to face – the previous three being catastrophes that the previous Vijayan rulers had endured. But it was to be their last too. Facing an implacable Tamil army, the dynasty imploded, ceding the kingdom to seventeen years of foreign occupation and several more years of interregnal anarchy.

The Lambakarnas had ruled their kingdom for just over half the length of the Vijayans - and their 369 year innings was no small achievement. But it was a troubled epoch. Just under half the Lambakarna monarchs were to die at the hands of their successors, victims to a predilection for assassination that ran as a malign monomeric thread through their DNA. Even so, the nation they left behind was bigger, richer, more complex, developed and built out that it had been on its inheritance by them back in 67 CE. Stupas, monasteries, reservoirs, canals, temples, and dwellings filled out the land. The mores of society progressed. Agriculture flourished and technical advances from construction through to medicine bestowed its benefits on the kingdom. It was strong enough to weather repeated religious schisms, as well as succession crises; and – ultimately – its 16 year occupation by Tamil kings to enable the country to bounce back, albeit this time under yet another new dynasty. The order and run of its monarchs is as follows:

1. Vasabha. The first monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 46th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 67 - 111 CE.

2. Vankanasika Tissa. The second monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 47th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 111 - 113 CE.

3. Gajabahu I. The third monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 48th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 113 - 135 CE.

4. Mahallaka Naga. The fourth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 49th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 135 - 141 CE.

5. Bhatika Tissa. The fifth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 50th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 141 – 165 CE.

6. Kanittha Tissa. The sixth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 51st recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 165 - 193.

7. Cula Naga. The seventh monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 52nd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya; the dates of his reign being 193 – 195 CE.

8. Kuda Naga. The eighth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 53rd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 195 -196 CE.

9. Siri Naga. The ninth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 54th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 196 – 215 CE.

10. Voharika Tissa. The tenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 55th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijay (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 215 – 237 CE.

11. Abhaya Naga. The eleventh monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 56th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 237 – 245 CE.

12. Siri Naga II. The twelfth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 57th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 245 – 247 CE.

13. Vijaya Kumara. The thirteenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 58th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 247 – 248 CE.

14. Sangha Tissa I. The fourteenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 59th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 248 – 252 CE.

15. Siri Sangha Bodhi I. The fifteenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 60th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 252 – 254 CE.

16. Gothabhaya. The sixteenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 61st recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 254 – 267 CE.

17. Jettha Tissa I. The seventeenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 62nd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 267 – 277 CE.

18. Mahasena. The eighteenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 63rd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 277 - 304 CE

19. Sirimeghavanna. The nineteenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 64th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 304 - 332 CE

20. Jettha Tissa II. The twentieth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 65th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 332 – 341 CE.

21. Buddhadasa. The twenty first monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 66th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 341 – 370 CE.

22. Upatissa I. The twenty second monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 67th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being: 370 – 412 CE.

23. Mahanama. The twenty third monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 68th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 412 – 434 CE.

24. Soththisena. The twenty fourth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 69th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the date of his reign being 434 CE.

25. Chattagahaka Jantu. The twenty fifth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 70th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE) the dates of her reign being 434 - 435 CE.

26. Mittasena. The twenty sixth and last monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 71st recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 435 – 436 CE.

Illustration of the Mahavilachchiya Wewa constructed by the first king, Vasabha. Photo courtesy of Dr. Ashan Geeganage

A Dutch term for the civil courts authorised by the VOC to rule over all land disputes.

The nineteenth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 118 BCE – 109 BCE.

Lanja Tissa gained his crown by murdering his younger Vijayan brother Thulatthana who had quite possibly stolen the throne from him on the death of their father Saddha Tissa in 119 BCE. Leading an army up from his own base in Ruhana, Lanja Tissa took back what he clearly regarded as his own in the first place, and seems to have met little obvious resistance. Even so, it is said that, in penance, he then spent the ten years that his reign was to encompass appeasing the Buddhist monks’ disapproval of fratricide by devoting himself to the betterment of Buddhism. He died, peacefully it seems, in 109 BCE.

A Portuguese term used in Sri Lanka to mean soldier or guard, and later adapted by the Dutch as lascorijn; and by the British as lascariin or lascar. In its original Portuguese sense it referred specifically to the local soldiers they recruited to overcome their chronic manpower shortages as they fought for control of the Kotte and Kandyan kingdom. Most lascarins were Catholic converts and they made up, numerically, the vast bulk of the Portuguese colonial army. They were notorious for abruptly changing sides, most sensationally at the Battle of Gannoruwa in 1638, a defining moment in the Portuguese withdrawal from the island which left just 33 soldiers alive from an initial force of 4,000. Under Dutch rule these soldiers were organised into groups of 24 led by two or three native headmen. Under British rule these soldiers morphed into ceremonial roles though some were retained as bodyguards for Mudaliyars, the most powerful native families.

Shrewd, secretive, elusive, the Ceylon Leopard (Panthera Pardus Lankae) is without doubt of the greatest endemic jewels in Sri Lanka’s mammalian crown. It is the largest of the country's four cat species – the others being the Jungle Cat, the Fishing Cat, and the Rusty-Spotted Cat. Averaging six feet in length, head to tail, and weighing anything up to two hundred and twenty pounds, they are mostly solitary beasts, largely but not always nocturnal and with a typical life expectancy of fifteen years. It is beautifully attuned to hunting, an observer noting that “if the lion is the king of the jungle, then the leopard is the king of stealth,” able to run seventy kilometres an hour and leap as far as six metres. Despite habitats that stretch right across the island, numbers of the Sri Lankan Leopard are falling fast and are currently estimated to be around just eight hundred. Contrary to popular belief, they are not just found at the Yala National park but right across the country’s arid, dry, and wet zones, its hills, forests, and plantations. An errant gene in the leopard population provides the rarest of leopards, the Black Leopard, of whom there have been only a few firm sightings. One in every three hundred leopards born has the propensity to be black. Conservation methods have failed to have any meaningful impact on the leopard population in general and there is little sense of urgency in government circles about the pressing need to do more to protect the future of this apex predator. Habitat loss as much a disastrous history of human-animal interaction is largely to blame for this decline but if nothing is done soon about it the Sri Lanka Tourist Board may have to turn to promoting seagulls.

Image courtsey of Gerard Mendis.

Illustration by Wilhelm Joseph Heine of the Light House at Point de Galle in1855. Public Domain.

Adoring the national flag, the Sri Lankan lion is thought to have become extinct in 37,000 BCE – about the same time as the famous Stone Age Balangoda Man walked his last steps. Panthera Leo Sinhaleyus, as the sub species is known, only came to light in 1936 when the archaeologist, P.E.P. Deraniyagala, uncovered two fossilized teeth in Kuruwita, near Ratnapura. With the passion of a forensic detection, the archaeologist studied his modest clutch of teeth. One was so damaged as to be of little use in identifying the animal, but the other, a left molar, presented so distinctive a structure as to not just twin it with lions, but set it apart from all known species too. From this single tooth, a lost sub species was uncovered, its size indicating that the beast was a lion much larger than the present Indian lion. Back in 37,000 BCE, Sri Lanka was a very different place to what it would became, an island of open grasslands – a habitat perfect for lions. But over time, as the monsoon rainforest fuelled the proliferation of trees, its habitat become ever more restricted and at some point the creature just died out. The National Flag aside, the lion lives on still in many a temple and ancient fortress, in statues and and new.

Image courtsey of Adrift Couple.

Of all the many jewels in the mammalian crown, one that glitters most brightly is the loris. Even so, due to its diminutive size, extreme shyness, nocturnal schedule, rapidly diminishing numbers, and preference for making its home high on trees, it remains one of the least known and appreciated creatures. There are eleven firmly agreed upon and recoded sub species – all based in South and South East Asia, with Sri Lanka being home to four, all of them rare endemic beasts that you would celebrate to ever see:

1. Ceylon Mountain Slender Loris
2. Northern Ceylon Slender Loris
3. Sri Lankan Red Slender Loris
4. Highland Ceylon Slender Loris

Image Public Domain.

Country houses with large, attached, specially landscaped gardens are two a penny in the West; but in Sri Lanka they are a rarity. One example is Lunuganga, an ex-rubber estate bought by the architect Geoffrey Bawa. The purchase was a form of alternative compensation, for not having settled on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy when faced with his mother’s illness and the choice of returning to Sri Lanka or not.

Walkways and copses of large ancient trees lead to carefully designed outdoor spaces. A Pavilion overlooks a heart-shaped pond, providing the architect with a place of shelter for his morning read. A Blue Pavilion looks out over jars and a pond; a hen house provides an impossibly luxurious space for pampered poultry. A riverside bench is shaded by trees and hung with bells - each sound linked to a different need (cup of tea, gin, and tonic) that the architect and his friends would sound as required.

“He made no attempt, wrote Michael Ondaatje, “to turn it into a pompous estate. Each vista, each location feels like another elegy or another voice—the first person, then the third person, the vernacular, then the classical. You discover you wish to be at one location at noon, another at twilight, some when you are young, others later in life.” The estate stretches across a peninsula, the lagoon water of Dedduwa Lake on both sides; and views of water dominating the gardens as much as the many statues do - classical and animal, urns, pots, and follies. The house itself – one of several that Bawa built there with unrivalled easy elegance, gazes out through the branches of a massive frangipani tree onto its sequestered landscape. It is not surprising that, of his many homes, this is where Bawa chose to lay his own ashes. And as the house now takes in guests, you can book in to enjoy a little bit of the lingering magic for yourself.

The thirty seventh monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 9 CE – 21 CE.

Succeeding to the Anuradhapuran throne in 9 CE on the death of his brother, Bhathika Abhaya, Mahadatika Mahanaga was to rule with evident obscurity until his death, natural or otherwise, in 21 CE.

The twenty-seventh monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 77 BCE – 62 BCE.

Mahakuli Mahatissa, who became King of Anuradhapura in 76 BCE, was the adopted son of the previous Vijayan king, Valagamba. His paternal inheritance was something of a baited hook. His own (blood) father, the general Kammaharattaka, had been murdered by Valagamba for having killed the previous king, Valagamba’s brother, Khallata Naga. As was so often the case the with the early Anuradhapuran kings, if ever there was an opportunity to complicate already dangerously tortuously family matters, it was one they typically took with alacrity. In an act of reckless trust Valagamba adopted Mahakuli Mahatissa, the general’s son and married his wife. Unsurprisingly, there are hints in the ancient chronicles that Valagamba’s succession may not have been entirely orderly; if so, then Valagamba’s earlier trust in adopting Mahakuli Mahatissa can be read as an extended suicide note. But however he came to the throne, Mahakuli Mahatissa stayed the course, though whether he did anything constructive remains a niggling historical curiosity. He died, quite possibly peaceably, in 62 BCE.

The fourth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 49th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 135 - 141 CE.

Said to be the wrong side of late middle age at the time of his ascension, Mahallaka Naga, the new king, still managed to live on until 141 CE before handing things onto his son with the sort of blameless succession choreography that more modern leaders like Mugabe or Trump might have learnt much from. He was said to be the father-in-law of the pervious King Gajabahu I; if so, then the succession would have run down a less travelled thoroughfare, but this did not imply it was anything but orderly. Little is known about his reign, but it can be assumed that it took its rightful place amongst that period of calm governance that characterised the reigns of all the early Lambakanna - from 67 CE to 195 CE.

Illustration Credit: The smaller stupa of the Mahiyanganaya Ancient Nagadeepa Viharaya where Mahallaka Naga, King of Anuradhapura is said to have built a monastery. Image courtsey of AmazingLanka.com

A Sinhala term used in the Kandyan kingdom to name the Great Court of Justice.

The twenty third monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 68th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 412 – 434 CE.

The son of King Buddhadasa, Mahanama was a Buddhist monk – but the kind of monk with more than a few extracurricular interests. Chief among these was his brother’s wife, the Queen, with whom he was to cuckold King Upatissa I, bringing his otherwise long reign to an unscheduled end by murdering him in 412 CE. Although the new king was to enjoy dying a natural death in 434 CE, the manor of his ascension legitimised regicide once again and set in train a chain of events that was to destroy both the dynasty and – for a time – the country. .

Illustration Credit: A Lakshmi Plaque coin with a female figure carved into the face It is believed that the woman on the coin is the goddess, Lakshmi. The coins were either plated or engraved pieces of Copper. They also came in different sizes. The plated kind were 1 ¼ inches in length and ½ inch in width. The coins are a mixture of approximately 60 percent Lead and 15 percent Copper. On the coin face, the goddess Lakshmi is standing on a lotus flower grasping two lotus stems that are protruding from either side of the flower. The stems, which reach her shoulders, each carry a blossomed lotus flower upon which stands a tusker holding a clay water vase. The image depicts the goddess bathing in the water pouring out of the vases held by the two tuskers. In some versions of this coin, goddess Lakshmi is shown seated on a lotus flower. The Lakshmi coins have been found is such places as Anuradhapura, Jaffna, Wallipuram and Thirukethiswaram as well as Kantharoda, Mannar, Mulativu, Chilaw and Thissamaharama; and were in circulation from 3 BCE to 8 CE – including during the reign of Mahanama, King of Anuradhapura. Picture courtesy of The Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The eighteenth monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 63rd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 277 - 304 CE.

The son of King Gothabhaya and brother of King Jettha Tissa I, Mahasen took the throne in 277 CE, a succession notable for being natural. Like his brother, Mahasen had been educated by the radical monk Sanghamitta; and so, from the perspective of the majority Theravāda Buddhists, life got still worse as the religious schisms that continued to ravage the country worsened. A twenty-seven-year reign lay ahead of the new king, who got off to a good start commissioning what would include sixteen massive reservoirs (the largest covering an area of nearly twenty square kilometres) and two big irrigation canals.

But this did little to defray the resentment his pro-Mahayana religious policies caused, which prompted a rash of insurrections opposing his own opposition to Theravada Buddhism. Mahasen set about building what would become the country’s largest stupa, the Jethavanaramaya – which was, until the construction of the Eiffel Tower, the second tallest building in the world. To help, he ordered the plundering of the Mahavihara, the greatest Theravada Buddhist monastery in the land. Monks that resisted his Mahayana policies were pressured by many means, including attempted starvation.

Soon enough the trickle of monks fleeing to the safely of Ruhuna in the south became a flood. Ominously they were also joined by Meghavannabaya, the king’s chief minister, who raised an army in their defence. With surprising wisdom, the king drew back from the confrontation, saving his throne, making peace with the disgruntled Theravada Buddhists, and enabling him to settle down to enjoy a long and apparently prosperous reign. This came to a natural end in 303 CE earning him the kudos of being just the 30th reigning Sri Lankan monarch to have died a natural death.

Illustration Credit: Jetavanarama stupa built by Mahasena, King of Anuradhapura - image courtsey of A.Savin, WikiCommons

The eleventh monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 257 BCE – 247 BCE.

Inheriting the Vijayan throne from his brother, Uththiya in 257 BCE, Mahasiwa’s reign is a model of almost total obscurity. Most historians agree on the fact that he probably constructed the Nagarangana Monastery in Anuradhapura; and they also largely agree on the date of his death – in 247 BCE.

Ever more scientists are putting forward the prospect of the earth facing its sixth greatest extinction event, a party to which no-one desires an invitation. The first of these events, the Late Devonian extinction (383-359 million years ago) killed off about 75 percent of all living species . One hundred million years later came the plant’s worst extinction – the Permian-Triassic extinction, or Great Dying. This despatched 96% of all marine animals and 3 out of every 4 land animals that had managed to evolve and flourishing since the previous extinction. After fifty-one million years of later exhaustive recovery, the Triassic-Jurassic extinction swept down, exterminating 80% of all living species. The last, and most famous mass extinction, the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, 66 million years ago, was the one that claimed the life of the dinosaurs – and with them 76% of all earth’s species. The next one, argue many, will be the first due to human activities. Already one million species of plants and animals are classified as being in danger of extinction, a process that has, of course, already started right, not least in Sri Lanka, where records, including rare fossil records, seem to illustrate the ghostly presence of some a number of mammals that once roamed the island. These most notable fourteen include:

1. Ceylon Lion.
2. Tiger.
3. Elephant, Elephas Maximus Sinhaleyus.
4. Elephant, Hypselephus Hysundricus Sinhaleyus
5. Elephant, Palaeoloxodon Namadicus Sinhaleyus.
6. Hippopotamus, Hexaprotodon Sinhaleyus.
7. Rhinocerus Sinhaleyus.
8. Rhinocerus Kagavena.
9. Sambur, Muva Sinhaleya.
10. Porcupine, Hystrix Sivalensis Sinhaleyus.
11. Wild Boar, Sus Sinhaleyus.
12. Rat, Tatera Sinhaleya.
13. Gaur, Bibos Sinhaleyus Deraniyagala.
14. The Ceylon Asiatic Cheetah.

Image courtsey of Daily Update.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, of the 118 mammals, endemic or otherwise, founds across Sri Lanka, one, the Gaur or Indian Bison, is already extinct. The number (118) is itself something of a red rag among the tens of thousands of scientists who took up the passion for taxology and classifying the animal kingdom first started back in the 1700s by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. Some argue for more, others for less.

The conservation status of each of Sri Lanka’s mammals can be sourced from a variety of authorities, each one in greater or lesser disagreement with the others. The list of mammals published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature is among the more optimistic of such lists. Even so, many scientists who have conducted on the ground research into specific species numbers, would, and do, vehemently disagree with the organization’s sanguine classification. The Red List, for example, takes a more negative stance. Even so, these most optimistic of figures are little less than distressing and depressing. Over a third of the total mammals on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s list face such threats to their existence that they are more than likely to follow the Gaur and become extinct. Twenty one species face such an existential threat to their future existence that they are judged to be Endangered. These include such iconic mammals as the Sri Lankan Elephant, the Leopard and two of its most celebrated monkeys,. Nine others are teetering of the edge of becoming extinct in the wild - including the famous Sloth Bear and Golden Palm Civer. Six more, including the Ottar and the Tufted Gray Langur, are likely to face the prospect of being so vulnerable as to join these nine. Just over half the balance are judged to be of Least Concern – include thirteen shrews, mice, and rats, thirty bats, and seven whales and dolphins, leaving a little over ten percent of what is left to own up to so little data as to be unclassifiable.

EXTINCT
1. Gaur

ENDANGERED
An extremely high risk of extinction in the wild:
2. Sri Lankan Elephant
3. Dugongs
4. Red Slender Loris
5. Toque Macaque
6. Purple-Faced Langur
7. Ceylon Spiny Mouse
8. Nillu Rat
9. Sinharaja Shrew
10. Sri Lankan Long-Tailed Shrew
11. Pearson's Long-Clawed Shrew
12. Kelaart's Long-Clawed Shrew
13. Jungle Shrew
14. Sri Lanka Shrew
15. Indian Pangolin
16. Blue Whale
17. Fin Whale
18. Humpback Whale
19. Leopard
20. Wild Water Buffalo
21. Indian Hog Deer
22. Leopard


VULNERABLE
A high risk of extinction in the wild:
23. Layard's Palm Squirrel
24. Mayor's Mouse
25. Sri Lanka Highland Shrew
26. Finless Porpoise
27. Sperm Whale
28. Sloth Bear
29. Golden Palm Civet
30. Fishing Cat
31. Sambar Deer

NEAR THREATENED
Likely to be facing the risk of extinction in the wild in the future:
32. Tufted Gray Langur
33. Travancore Flying Squirrel
34. Grizzled Giant Squirrel
35. Indo-Pacific Humpbacked Dolphin
36. Eurasian Otter
37. Rusty-Spotted Cat

LEAST CONCERN
Of minimal risk in the future:
1. Lesser Bandicoot Rat
2. Greater Bandicoot Rat
3. Indian Bush Rat
4. Blanford's Rat
5. Soft-Furred Rat
6. Little Indian Field Mouse
7. House Mouse
8. Brown Rat
9. Indian Gerbil
10. Asiatic Long-Tailed Climbing Mouse
11. Indian Hare
12. Etruscan Shrew
13. Asian House Shrew
14. Indian Porcupine
15. Gray Slender Loris
16. Indian Giant Flying Squirrel
17. Indian Palm Squirrel
18. Lesser Short-Nosed Fruit Bat
19. Greater Short-Nosed Fruit Bat
20. Indian Flying Fox
21. Leschenault's Rousette
22. Hardwicke's Woolly Bat
23. Painted Bat
24. Lesser Large-Footed Bat
25. Chocolate Pipistrelle
26. Tickell's Bat
27. Kelaart's Pipistrelle
28. Indian Pipistrelle
29. Greater Asiatic Yellow Bat
30. Lesser Asiatic Yellow Bat
31. Round-Eared Tube-Nosed Bat
32. Eastern Bent-Wing Bat
33. Wrinkle-Lipped Free-Tailed Bat
34. Egyptian Free-Tailed Bat
35. Naked-Rumped Pouched Bat
36. Long-Winged Tomb Bat
37. Black-Bearded Tomb Bat
38. Greater False Vampire Bat
39. Lesser False Vampire Bat
40. Lesser Woolly Horseshoe Bat
41. Woolly Horseshoe Bat
42. Rufous Horseshoe Bat
43. Dusky Leaf-Nosed Bat
44. Fulvus Roundleaf Bat
45. Cantor's Roundleaf Bat
46. Indian Roundleaf Bat
47. Schneider's Leaf-Nosed Bat
48. Minke Whale
49. Risso's Dolphin
50. Fraser's Dolphin
51. Pantropical Spotted Dolphin
52. Striped Dolphin
53. Bottlenose Dolphin
54. Melon-Headed Whale
55. Golden Jackal
56. Jungle Cat
57. Indian Grey Mongoose
58. Indian Brown Mongoose
59. Ruddy Mongoose
60. Stripe-Necked Mongoose
61. Asian Palm Civet
62. Small Indian Civet
63. Sri Lankan Yellow-Striped Chevrotain
64. Sri Lankan Spotted Chevrotain
65. Indian Muntjac
66. Wild Boar
67. Chital

DATA DEFICIENT
There is just insufficient data to assess risk to these species:
1. Horsefield's shrew
2. Bryde's Whale
3. Pygmy Sperm Whale
4. Dwarf Sperm Whale
5. Cuvier's Beaked Whale
6. Blainville's Beaked Whale
7. Ginkgo-Toothed Beaked Whale
8. Deraniyagala's Beaked Whale
9. Spinner Dolphin
10. Rough-Toothed Dolphin
11. Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin
12. Pygmy Killer Whale
13. False Killer Whale
14. Killer Whale
15. Short-Finned Pilot Whale

Picture courtsey of W.A.Piyathilaka.

Counting Sri Lanka’s endemic mammals is like painting the Forth Bridge: just when you get to the end you have to start all over again. Somewhere, with deft hands and glowing fervour, there is always to be found a scientist who has craftily and credibly reclassified the endemic civet into three distinct sub species; or added in a shrew recently discovered to have one toe longer than the rest, or a bat readmitted to the hallowed list after a much disputed and injurious explosion. Any number of endemic mammals from 19 to 30 is likely to be correct or totally wrong, depending on what the latest research papers have to say. The list of 25 beasts presented below is, therefore, more of a vox pop video of endemic mammals than a static photograph. Broad in front and broad in mind (like a Wykehamist), its errs optimistically on the side of generosity. Certainty about anything, this included, is only given to God, and he is playing his cards very close to his chest. But whatever your viewpoint, this small country excels in mammals, being a home to well over 100, meaning that some 20% - an astonishing high proportion – are endemic. These include:

1. Wet Zone Golden Palm Civet
2. Montane Golden Palm Civet
3. Dry-Zone Palm Civet
4. Sri Lankan Woolly Bat
5. Red Slender Loris
6. Langur, Hanuman
7. Langur, Purple-Faced
8. Toque Macaque
9. Layard's Palm Squirrel
10. Dusky-Striped Squirrel
11. Ceylon Spiny Mouse
12. Sri Lankan Long-Tailed Climbing Mouse
13. Mayor's Mouse
14. Ohiya Rat
15. Sri Lankan Mountain Rat
16. Sinharaja White-Toothed Shrew
17. Sri Lankan Highland Shrew
18. Sri Lankan Shrew
19. Jungle Shrew
20. Pearson's Long-Clawed Shrew
21. Sri Lankan White-Toothed Shrew
22. Sri Lankan Long-Tailed Shrew
23. Yellow-Striped Chevrotain Or Mouse Deer
24. White-Spotted Chevrotain Or Mouse Deer
25. Ceylon Spotted Axis Deer

Image courtsey of Medium.

A Sinhala term for death duties.

A few kilometres north of Hikkaduwa on Sri Lanka’s south western seaboard lie the moonstone mines of Meetiyagoda. Beneath the tiny village stretches one of the largest pegmatite rock veins of moonstones known on earth. Since 1906 the stones have been carefully mined and treasured, for many of them carry the exceptional dark blue reflections that mark out Sri Lankan moonstone as amongst the most prized. Fondly fashioned by the Romans into pieces of artful jewellery, they were much later taken up in the Art Nouveau period by Rene Lalique whose own moonstone creations still sell for tens of thousands of dollars.

Mica mineral deposits are mined in such areas as Matale, Talatu Oya, Badulla, Maskeliya, Haldummulla, Kebithigollewa, and Balangoda. Its ability to withstand high temperatures makes it a favourite raw material in electrical and electronic industries; as a lubricant; and for heat and electrical insulating purposes.

Image courtsery of Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

Sri Lanka is home to a very respectable range of mouse species, three of which are endemic to the island - Mayor’s Spiny Mouse (which actually comes into two distinct but impossible to tell apart variants); the very rare Sri Lankan Spiny Mouse; and the almost equally rare Ceylon Highland Long-Tailed Tree Mouse. These tiny patriotic native creatures are joined by a range of others mice typically found in other parts of South and South East Asia including the fetching Indian Field Mouse, the almost-domesticated Indian House Mouse, the Indian Long-Tailed Tree Mouse (host to an especially undesirable tick), and the rather clumsily named Ceylon Field Mouse, whose home actually stretches from Sri Lanka to Cambodia.

Image of Beatrix Potter's Mother Mouse, Public Domain.

A photogrpah from 1926 (photographer unknown) of the beginning of the stone steps at Mihintale. Public Domain.

Sri Lanka’s gem mining industry is world regarded, but lesser known is its many faceted industrial mining operations. These occurs throughout the country and are focused largely on the extraction of:

1. Apatite Rock Phosphate.
2. Ball Clay.
3. Brick Clay.
4. Calcite.
5. Dolomite.
6. Feldspar.
7. Garnet Sand.
8. Graphite.
9. Ilmanite.
10. Kaolinite.
11. Mica.
12. Monazite.
13. Pulmoddai Beach Sand Titanium.
14. Quartz.
15. Salt.
16. Silica.
17. Rutile.
18. Zircon.

As a whole, the entire mining sector generates around $100 million per year, with exports largely going to China, India, Japan, USA, Germany, UK, South Korea, Italy, Austria and Israel

Image courtsey of Lanka Truth.

The twenty sixth and last monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period) (66 CE – 436 CE); and the 71st recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE); the dates of his reign being 435 – 436 CE.

Mittasena was a distant relative of the previous monarch, Chattagahaka Jantu, who had been murdered by a chief minister intent on finding a more pliable boss. The move did neither any good. Mittasena, preoccupied by religious devotions, was wholly unprepared for the fourth Tamil invasion of the realm in 436 CE. That the state was so unable to defend itself was no great surprise. For the past few extreme decades family politics would have pushed good governance into a back seat. The eye, as Ford Frick, the famous basketball player might have observed, was firmly off the ball. The regime fell with minimal resistance.

It was a shocking and sudden end. For 369 years the dynasty had ruled, its two periods of firm and effective guardianship tragically balanced by two other periods of regicidal insanity and power vacuums. This last Lambakarna king was slain in battle in 436 CE and a Tamil king, Pandu, took over his rule. Quite what this meant or how far his rule extended is hard to estimate. But for sixteen years the Six Dravidians, as history would come to know them, were to rule what was left of the once great Anuradhapura Kingdom,.

Illustration Credit: A story told of King Mittasena in Chapter 38 of the Mahawamsa states: “There was a feast (and) the people cried: “If a king is there, let him come with us.” When the Lord of men heard that, he, arrayed in all his ornaments, said to those who led forth the royal elephant: “this befits me not”, and indicated the elephant made of stucco at the temple of the Tooth Relic1. At the words: “’it is the King’s command”, the elephant began to move. The (King) mounted it, rode round the town with his right side towards it and when he reached the eastern gate by the Pathamacetiya, he restored it to the Relic Temple. At the elephant wall of the three great cetiyas he had a gateway constructed. After doing many meritorious works Mittasena died in a year.

The image, of the Elephant wall, Ruvanelraya Dagoba in Anuradhapura, is courtesy of Monkey’s Tales.

Thankfully widespread across Sri Lanka and the Indian sub-continent, the Brown Mongoose comes in a several iterations, each so marginally different as to be as impossible to tell apart as Herge’s Thomson and Thompson. The Highland Ceylon Brown Mongoose (Herpestes Fuscus Flavidents), the Western Ceylon Brown Mongoose (Herpestes Fuscus Rubidior) and the Ceylon Brown Mongoose (Herpestes Fuscus Maccarthiae) are, to all but the most scrutinizing scientistic eye, practically alike. Collectively, and commonly, they are called the Indian Brown Mongoose. Over eighty centimetres nose to tail with dark brown fur and black legs, and a long black enviably tufted tail, it is a sight of simple, breathtaking beauty. But seeing all this is something a challenge for it is a introverted beast, with a marked preference for deeper cover, dark forests; and, like Greta Garbo, a preference for being left alone.

Image courtsey of NR1&GLAFan2004.

Measuring thirty-two inches nose to tail the Ceylon Ruddy Mongoose (Herpestes Smithi Zeylanicus) is found widely across Sri Lanka and India. A retiring forest dweller, it has grizzled ruddy brown hair, a sleek body and a tail that ends in a flourish of black tufts. Although it rarely lives more than seven or eight years, a Mr W. W. Phillips from Namunukula in Sri Lanka wrote to inform the Bombay Natural History Society (in those halcyon, fallible days when science was a passion shared equally with amateurs) that “the mongoose in question died on the September 8, 1955, aged approximately 17 years and it months. It ate quite well right up to the last day and died peacefully during the night, apparently of old age and /or heart failure.” For although the Ruddy Mongoose is among the more aggressive of the species, it seems that with the right kind of parenting it the beast can be a beloved and longish term part of an inter-species family.

Image Public Domain.

“Rikki-tikki,” wrote Rudyard Kipling in 1894, “had a right to be proud of himself. But he did not grow too proud, and he kept that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth and jump and spring and bite, till never a cobra dared show its head inside the walls.” Kipling’s immortal mongoose was in fact the Indian Grey Mongoose, sometimes called the Common Ceylon Grey Mongoose (Herpestes Edwardsi). It is the smallest of the four main species found in Sri Lanka. Shy around people it is fearless with snakes, its kill strategy focused on tiring the snake by tempting it to make bites it easily avoids. Its thick grizzled iron-grey fur and neuro transmitting receptors leave it immune to snake venom; and for anyone living up-country, it is a fine companion to have around. Around thirty inches nose to tail, it lives right across the country, often in pairs, eating fruit, roots, and small animals. It lives for around seven years, breading twice yearly and producing up to four cubs.

Image courtsey of J.M.Garg.

The Versace of the mongoose world, the Striped-Necked Mongoose (Herpestes Vitticollis) has been given an outfit by its Maker that marks it out as one of the island’s most striking and fetching mammals. A dark grey head morphs to reddish brown and grey on its neck- before blooming into a heady grizzled covering of bouffant fur that gets redder and longer the further down the body it goes. A pink nose, black legs and a reddish tail that ends in a curved tuft of black hair make up the rest of this most alluring of beasts. Widespread across Sri Lanka and southern India, it has sturdy frame and – measuring at often over eighty-five centimetres nose to tail – is the largest mongoose on the island. Its proclivity for calling forests its home can make sighting it a challenge, but it is a sight well worth the effort.

Image courtsey of Shreeram M V.

The Hanuman langur, Semnopithecus priam thersites or Tufted Gray langur, is one of three Semnopithecus priam variants, the other two being found in India. Like all langurs, it is a monkey in all but name. The Sri Lankan variant – thersites – is named rather eccentrically for an anti-hero in Homer, who was later promoted by Plato as a man best fit for the afterlife. It is a doubtful honour to bestow on this, one of Sri Lanka’s elite endemic mammals. Up to sixty inches long head to tail, with a weight that can hit close to fifteen kilos, its black face is framed in a wispy white beard that runs from forehead to chin. It is a light grey in colour, and lives as readily in dry zone forests as urban areas – showing a strong preference for antique cultural sites if their dwellings in such places as Polonnaruwa, Dambulla, Anuradhapura, and Sigiriya are anything to go by. Once settled, they tend to stay put, having little of the gypsy tendency within them. Eagerly vegetarian, they live in troops of up to 50 members, the larger ones being curiously non sexist with leadership shared between a male female pair.

Image courtsey of Senthi Aathavan Senthilverl.

Quite how many monkey species belong to the Langur family is a modestly debated subject amongst mammalian Taxonomists, but at the last count there were eight. Or seven, depending. Stretching from the Himalayas to Sri Lanka, they live in groups that rarely seem to do anything but fight one another. Within the groups however strict social hierarchies are observed. The Purple-Faced Leaf Langur (Trachypithecus vetulus) is the rarer of the two langur species found on the island, and one of the country’s cherished endemic mammals. It lives largely in dense forest but is now threatened by habitat loss that has noticeably and recently eroded its numbers. Vegetarian, with a tendency to opt for leaves ahead of other foods, it is shy and slightly smaller than its close cousin, the Tufted Gray Langur but easy to tell apart for its darker colouring, the black brown fur of its body contrasting with the mop of wispy white fur that surrounds its face and sit atop its head.

Image courtsey of Charles J. Sharp.

A fully paid up member of Sri Lanka’s exclusive group of endemic mammals, Toque Macaques (Macana sinica) – monkeys in all but name – come in three apparently distinct island variants. The Pale-Fronted or Dusky Toque Macaques (Macaca sinica Aurifrons) stick to the wet zones in the south west. The Common Toque Macaques (Macaca sinica sinica) favour the dry zone areas of the north and east. The Highland Toque Macaque (Macaca sinica opisthomelas), favour the hilly centre of the island. Telling them apart however is a pastime best left to scientists with lots of patience and sturdy magnifying glasses. For the purposes of the Companion it makes best sense to treat them En famille. They can weigh up to twelve pounds with a head to tail length of almost a metre. Whilst they have been known to live for thirty five years, most die within five, victims to infant mortality or fights within troops for dominance. With white undersides, golden brown fur on their backs and a car crash of an almost orange coiffure, they look as if they have got lost in a cheap tanning salon or a Trump rally. Pink faces peer out below recherché hairstyles, giving substance to their name - “toque,” the brimless cap that is their bob. They are accomplished scavengers, their vegetarian fancies best saited on fruit. Their capacious cheek pouches are specially adapted to allow them to store food for consuming later, a technical refinement that helps them steal, store, and run with their pilfered bounty. As dexterous leaping through trees as capering across the ground, or even swimming, they move in self-protective groups and sleep huddled together, every night in a different place like chastened celebrities or terrorists. They are easy to spot for they are active during daylight hours, appearing in groups of 20 members led by an alpha male, with half the group comprised of infants or juveniles. Young adult males wisely leave the group on attaining maturity, for fear or otherwise being chased out. But they also have a reputation for being very matey with other species – the family dog, for example. And they talk to one another. Naturalists have recorded over thirty different sounds, each conveying a very specific meaning.

Image courtsey of Carlos Delgado.

This exhaustive register – albeit it one that is sadly not nearly exhaustive enough – may interest only some half dozen people, but as this Companion aims to record all notable Sri Lankan items, be they endemic birds, presidents, works of contemporary fiction, or the hand gestures of Lord Buddha, it would be recklessly discriminatory to exclude protected monuments on the grounds that there are too many. The list that follows, which itemizes protected monuments by location, is not in the least bit comprehensive. There remain many, many more monuments, plain, dazzling, known, unknown, cherished, trashed – but sadly not on the slender list maintained by the relevant authorities.

That there is a list at all, incomplete and eccentric as it is, is an achievement in its own right. For over 1,000 years, since the Chola invasion from Southern India broke across the island, to the raising of the flag of Independence in 1948, the island’s many changing foreign masters have casually, but very extensively, removed to other countries the more portable items of historic importance. But the buildings have of course remained. It would be a work of loving kindness and a life well spent if someone might opt to enlarge, correct, and republish such a list to help the task of preserving structures that are disappearing fast – and taking with it the precious history they encompass. Monuments they may be – but protected they are – in nearly all cases – not at all.

A

1. ABIDIGALA: Mahatulagala Rock Cave
2. AETHAGAMA: Sumanarama Maha Vihara
3. AGALAWATTA: Prathiraja Piriven Vihara
4. AGRAHERA: Naigala Raja Maha Vihara
5. AKARANDENIYA SOUTH: Mahagoda Tapodhanarama Vihara
6. AKARAWITA: Raja Maha Vihara
7. AKKARAYAN: Akkarayan Ruins
8. AKWATTA: Pattini Devalaya Kahawanugoda
9. ALAPALADENIYA: Yatidola Pahala Purana Vihara
10. ALAWALA: Ethabendalena
11. ALUKETIYAWA: Senasungala Aranyagiri Vihara
12. ALUPATGALA: Wawlugala Mountain; Fort; Vihara
13. ALUTHGAMA: St Mary's Church
14. ALUTHNUWARA: Uggal Kataragama Devalaya
15. ALUTWEWA: Kotawehera Ruins
16. ALUYATAWELA: Purana Vihara; Sri Shylathalarama Vihara Madapatha
17. AMADULA: Ihala Kade Asmadala Ruins
18. AMBADANDARAGAMAL: Bullena Aranya Senasana
19. AMBAGAHAWATTA: Dimbulana Vihara
20. AMBAGASPITIYA: Ambalama; Gallinda Watta Ambalama; Kandumulla Rock Caves
21. AMBAKAMAM: Udiyakuruppukulam Lake Ruins
22. AMBALAKANDA: Sri Sunandarama Vihara
23. AMBALANGODA: Sunandarama Maha Vihara
24. AMBALANTOTA: Udarotapallerota Archaeological Ruins
25. AMBANA: Sri Sangharaja Indurugirilen Vihara
26. AMBEPUSSA: Devagiri Raja Maha Vihara; Pattini Devalaya
27. AMBULUGALA: Sri Danthapaya Raja Maha Vihara
28. AMITIYAGODA: Sri Suwisuddharama Purana Vihara; Wijeyaratne Walauwa
29. AMPAKAMAM KULAMOTTAI: Kulamottai Ruins
30. Ampavila: Sri Vijaya Sundararama Purana Vihara
31. AMUGODA: Ihalagoda Siri Vijeyarama Vihara
32. AMUNUDOVA: Kirioruwa Ambalama
33. ANAPALLEGAMA: Thunkemhela Ruins
34. ANDAWELAYAYA: Andawelayaya Ruins
35. ANDURANGODA: Kuligoda Vanavasa Purana Vihara
36. ANDURAPOTHA: Sadarthodaya Pirivena
37. ANGWARAGAMA: Sri Mahaboodhi Piriven Vihara
38. ANHETTIGAMA: Sri Jinendrarama Purana Vihara
39. ANJALIGAMA: Anjalee Vihara
40. ARALAGANWILA: Silumina Seya
41. ARAMBEGAMA: Sri Sudassanarama Vihara
42. ARISAPURAM: Allirani Kotuwa
43. ASGIRIYA GAMPAHA: Asgiriya Rajamaha Vihara
44. ASMADALA: Boduralla Henwatta Ruins; Galgoda Henawatta Ruins; Lunumidella Reservation; Asmadala Vihara; Purana Vihara; Emaladeniya Raja Maha Vihara
45. ATAKALAMPANNA: Ammamuwa Kataragama Devalaya Anpattini Devalaya; Veheragoda Purana Vihara
46. ATALUGAMA: Thumbomaluwa Vihara
47. ATAWAKWELA: Sugatharama Vihara
48. ATHALA: Weheragoda Purana Vihara
49. ATHTHALAWATTA: Purana Vihara
50. ATHURALIYA: Rajjura Bandara Devalaya
51. ATHURUPANA: Degalathiriya Galaudathanna Vihara
52. ATTANAGALLA: Raja Maha Vihara
53. ATTANAYALAEAST: Attanayala Sri Vihara
54. ATTHANAGODA: Tempita Vihara
55. ATUGODA WEWE KANDA: Walagamba Forest Hermitage
56. ATUPOTHDENIYA: Pothgul Vihara
57. AWARIYAWALA: Ambalama


B

1. BADAGIRIYA: Raja Maha Vihara
2. BADULLA: Andeniya Bridge; Assistant Government Agent's Office; Base Hospital Complex; Badulla Building Complex & Ambalama; Badulla Building Material Corporation Building; Badulla Court Building; District Secretary's Bungalow; Official Kachcheri Residences; Government Agent's Bungalow; Governor's Secretary Bungalow; Health Director's Office Building; Health Education Unit Building; Irrigation Quarters; Judge's Bungalow; Kataragama Devalaya; Municipal Council Garden; Municipal Council Building; Paddy Marketing Board Building; Pillar Inscription; Prison Building; Provincial Council Building; Race Course Tank; Railway Station; Rose Bank Building; Salusala Building; SP Bungalow; Muthiyangana Raja Maha Vihara; Pattini Devalaya; Rideepana Evaluation Building; St Mark’s Church; Badulla Gammana: Gal Oya Amuna; Gammana Purana Vihara; Tomb Of Thisahami
3. BAGURUWELA: Walagamba Raja Maha Vihara
4. BALAGALLA: Saraswathi Pirivena; Walawwa
5. BALAPITIYA: Sri Sudharmarama Purana Vihara; Subadrarama Purana Vihara; Welikanda Shri Sudharshanarama Vihara
6. BALGOLLA: Alankaragobe Purana Vihara
7. BAMBRENDA: Galkanda Purana Vihara
8. BAMUNUGAMA: Raja Maha Vihara
9. BANDARAWELA: Bandarawela Hotel; Broughton Estate; Jayakontarama Vihara
10. BARAGAMA: Vilgam Raja Maha Vihara
11. BATADUWA:Tankiyawaththa Stone Pond
12. BATATOTA: Batatotalena Cave; Kukuluwa Vihara; Manellena Cave; Batticaloa Fort
13. BATTAMGODA: Iddamalgoda Walawwa
14. BEHINJANAKAPURA: Janakapura Ruins
15. BELIATTA: Sri Sunandarama Vihara
16. BELIGALA: Mountain Ruins; Beligala Rock Ruins; Vijayasundararama Vihara; Galgemulahena Land Ruins
17. BELIGALLENAGAMA: Beligallena Cave
18. BELIGAMMANA: Raja Maha Vihara
19. BELIMALIYEDDA: Lendora Raja Maha Vihara
20. BELLAGASWEWA: Karuwalagala Purana Vihara
21. BENDHIYAWA: Kamhathadhmulla Purana Vihara
22. BENDIYAMULLA: Bandiyamulla Tombstone
23. BENTARA: Yathramulla Vanavasa Raja Maha Vihara
24. BENTOTA: Dope Ganekanda Vihara
25. BHIKKADUWA: Jananandanarama Vihara
26. BIBILEMULLA: Raja Maha Vihara
27. BISO KOTUWA: Veherabindayaya Ruins
28. BISOWELA: Purana Gallen Vihara
29. BMELLAGAMA: Thimbiriya Raja Maha Vihara
30. BNAGALA: Nagala Raja Maha Vihara
31. BODHAWELA: Ruins
32. BOGAHAWATTA: Ambalama
33. BOGODA: Raja Maha Vihara
34. BOKAGONNA: Purana Devalaya
35. BOLIYEDDA: Vihara
36. BOLLANASOUTH: Bollana Ancient Ambalama
37. BOLTUMBE: Saman Devalaya
38. BOLTUMBE SISILTONWATTA: Hituwala Galge
39. BOOSA: Sri Sudharashanarama Purana Vihara
40. BOPE: Sri Sudharmarama Vihara
41. BORALESGAMUWA: Paramadhamma Niwasa Piriwena
42. BORELLA: Thilakaratnarama Purana Vihara
43. BOTHALE IHALAGAMA: Patthini Devalaya; Sri Gotabhaya Raja Maha Vihara
44. BOTHALE PAHALAGAMA: Bothale Walawwa
45. BOTHPITIYANORTH: Uruwala Valagamba Raja Maha Vihara
46. BOWELA: Ulugala Raja Maha Vihara
47. BUDDAMA: Purana Vihara
48. BUDDIYAGAMA: Athubodaya Purana Vihara; Seehala Purana Vihara
49. BULATHSINHALA: Devamittarama Purana Vihara
50. BULATHWATTA: Len Vihara
51. BULUPITIYA: Hamanawa Purana Vihara; Nilgala Hela Ruins; Nilgala Ruins
52. BURUNNEWA: Tempita Vihara
53. BUTTALA: Bidunkada Ruins; Maligawila; Rahathan Kanda Aranya Senasana


C

1. COLOMBO: Shelk Usman Valiulah Darga Mosque Alias Davatagaha Mosque; Cargills Building; Clifan Burg House; Chartered Bank Building; Port Custom Building; Port Lighthouse; Port Ruins Of Rampart; Former General Post Office; Grand Oriental Hotel; Lanka Maccanance Macancy Co. Ltd. Building; National Museum Of Colombo; Portland Building; Walker Sons & Co. Building; House Belonging To G S Dabaree ; Delft Gate; Dutch Store Room; Gaffoor Building; Dutch Hospital; Dutch Museum; Olcott Building; Methodist Church; Jawatta Cemetery; St James Building


D

1. DADAGAMUWA: Ancient Gal Edanda; Raja Maha Vihara
2. DAMBAGALLA: Bingoda Purana Vihara
3. DAMBANA: Mawaragala Forest Hermitage
4. DAMBAWINNA: Purana Vihara
5. DAMBEYAYA: Pansalwaththausgala Ruins
6. DAMPAHALA: Vilayaya Purana Raja Maha Vihara
7. DANKUMBURA: Raja Maha Vihara
8. DEBARAWEWA: Menik Raja Maha Vihara; Pashchimarama Vihara
9. DEDARANGAMUWA: Cemetery Of Maduwanwala Family
10. DEDIGAMA: Maha Walauwa; Kondagale Vihara
11. DEDIGAMA DAMBULLA: Galtenovitawatta Ruins
12. DEHIWALA MOUNT LAVINIA: Christ Church Cemetery; Galkissa Samudrasanna Vihara
13. Deiyandara: Kalugala Purana Vihara
14. DELFT: Light House
15. DELGAMUWA: Raja Maha Vihara
16. DELGAMUWA KOVILEWATTE: Kovilewatte Devalaya
17. DELGAWATTA: Sri Sumangalarama Purana Vihara
18. DELIWA: Tapovanarama Vihara; Thera Puththabhaya Arama
19. DELIWALA: Deliwala Kotavehera
20. DEMATADENIKANDA: Jayasundararama Vihara
21. DEMATAGODA: Kayman's Gate; Padanaghara Vihara
22. DEVALEGAMA: Devalaya; Maniyangama Raja Maha Vihara
23. DEVANAGALAGAMA: Raja Maha Vihara
24. DEVINUWARA: Upulwan Devalaya; Raja Maha Vihara
25. DEWALEGAMA: Maha Saman Devalaya
26. DHOWA: Dhowa Rock Temple
27. DICKHENA: Paragasthota Sri Sudharsanarama Vihara
28. DICKWELEGODA: Dagoda
29. DICKYAYA: Andanpahuwa Aranya Senasana
30. DIDDENIYA: Koholankanda Forest Hermitage
31. DIGGALAYAYA: Dambeara Wewa Ruins
32. DIKKAPITIYA: Purana Vihara
33. DIKKUMBURA: Thunnewa Rock Drip Ledgecave
34. DIMBULAGALA: Raja Maha Vihara; Namal Pokuna Monastery
35. DIYALAGODA: St Sebastian Church
36. DIYASUNNA: Keerthi Sri Rajasingha Raja Maha Vihara Rambukkana
37. DODANDUWA: Udugalpitiya Devol Devalaya
38. DODANDUWA DEGALLA: Sri Piyarathana Vidyalaya
39. DODANTALE: Danagirigala Purana Raja Maha Vihara; Udyanegoda Purana Len Vihara
40. DOMBAWALA: Sri Saddharmagupta Piriven Vihara
41. DOOLDENIYA: Kalottuwa Gala Kanda Gallen Vihara
42. DORAWAKA: Lena Cave


E

1. EDDURAGALA: Medikanda Rock Cave
2. EKIRIYAN KUMBURA: Andagala Ruins
3. EKNALIGODA: Walawwa; Gurubalkada Bandara Cemetery
4. ELAMALDENIYA: Raja Maha Vihara
5. ELIHOUSE: Water Tanks
6. ELLA: Hill Oya Raja Maha Vihara; Pattini Devalaya Helahalpe; Viharatenna Archaeological Site
7. ELPITIYA: Cave With Paintings; Ganegoda Raja Maha Vihara
8. ELUWAPITIYA: Sri Bodhirukkharama Purana Vihara
9. ERAMINIYA: Gammana Tempita Purana Vihara
10. ERUWILPORATIVU: Pulukunawa Raja Maha Vihara
11. ETAMPITIYA: Ambalama
12. ETHILIWEWA: Wewa
13. ETHUL KOTTE: Rampart Aninner Moat Ruins
14. ETTAMPITIYA: Fort
15. EUDUGODA: Keselhenawa Purana Vihara


N

1. NELUWAGALA: Vehera Godella Ruins


G

1. GAJANAYAKAGAMA: Pillawela Vihara
2. GALAGODA: Ethkanda Purana Vihara
3. GALAHITIYAWANORTH: Sun Moon Carverock
4. GALAUDA: Ampitiya Archaeological Site
5. GALBOKKA: Weheragala Caves
6. GALEGOLUWA: Raja Maha Vihara
7. GALGANA: Pilimakella Archaeological Ruins
8. Galketa Kanda: Rotumba Budugala Raja Maha Vihara
9. GALKOTUWA: Viharagoda Vihara
10. GALLE: Prison; Thuwakkugalawatta Purana Vihara; Magistrate's Court; Atapattu Walawwa; Fort; Galwadugoda Purana Vihara
11. GALPATA: Sonagiri Gallen Tapowana Vihara; Bisokotuwa Lake
12. GALWEWA: Raja Maha Vihara
13. GAMPAHA: Sri Sugatharama Purana Vihara; Henarathgoda Railway Station
14. GANDARA: Raja Maha Vihara; Maha Walawwa
15. GANEGAMA: Aramanapola Vihara
16. GANEGODA: Cave Temple
17. GANEKANDA: Walagamba Raja Maha Vihara
18. GANELANDAGAMA: Diyavinna Devagiri Purana Gallen Vihara
19. GANETENNA: Kamburupitiya Sri Sudharmarama Purana Vihara
20. GANGODAGAMA PALLEDENIGODA: Galapatha Purana Vihara
21. GILIMALE: Sri Rankoth Raja Maha Vihara
22. GINIHAPPITIYA: Purana Vihara
23. GIRAIMBULA: Wooden Bridge
24. GIRANDURUKOTTE: School Premises Ruins
25. GIRIKULUWA: Sri Prabodharama Purana Vihara
26. GODAGEDARA: Deeparama Vihara
27. GODAKAWELA: Balawinna Purana Gangarama Vihara; Sri Mahinda Raja Maha Vihara
28. GODAPITIYA: Godapitiya Mohideen Jumma Mosque; Sri Sudharshanarama Vihara
29. GODAPOLA: Kehelwathugoda Galliyadda Ruins
30. GODAPORUGALA: Kadademugala Archaeological Site
31. GODEGAMA: Vihara
32. GODIGAMUWA: Ihalagodigamuwa Ruins; Bibile Oya Pilimalena Vihara
33. GONAGANARA: Neluwagala Kanda Vihara; Walagamba Raja Maha Vihara
34. GONAPINUWALA: Sri Shylakutharama Purana Vihara
35. GONDIWELA: Tempita Vihara
36. GORAKANA SOUTH: Purana Kande Vihara
37. GOTHAMEEGAMA: Ruins
38. GOTHAMIPURA: Gotami Vihara
39. GURUGAMUWA: Pattini Devalaya Lindamulla


H

1. HABARADUWA: Devagiri Vihara
2. HABARUGALA: Mulagiri Aranya Senasana
3. HADAGAMA: Malakariya Ruins
4. HAKMANA: Ruwankanda Raja Maha Vihara; Thorawita Raja Maha Vihara; Umangala Raja Maha Vihara
5. HAKURUWELA: Raja Maha Vihara
6. HALDUMMULLA: Purana Vihara; Limestone Cave
7. HALI ELA: Ganetenna Purana Raja Maha Vihara
8. HALLATTHUTHENNA: Judicial Court
9. HALMILLAKETIYA: Halmillaketiya Tope
10. HALWALA KANDA: Bulathwathu Kanda Ruins; Pawrekanda Purana Vihara
11. HAMBANTOTA: Prison Wall; Court Complex's Main Building; Gallows; Lighthouse; Henry Jones Tombstone; Martello Tower
12. HAMBEGAMUWA: Nikevehera Vihara; Pashchimarama Vihara
13. HANDAPANAGALA: Kanabisopokuna Raja Maha Vihara
14. HANWELLA: Canal Around the Old Dutch Fort; Two Seats In The Hanwella Rest House
15. Hapuketiya: Passara Raja Maha Vihara
16. HAPUTALE: Circuit Bungalow; Haputale Forest Office; Reheddegala Forest Hermitage; Soragune Devalaya; Velanhinna Fort
17. HAPUTALEGAMA: Sri Bimbarama Raja Maha Vihara
18. HAPUWANA: Kshestrarama Purana Vihara
19. HARIGALA IDDAMALPANA: Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe Raja Maha Vihara Galigamuwa
20. HEBARAWA: Hebarawa Ruins
21. HEBESSA: Ruins
22. HEENATIGAHAMULA: Kottamba Sri Subadhrarama Vihara
23. HEIYANTHUDUWA: Purana Vihara
24. HELAGAMA: Devagiri Aranya Senasana
25. HELAMADA: Ganekanda Raja Maha Vihara
26. HENPITA: Embulgama Raja Maha Vihara
27. HERALIYAWALA: Sri Sudharmarama Vihara
28. HEWADIWELA: Miniyapitiyawatta Ruins; Vivekarama Vihara
29. HIKGODA: Sri Sudharmarama Vihara
30. HINDAGODA: Kotalawala Walawwa
31. HINGULA: Raja Maha Vihara
32. HINGURAKGODA: Halmilla Wewa Ruins
33. HINGURUKADUWA: Ampitigoda Purana Vihara
34. HOBARIYAWA: Purana Vihara
35. HOKANDARA NORTH: Hokandara Purana Vihara
36. HOLOMBUWA: Ruins; Pattini Devalaya; Streepura Gallen Vihara; Budugalge Purana Vihara
37. HORANA: Raja Maha Vihara
38. HULFTSDORP WEST ANKESELWATTA: Court Complex
39. HUNGAMPOLA: Sri Guharama Purana Vihara
40. HUNUPITIYA EAST: Sri Vijayasundararama Vihara


I

1. IDDAMADUWA: Iddamaduwa Ruins
2. IHALA MAWELA: Mawela Purana Gallen Vihara
3. IHALA WADIYAGAMA: Stupa
4. ILLUKPELESSA: Coffee Factory
5. ILLUPPAIKADAVAI: Padavuthurai
6. ILUKGODA: Shaila Kanthrama Vihara
7. INDHIGAS ELLA: Bambaragala Nikiniyagoda Caves
8. IRRANAI ILUPPAIKULAM: Iluppaikulam Sivan Temple


J

1. JAFFNA: Palace Ruins; Yamuna Eri Pond
2. JEEWANA: Raja Maha Vihara


K

1. KACHCHERIYAGAMA: Awasakanda Archaeological Ruins
2. KACHCHILAMADU: Pandara Vanniyan Monument; Pandara Vanniyan Ruins
3. KADIRAGODA: Nuga Tree
4. KADIRANA: Kandawala Water Level Measurement Pillar
5. KADURUGAMUWA: St Andrew's Church
6. KAGALLA: Galapatha Raja Maha Vihara
7. KAHAGAL VIHARAGODA: Kasagala Vihara
8. KAHAMBANA: Ambagolla Thislen Vihara
9. KAHATARUPPA: Urumtenna Purana Vihara
10. KAHATHTHEWELA: Ambalama
11. KAHAVILGODA: Elgiriya Raja Maha Vihara
12. KALALPITIYA: Dhathukanda Sri Jinendarama Purana Raja Maha Vihara
13. KALIKKADU: Kalikkadu Ruins
14. KALMUNEI: Olsurvey Post
15. KALUTARA: Gangatilake Devalaya; Nigrodharama Vihara; Official Residence Of High Court Judge; Pulinatalarama Vihara
16. KALUWAMODARA: Kalyanarama Purana Vihara; Kande Vihara
17. KALUWELLA: Cathedral Of The Mother Of Rosary; The House Bearing Assessment
18. KALVILAN: Ruins
19. KAMBURUGAMUWA: Halvinna Sri Jaya Maha Vihara
20. KANATHIRIYANWELA: Elugala Purana Tempita Vihara; St Anthony's Roman Catholic Church; Wehera Sindayaya Ruins
21. KANAVEGALLA: Stone Inscription
22. KANDANGAMUWA: Madarasinharama Vihara
23. KANDASURINDUGAMA: Cave Temple
24. KANDE: Pothgulgala Forest Hermitage
25. KANDE VIHARAGAMA: Purana Gallen Raja Maha Vihara
26. KANESAPURAM: Ruins
27. KANUGOLLA: Shailabimbarama Vihara
28. KANUKETIGODA: Poorwarama Vihara
29. KAPPATIPOLA: Tampita Vihara
30. KAPUGODA: St Vicenthi Home
31. KARAGAMPITIYA: Subodharama Purana Vihara
32. KARAMBAKADU Samanankulam: Ruins
33. KARANDUGALA: Ruins
34. KARANGODA: Pothgul Raja Maha Len Vihara
35. KARAPITIYA: Sunandarama Purana Vihara
36. KARAVILAKANATTE: Nayagala Aranya Senasana
37. KARIYAGAMA: Raja Maha Vihara
38. KATAGAMUWA: Nandimitra Stupa
39. KATALUWA: Atadage Walawwa
40. KATARAGAMA: Kataragama Temple
41. KATUWANA: Fort; Sri Vihara
42. KAWUDAWA: Purana Vihara
43. KAWUDUGMA: Vihara
44. KEERAHENA: Purana Vihara
45. KEERAHENA UDABAGE: Keerahena Gallen Vihara
46. KEGALLE: Jubilee Ambalama
47. KEHELLANDA: Bingoda Purana Vihara
48. KEHELWATHUGODA: Galkande Deniya Kumbura Ruins
49. KEKULA: Kabara Rock Cave
50. KELAMBUGAHA Athura: Waldehi Katuwa Akuru Ketugala Inscriptions
51. KELANIYA: Raja Maha Vihara
52. KEMPITIKANDA: Bodhirukkarama Purana Vihara
53. KEPPETIPOLA: Fort; Sri Somananda Pirivena
54. KERAGALA: Purana Vihara
55. KERAMINIYA: Raja Maha Vihara
56. KERIDAMADU: Ruins
57. KESELPOTHA: Rambaken Vihara
58. KEWELAGALA: Ruins
59. KIMBULAWALA: Galabedda Sri Pana Vihara
60. KINCHIGUNE SOUTH: Kolaberiya Elagawa Watta Archaeological Ruins
61. KIRAWANAGAMA: Raja Maha Vihara
62. KIRIBATHGODA: Sudarshanarama Vihara
63. KIRIELLA: Ellawala Sri Gangarama Purana Vihara; Nedun Raja Maha Vihara
64. KIRIIBBANWEWA: Nayaru Dagoba
65. KITHULGODA: Ganegodella Purana Raja Maha Vihara
66. KITULGALA: Belilena
67. KIVULAYAYA: Mandagala Vihara
68. KLUBULLANDA: Purana Vihara
69. KOKAVIL: Ruins
70. KOKDUWA: Siripawara Bodhirajarama Vihara
71. KOKUNNEWA: Vihara
72. KOLLAVALAMKULAM: Nagathambran Kovil Ruins
73. KOLONNA: Aththarama Purana Vihara; Dapane Sri Jayasundararama Raja Maha Vihara
74. KOLONWINNA: Ganulpotha Purana Vihara
75. KOMARIKA: Dehigaskanda Mineral Mine
76. KONEGASMANKADA: Walipatha Puhulyaya Purana Vihara
77. KONKATIYA: Budugallena Aranya Senasana; Aluthwela Vihara; Purana Vihara
78. KORATOTA: Raja Maha Vihara
79. KOROSDOOVA: Vivekarama Vihara
80. KOSKANDAWALA: Ancient Caves; Raja Maha Vihara; Parewigala Drip Ledgecave
81. KOSLANDA: Ariyawansarama Vihara
82. KOSPILLEWA: Panasavanarama Vihara
83. KOSSINNA: Raja Maha Vihara
84. KOTADENIYAWA: Ambagahalanda Watta Walawwa
85. KOTAHENA: Central Kovil Rest Hall; Deepaduththarama Vihara; St Lucia's Cathedral
86. KOTALAWALA: Sankhapitti Vihara
87. KOTAVEHERA: Pulinathalarama Vihara
88. KOTAVEHERAGALA: Selamali Chaithya
89. KOTAWERA: Kahatathalawa Naa Bodhi
90. KOTHAPALUWA ANRANWALA: Asokarama Forest Hermitage
91. KOTIYAGALA: Wattegama Purana Vihara
92. KOTIYAGODA: Kotiyagoda Purana Vihara
93. KOTTAKAMBOK: Rathmalvehera Purana Vihara
94. KOTTEGODA; Siriwardhanarama Vihara; Sudarshanabimbharama Vihara
95. KOTTEGODAKADANA: Galge Pitiya Purana Vihara
96. KOTTIMBULWALA: Len Vihara
97. KUDABOLANA MALAYU’S COLONY: Veheragoda Stupa
98. KUDAGALAYAYA: Veeppannagala Rock Ruins
99. KUDALIGAMA: Sri Vishnu Pattini Devalaya
100. KUDAPAYAGALA: Payagala Police Station
101. KUKULEGAMA: Nerawanalena Cave At Sri Sumana Gallen Vihara
102. KULAMMURIPPU: Ruins
103. KUMARAKANDA: Purana Vihara
104. KUMARAPURAM: Sri Chithravelaudam
105. KUMARAWATTA: Sitakanda Aranya Senasana
106. KUMBALGAMA: Ethulwatta Walawwa
107. KUPPIYAWATTA; Jayasekararama Vihara
108. KURAGALA: Gallen Raja Maha Vihara
109. KURUDANA: Gangathilaka Vihara
110. KURUGAMA: Rakhithakanda Purana Vihara
111. KURUNTHUHINNA: Dawson’s Rest House
112. KURUVITA: Devipahala Na Tree
113. KURUWITA: Purana Vihara


L

1. LAKSHAPATHIYA: Kshetrarama Maha Vihara
2. LEGAMA: Kotasa Ruins
3. LENAGAMPALA: Purana Viharaa
4. LENDORUMULLA: Wathudeni Raja Maha Vihara
5. LEWKE: Walawwa Anbuddha Shrine
6. LEWKE DODANTALE: Aluth Nuwara Devalaya Ruins; Sri Seneviratne Uposatha Raja Maha Vihara
7. LINDARA: Raja Maha Vihara
8. LOLLEHELA: Mount Ruins
9. LOLUWAGODA: Pothgul Vihara
10. LUNUWATTA: Mana Ella Archaeological Reserve; Minuwangamuwa Vihara


M

1. MABOTUNNA: Vihara
2. MADEIYAWA: Tharanagala Ruins
3. MADHUWA: Sudharamarama Purana Vihara
4. MADURUPITIYA: Thotewatta Patthini Devalaya
5. MADUWANWELA: Walawwa
6. MAGALKANDA: Parama Chethiyarama Vihara
7. MAGGONA: St Francis Church; St Mary's Church
8. MAHABOLANA: Uchchawalitha Raja Maha Vihara]
9. MAHAGAMA: Oorusitawewa Ruins
10. MAHAGAMMEDDA: Sri Dharmaguptha Pirivena
11. MAHAGODAYAYA: Devagiri Aranya Senasana; Rahatunkanda Buddharakkhitha Aranya Senasana
12. MAHALLOLUWA: Sri Saddharmarama Vihara; Sri Sudarshanarama Vihara
13. MAHARA: Purana Vihara
14. MAHAWALATENNA: Puskada Cave
15. MAHAWALATHENNA: Sri Chandrasekara Purana Vihara
16. MAHIYANGANA: Raja Maha Vihara; Saman Devalaya
17. MAHIYANGANAYA: Hehelayaya Ruins
18. MAKANDURA: Maha Walawwa; Purana Vihara
19. MAKULADENIYA: Purana Raja Maha Vihara
20. MAKURA: Dharmarathanarama Vihara; Makura Vihara
21. MALADENIYA: Shylakantharama Purana Vihara; Ambalena Cave
22. MALIGAKANDA: Maha Bodhi Vihara; Vidyodaya Pirivena
23. MALIGAWATTA: Muslim Cemetery; Railway Premises
24. MALLAHEWA: Kotasara Piyangala Raja Maha Vihara
25. MALWATHUHIRIPITIYA: MALIGATENNA Raja Maha Vihara
26. MAMPITAGAMA: Mampita Purana Gallen Raja Maha Vihara; Tholangamuwa Purana Vihara
27. MANABHARANA: Raja Maha Vihara
28. MANGALAGAMA: Ambalama
29. MANGALATIRIYA: Miriswatta Gallen Vihara
30. MANGEDARA: Mahawatta Purana Vihara
31. MANINTHALE: Shiva Kovil Ruins
32. Mannagoda: Tempita Vihara
33. MANNAKANDAL: Kanniyar Kovil Ruins
34. MANNAR: Fort
35. MAPAKADA: Mapagala Vehera Archaeological Site
36. MAPAKADAWEWA: Mapagoda Weheragodella Ruins
37. MARADANA: Beruwala Lighthouse; Railway Station Store Room; Samadhi Grahaya In Kalandar Sahib Waliyulla Muslim Mosque
38. MARAGALA: Gallengoda Raja Maha Vihara
39. MARAKOLLIYA HENAKADUWA: Sri Sudarshanarama Vihara Henakaduwa
40. MASSALA: Sapugoda Sri Maha Vihara
41. MATARA: Building In Gelisvenaroy Watte; Dutch Reformed Church; The Archaic Walawwa; Land Registry; The Coast View Building; The Governor’s Official Residence; The Special Detention Cell Of The Prison; The VIP Bungalow; Matara Square Wall; Rampart Ammunition Store Star Fort
42. MATIYAMULLA: Payagala Swarnarama Vihara
43. MAWANELLA: Bridge; Udyanagoda Purana Len Vihara
44. MAYILLA: Kotiyagala Len Vihara
45. MEDAGAMA: Hathporuwa Vihara; Kosmandiya Aranya Senasana; Poyamalu Vihara
46. MEDAGODA: Ambalama
47. MEDAGODA AMITIRIGALA: Siddha Pattini Devalaya Medagoda
48. MEDAKEEMBIYA EAST: Sri Kshetrarama Purana Vihara
49. MEDAMULANA: Sri Bodhimalu Purana Raja Maha Vihara
50. MEDAPITIYA: Neelagiri Purana Vihara
51. MEDAWELA: Udukinda Jinapothikarama Vihara
52. MEDDEGAMA: Raja Maha Vihara
53. MEDILIYAGAMA: Raja Maha Vihara
54. MEDIRIGIRIYA: Vatadage
55. MEEGAHAGODA: Purana Vihara
56. MEEGALLA: Viharagala Drip Ledgecave
57. MEENVILLA: Somawathiya Chaitya
58. MEEPE: Ambalama
59. MEEYAGALA: Purana Vihara
60. MELLAGAMA: Kotabowa Kuda Kataragama Devala
61. METIKOTAMULLA: Saddharamathilakarama Vihara
62. MIDDHARAMULLA: Kshetrarama Purana Vihara
63. MILAGIRIYA: Fellows Lelah House
64. MILLAKEWA GIRANDURUKOTTE: Hanguma Purana Vihara
65. MINNERIYA: Nagalakanda Mahasen Monastery
66. MIRIHANA: Jubilee Post
67. MOLOKGAMUWA THUNBEWULA: Wijayabahu Raja Maha Vihara
68. MONARAGALA: Weheradivulana Archaeological Site
69. MORAGALA: Ambanoluwa Raja Maha Vihara
70. MORAGALLA: Dhammikarama Purana Vihara
71. MORAGAMMANA: Mayurapada Vihara
72. MORATTAMULLA: Nagala Raja Maha Vihara
73. MOTTUNNA: Kiritarama Vihara
74. MULKIRIGALA: Mulkirigala Raja Maha Vihara
75. MULLAITIVU: Fort
76. MULLEGAMA: Mulgiri Purana Vihara
77. MULLENDIYAAWALA: Sri Thaalarukkaaraama Vihara
78. MURUNGASYAYAWEST: Middeniya Purana Vihara
79. MUTHTHAIYANKADDU KULAM: Muththaiyankaddu Lake Ruins
80. MUTHUKELIYAWA: Katugahagalge Purana Len Vihara
81. MUWAPITIYA: Sri Sudharmarama Tempita Vihara


N

1. Naape: Kosgoda Ganegodella Purana Vihara
2. NAITHTHIKKAIKULAM: Ruins
3. NALAGAMA: Ganegoda Purana Vihara
4. NALLA: Madabavita Raja Maha Vihara; Yaka Bendi Ella
5. NAMALUWA: Archaeological Site
6. NANGALLA: Hunuwala Raja Maha Vihara
7. NANNAPURAWA: Ahungoda Purana Vihara
8. NAPE: Ganegodella Purana Vihara Kosgoda; Ganegodella Rajamaha Vihara
9. NARANGASKOTUWA: Malwana Fort
10. NAVAGAMUWA: Pattini Devalaya; Raja Maha Viahara
11. NAWAGAMUWA SOUTH: Andudola Kanda Archaeological Ruins
12. NEDIGAMWILA: Archaeological Ruins
13. NEGOMBO: Saint Stephen's Church; Fort; The Ancient Magazine
14. NELUWANTHUDUWA: Two Drip Ledgerock Caves
15. NEVISMERE: Lower Village Ruins
16. NEWOLKELE: Mahatissa Len Senasuna
17. NIHILUWA: Galkote Raja Maha Vihara
18. NIKAWALAMULLA HAKURUGALA: Hakurugala Raja Maha Vihara
19. NILMALGODA: Karandulen Vihara
20. NILWAKKA: Raja Maha Vihara
21. NIRAVIYA: Uyilankulam Ruins
22. NIWATUWA: Athnawala Watta Ruins
23. NIWUNHELLA: Peelahenawatta Ruins
24. NIYANGAMA: Udaha Walawwa
25. NUGATALAWA: Divurumwela Raja Maha Vihara; Divurumwela Raja Maha Vihara
26. NUPE: Old Nupe Market; Sarammudali Walauwa


O

1. OBADAELLA: Sudarmarama Purana Vihara
2. OKKAMPITIYA: Dambegoda Bodhisatva Statue; Dematamal Viharaya
3. OLAWENIGAMA: Kolawenigama Raja Maha Vihara
4. OMALPE: Tempita Vihara
5. OMBAGAHAWELA: Gonsarudawa Archaeological Reserve
6. OVITIGALA: Sunandarama Vihara


P

1. PAHALA KADUGANNAWA: Ambalama
2. PAHALA KIMBIYA: Shailavarama Purana Raja Maha Vihara
3. PAHALA KOTAVEHERA: Kotavehera Vihara
4. PAHALA MANIYANGAMA: Sitawaka Fort
5. PAHALA YAGODA: Sugathanandanarama Vihara
6. PAHALAGAMA: Yatawatta Purana Vihara
7. PAHALAGAMAVEVALDENIYA: Yayagala Purana Vihara
8. PAHALAKARAGAHAMUNA: Gal Edanda Raja Maha Vihara; Ancient Pond
9. PAHALATHALDUUWA: Berendi Kovil
10. PAIBEKKA: Godavaya Vihara
11. PALAIYAMURUKANDY: Ambalavikulam Ruins
12. PALATOTA: Ammunition Store
13. PALEPPANI: Ruins; Periyathehilamkulam Ruins
14. PALKUMBURA: Kota Veherawatta Stupa
15. PALLAWELA: Kirthi Sri Thejovanarama Vihara
16. PALLEBEDDA: Sankhapala Raja Maha Vihara
17. PALLEGAMA: Kavantissa Raja Maha Vihara
18. PALLEROTA: Ramba Raja Maha Vihara
19. PALLEWELA: Kirivehera Raja Maha Vihara
20. PALLIMUNAI: Mannar Baobab Tree
21. PAMANKADA: Balapokuna Raja Maha Vihara
22. PANADURA: Rankoth Vihara
23. PANANGALA: Gangarama Vihara
24. PANAWENNA: Abayathilakarama Vihara
25. PANGAMVILYAYA: Nakadawala Vihara
26. PARANAKADE: Ketchchimalai Mosque
27. PARAPAWA: Parapawa Raja Maha Vihara
28. Pathagangoda: Ambarukkharama Maha Vihara
29. PAYAGALA: Moola Maha Vihara; St Francis Xaviour Church
30. PEHERAMBE: Ruins
31. PELENDA: Weediya Bandara Palace Ruins
32. PELIYAGODA: Vidyalankara Pirivena
33. PELMADULLA: Galpoththawala Purana Vihara; Sudharmodaya Raja Maha Vihara; Tomb Of Iddamalgoda Basnayake Nilame; Sri Sudharmarama Vihara Pelmadulla
34. PENATIYAMA: Sri Chethiyarama Purana Vihara
35. PEPILIYANA: Sunetradevi Raja Maha Vihara
36. PERARU: Ruins
37. PETHANGODA: Uyana; Dharmalankara Pirivena
38. PIDALIGANAWANIYADAGALA: Niyandagala Purana Gallen Vihara
39. PILAPITIYA: St Mary's Church
40. PILIKUTHTHUWA: Kitulgolla Cave; Raja Maha Vihara; Raja Maha Vihara; Viharakanda Cave; Viharakandawatta Cave
41. PIMBURA: Gulana Cave
42. PITAKOTTE: Gal Ambalama; Pita Kotte Raja Maha Vihara
43. PITAKUMBURAGAMA: Wilehigoda Raja Maha Vihara
44. PITAMARUWA: Raja Maha Vihara
45. PKAILAGODA: Walawwa
46. PODAPE: Purana Vihara
47. POKUNUWITA: Raja Maha Vihara
48. POLKOTUWA: St Anne's Catholic Church
49. POLWATTA: Gangarama Vihara
50. POONERYN: Gautharmunei Shiva Kovil Ruins.; Pooneryn Fort
51. POTHUWILA: Veherakanda Purana Vihara
52. PUBUDU WEWA: Neluwagala Kanda Purana Vihara
53. PUDAMAYAYA: Ruins
54. PULUMACHCHINADAKULAM: Lake Ruins
55. PUTHTHUVEDDUVAN: Marandakulam Ruins; Ruins
56. PUVAKDANDAWA: Panchathuparama Purana Vihara


R

1. RADAWELA: Aththadassa Raja Maha Vihara
2. RADDALGODA: Sri Jinendrarama Vihara
3. RAIGAMA: Pathaha Watta Ruins
4. RAJAGIRIYA: Obeysekera Walawwa
5. RALUWA: Raluwa Tanketiya Watta Archaeological Ruins
6. RAMBUKANAGAMA: Weheragodaella Ruins
7. RAMBUKKANA: Raja Maha Vihara
8. RAMBUKPOTHA: Maha Walawwa; Purana Vihara
9. RANAKELIYA: Uddakandara Puarana Vihara
10. RANAKELIYA NORTH: Sandagiri Seya
11. RANCHAGODA: Padinnoruwa Vihara
12. RANDILIGAMA: Sidda Pattini Devalaya
13. RANDIWELA: Sri Saranathilakarama Vihara
14. RANNA: Kahadagala Sri Dhammadhinna Vihara; Kahadawa Purana Vihara
15. RANPOKUNAGAMA: Maimbula Gallen Vihara
16. RATMALANA: Pushparama Vihara; Ratmalana Dewala Watta
17. RATNAPURA: Dewalegawa Galkaduwa Purana Len Vihara; Ehelepola Walawwa; National Gem & Jewellery Authority Building; DIG Office Building; Ratnapura District Court Official Residence; Dutch Fort; Guest House; Library Building; Portuguese Fort; Regional Survey Office Building; SP Office Building; SSP Office Building; Traffic Police Office Building; St Aloysius National School Building; St Paul & Saint Peter Cathedral
18. RAVANA ELLA: Ella Vihara
19. REKAWA: Jaya Maha Vihara
20. RICHMOND HILL; Methodist Church Galle
21. RIDEEMALIYADDA: Potawa Ambalama
22. RIDIMALIYADDE SOUTH: Kanugolla Shailabimbarama Vihara
23. RITIGAHAWATTA: Kadala Veherawatte Ruins
24. RUWANAWELLA: Bridge; Jubilee Ambalama


S

1. SAKKRAKANDHA: Ruins
2. SALGALA: Forest Hermitage
3. SAMANABEDDA: Ganegoda Watta Archaeological Ruins; Ganeuda Raja Maha Vihara
4. SANDAGIRIGAMA: Punchi Akurugoda Archaeological Ruins
5. SANNASGAMA: Kiriweldeniya Purana Vihara
6. SAPUGAHAYAYA: Hellala Dakshina Purana Vihara
7. SAPUGASKANDA: Raja Maha Vihara
8. SAPUGODA: Vidyanikethana Piriven Vihara
9. SELAWA: Purana Raja Maha Vihara
10. SELAWA WEST: Purana Raja Maha Vihara
11. SHIVANAGAR: Kovil Ruins
12. SILAVATHURAI: Doric Bungalow
13. SIRIPURAGAMA: Vidimaga Purana Vihara
14. SIYAMBALAPITIYA: Purana Vihara
15. SIYAMBARAAHENA: Niloluwa Adidhunu Palama
16. SLAVE ISLAND: Army Recruiting Office Building
17. SOORIYAPOKUNA: Raja Maha Vihara
18. SOORIYAWEWA: Karabagala Aranya Senasana
19. SORANATHOTA: Buduge Kanda Raja Maha Vihara; Pattini Devalaya Kohovila
20. SRI JAYAWARDENEPURA KOTTE: Alakeshwara Archaeological Site; Lambrick Hall; Moat; Siri Perakumba Pirivena; Tunnel At Kotte Ananda Sastralaya
21. SUDUPANAWELA: Weligam Vehara Purana Vihara


T

1. TALANGAMUWA: Henahela Veedhiya Ruins
2. TALAWANORTH: Talawa Sri Bodhialakarama Vihara
3. TALAWATTA: Levangama Tempita Vihara
4. TALGAHAHENA: Sri Sumanarama Vihara
5. TALGASPITIYA: Deniyatenna Vihara
6. TALPITIYA: Daladawaththa Purana Vihara
7. TANGALLE: Court Complex
8. TELWATTA: Thotagamu Rathapath Raja Maha Vihara
9. THABANA: Devagiri Vihara
10. THADDAYAMALAI: Ruins
11. THALAGAMAEAST: Thalagama Raja Maha Vihara
12. THANAMALVILA: Pilimahela Ruins
13. THELANGAPATHA: Sri Sudharmarama Vihara
14. THELIKADA: Ampitiya Devalaya; Sri Sunandarama Purana Vihara
15. THELWATHTHA: Rathpath Rajamaha Vihara
16. THENNIYANKULAM: Ruins
17. THIHARIYA: Warana Raja Maha Vihara
18. THIHAVA: Archaeological Ruins
19. THIMBIRIGASYAYA: Bans Hall
20. THIMBIRIPOLA: Raja Lena; Ranpothagala
21. THIMBIRIYAGAMA: Thimbiriya Raja Maha Vihara
22. THIRUWANAKATIYA: Ganegoda Purana Vihara; Wanawasa Pansala
23. THISSAMAHARAMA: Kirinda Maha Vihara; Sithulpawwa Rajamaha Viharaya; Raja Maha Vihara; Yatala Vehera
24. THORAPITIYA: Weherahinna Archaeological Ruins
25. THUNKEMGALA: Raja Maha Vihara
26. TIRUKETHEESWARAM: Ketheeswaram Temple
27. TISSAMAHARAMA: Old Market


U

1. UDAARAWA: Veherayaya Ruins
2. UDABERAGAMA: Beragama Punyawardhanarama Vihara; Beragama Vilgam Vehera
3. UDAGALA DENIYA: Damunu Kanda Mukalana Anneeraviya Hena Ruins
4. UDAGAMA: Stupa
5. UDAGOMADIYA: Kesel Watta Vihara
6. UDAMMITA: Purana Vihara; Raja Maha Vihara
7. UDAWATTA: Sri Sunandarama Vihara
8. UDAYALA: Kasagala Raja Maha Vihara
9. UDUGAMA: Nawagamuwa Raja Maha Vihara; Purana Raja Maha Vihara
10. UDUGAMPOLA: Purana Vihara
11. UDUPPIDDY: Veerapattiyar Kovil
12. UDUTHUNGIRIPITIYA: The Drip Ledgerock Cave Access Steps
13. UDUWAKA: Purana Gallen Raja Maha Vihara
14. UGGALBODA: Uggalboda Vihara
15. UGGALKALTOTA: Medabedda Pallekanda Yaya Ruins
16. UHANGODA: Gallalla Raja Maha Sath Pathini Dewalaya
17. UNANVITA: Alagoda Walawwa
18. UNAWATUNA: Raja Maha Vihara
19. UPPER LENAGALA: Lenakaduwa Vihara
20. URANEEYA: Nagadeepa Raja Maha Vihara Uraneeya
21. URAWATHTHA: Gangarama Vihara
22. URUBOKKA: Wall Built During Dutch Period
23. URUMALAI: Mannar Island Lighthouse
24. UTHUWAMBOGAHAWATTA: Sri Sudarshanarama Vihara Mirigama
25. UTHUWANA: Ruins
26. UTTUPULAMI: Uttupulam Ruins
27. UVA KETAWALA: Ketawala Ambalama
28. UVA KOSGAMA: Kosgama Walawwa
29. UYILANKULAM: Ambalaperumal Lake Ruins


V

1. VADUWELIVITIYA: Gangarama Vihara
2. VAGEGODA: Rankothmaluwa Vihara
3. VEEDURUPOLA: Vihara
4. VEHERAGALA: Archaeological Site
5. VEHERAWATTA: Veherawatta Vihara
6. VEHERAYAYA: Keheliya Raja Maha Vihara
7. VEHERAYAYAGAMA: Sellaba Purana Raja Maha Vihara
8. VELLAKULAM: Ruins
9. VERAGAMPITA: The House In Which Gajaman Nona Lived
10. VERAGODA: Ruins; Walagamba Gallen Raja Maha Vihara
11. VETTAMBUGALA: Vettambugala Ruins
12. VIHARA MULLA: Muppane Raja Maha
13. VIHARAWELA: Ihalagalagama Gallen Raja Maha Vihara
14. VILLAGODA: Ambalama
15. VINAYAGAPURAM: Ruins


W

1. WADDUWA: Vivekarama Vihara
2. WALAGAMA: Ira Handa Gala
3. WALALGODA: Purana Tempita Vihara
4. WALANDAKARE: Ruins
5. Walawwatta: Bibile Walawwa
6. WALIPATHYAAYA: Lanka Pabbatha Gallen Raja Maha Vihara
7. WALPOLA : Ihala Walpola Sri Gawthamaramaya Purana Vihara
8. WARAAWELA MUDUGAMUWA: Dhunu Palama
9. WARAKAGODA: Gallen Raja Maha Vihara; Ganeuda Purana Vihara; Ganeuda Vihara; Ruins; Ganeudawaththa Ruins; Weheragodellawatta Site
10. WARAPALANA: Sri Jinendrarama Vihara
11. WARAPITIYA: Sittam Gallena Raja Maha Vihara; Weharakotuwa Archaeological Ruins
12. WARUNAGAMA Weerasekaragama: Ruins
13. WASKADUBEDDA DELDOOVA: Ganewatta Purana Vihara
14. WASKADUWA: Subuthi Vihara
15. WATHTHEGAMA: Viharamulla Galketiya Ruins
16. WATHTHEGAMA VIHARAMULLA: Wattegama Miyangodapitiya Ruins
17. WATHURA: Raja Maha Vihara
18. WATTARAMA: Forest Hermitage; Raja Maha Vihara
19. WATTE GEDARA: Vipashyarama Vihara
20. WATTUKANDA: Purana Vihara
21. WAUWULUGALA: Sri Damma Rakkhitharama Purana Vihara
22. WEEDIYAGODA: Raja Maha Vihara
23. WEERAKETIYA: Konthagala Raja Maha Vihara
24. WEHELLA: Weluwanarama Purana Vihara
25. WEHERAGALA: Purana Vihara
26. WELEKADE: Old Market Complex
27. WELIARA: Weligam Vehera Purana Vihara
28. WELIGAMA: Agrabodhi Raja Maha Vihara; Kowilakanda Purana Vihara; Kushtarajagala; Rajakula Wadana Raja Maha Vihara
29. WELIPILLEWA: Purana Vihara
30. WELIPITIYA: Vehera Kotha Kanda Vihara
31. WELITARA: Mahakappitha Walawwa; Sri Pushparama Vihara Balapitiya
32. WELIWATTA: Wijeyananda Piriven Vihara
33. WELIYAYA: Mayuragiri Purana Vihara
34. WELLASSAGAMA: Rahathankanda Aranya Senasana
35. WELLAWAYA: Buduruvagala; Kithulkotte Henyaya Archaeological Reserve; Telulla Ruins
36. WERAGALA: Purana Sriwardhenarama Vihara
37. WERAGAMPITA: Raja Maha Vihara
38. WERAGODA: Kshetrarama Purana Vihara; Seenigama Devalaya
39. WETENNA: Sri Shyla Vivekaramaya Alias Pansalwatta


Y

1. YAKKALAMULLA: Udumalagala Sri Gangarama Purana Vihara
2. YAKKHADURAWA: Sri Vehera Pudama Vihara
3. YATIMAHANA: Budulena Gala Raja Maha Vihara; Banagegoda Ambalama
4. YATIYALLATHOTA: Archaeological Reserve
5. YODAKANDIYA: Naga Maha Vihara
6. YONGAMMULLA: Ambagahahena Cave; Kekirihena Cave; Midigahalanda Cave
7. YUDAGANAWA: Yudaganawa Vihara

Sri Lanka’s moonstones – sometimes known as Ceylon Opals - come in shades of white, blue, and grey. A semi-precious stone, it gets its name for its texture - and the artful way in which its colour resembles moonlight shining through clouds. With a quality typically higher than almost any other mined in the world, moonstones are broadly subdivided into blue, semi- blue, and white. They are most usually found in alluvial streams; and in particular in Meetiyagoda, near Ambalangoda in the south of the island. Smaller mines exist in places like Matale; amongst gravels in such rivers as the Mahaweli and Walawe; and in smaller quantities in Elipitiya, Pitigala, Horton Plains and Weligama. They are promoted as the stone of emotions, an essential accessory for the improvement of mental clarity and emotional equilibrium. They are also much favoured by travellers as a form of other-worldly protection. Long used by jewellers, they gained a particular boost during the Art Nouveau period (1890-1910), not least through the creations of the French goldsmith Rene Lalique. Fake moonstones abound – but there is a tried and trusted method to distinguish the real McCoy: if you roll the stone between your fingers and it becomes translucent, it is probably a fake. Genuine stones – like the colour of a rainbow - never change colour.

Image courtsey of moonstone-store.com.

Built in 1806 by the British Governor, Sir Thomas Maitland, Mount Lavinia gained immediate fame for its not-so-secret tunnel linking the governor’s wine cellar to the home of his burgher lover. Successive governors would go on to use it as their out-of-town seaside retreat, enjoying its smart siting on a rock overlooking the sea and two pleasant beaches, restyling it in 1830 as an Italianate palace. With two hundred and seventy five rooms, it has been operating as a hotel since 1947, much loved as a wedding venue and brunching spot.

An illustration of a photograph by Alfred William Amandus Plate of The Mount Lavinia Hotel and Bathing Pavilion from 1890-1910. Public Domain.

An illustration of a photograph by Henry W Cave entitled "Ruined Cities of Ceylon, Moonstone Guardstones and Steps" from 1904. Public Domain.

The eighth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 367 BCE – 307 BCE.

Inheriting the throne from his father, Pandu Kabhaya, or possibly from the shadowy King Ganatissa who may have been his brother, father or merely a figure of antique fiction, Mutasiva was to rule as the second king of Anuradhapura until his death, peaceably, in in 307 BCE. Little is known about his reign except his enlargement of Mahamevnāwa, an enormous park in Anuradhapura noted for its flowering trees and fruits. Mindful of his dynastic Vijayan obligations, Mutasiva produced 9 sons, 5 of whom would rule after him. His own long reign would have done much to help entrench the Viyan dynasty’s early grip on the island.

A Sinhala term for a play that consists of song and verse.

For such a small island, Nainativu, situated just off the coast from Jaffna, has a dense and striking history, and features in some of the country’s more elaborate myths. Lord Buddha himself is said to have intervened to settle a dispute between two Naga princes here. A Naga princess from the island is said to have given birth to a son who went onto found the Pallava dynasty that from the 6th to 9th CE ruled over most of southern India. Indeed, the Nagas were the dominant people on the island before assimilating with the Tamils; and their worship of Nayinaar (a five headed cobra) continues to this day within the massive walls of the Nainativu Nagapooshani Amman Temple. The present temple, through dating from 1720, reaches back into antiquity and the very earliest records of Tamil life on the island; and is recorded too by the ancient Greek cartographer, Ptolemy. Today the island supports less than 3,000 people, its modest modern impact disguising a far more formidable ancient past.

A tiny pilgrim village – also known as Dalhousie – that is most useful positioned for those determined to climb Adam’s Peak. Its shops are full of such beneficial items as warm clothing and water flasks; and its name comes from the nearby Dalhousie tea estate whose ownership, though not noticeably Scottish, goes back to at least at a Mr F.G.A. Lane in 1885.

The Sri Lankan lion became extinct some thirty-seven thousand years BC, but this has not stopped it dominating the current national flag. Quite possibly an earlier design of the lion flag travelled here as Prince Vijaya standard in 486 BC. It was used thereafter right across the country’s many kingdoms, including those of Sitawaka, Kotte and Kandy – but not by the Portuguese, Dutch or British colonists. It was returned to once again at Independence in 1948 when a simple design of a yellow knife-wielding lion within a yellow frame on a red background was adopted, the cornered decorated with Bo leaves.

Its current design dates to a significant revision in 1972; the lion then being joined by as many symbols as a metaphysical painting. Minorities are represented in the orange (Tamil) and green (Moor) stripe; and the yellow border (Malays, Burghers, Veddas, Kaffirs and the Sri Lankan Chinese). The Singhala occupy the overall maroon background. Four expectant Bodhi-tree leaves highlight the virtues of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and self-control. The saffron border depicts unity. The lion himself is scattered with deeper meaning: intelligence (nose), purity (beard); a non-materialist outlook (front paws), hair (wisdom), and The Noble Eightfold Path (tail hairs). His sword stands for national sovereignty – but also water, fire, air, and earth.

In the height of the Civil Was, in 1987, individual flags were adopted for each of the country’s provinces. A golden bird, lion, and cobra feature on the Western Province flag, decorated with bo tree leaves and the four attributes of Buddhism. A lion with fig leaves dominates the flags of both the Sabaragamuwa and Southern Provinces, and a lion with fig leaves and lotus flowers that of the Central Province. A buffalo with sun, moon and stars is displayed on the North Western Province’s flag; a swan on Uvas’; and a fish, lion and eagle for the Eastern Province. The flag of the North Central Province is noticeably different to all others, featuring the first stupa in ancient Anuradhapura and an image of King Parakramabahu the Great, from Polonnaruwa. A greater degree of abstraction characterises the flag of the Northern Province - blocks of red (Hinduism), white (peace), and green (agriculture) framed by a blue border representing the sea.

An illustration of a photograph by Alfred William Amandus Plate of the Negombo Canal showing Padda Boats between 1890-1910. Public Domain.

A Sri Lankan Buddhist sect - also known, for its origins, as The Siam – that was founded by Upali Thera and located largely around Kandy.

Fluffy white sand, long ,still-almost undeveloped beaches, sea eagles gliding overhead and dolphins swimming in the seas – Nilaveli, which rather gorgeously means moonshine over open land in Singhala, is generally considered to be wholly gorgeous. Situated a little north of Trincomalee, this tiny Tamil town is in full recovery after the devastating 2004 Tsunami, its prospects also much improved by the ending in 2009 of the Civil War. Its natural history is enriched by the presence of the vast Sinnakarachchi Lagoon and Pigeon Island National Park, whose coral walls provide a home for home to over 300 fish species, and a variety of rare turtles.

The thirty third (interloper) monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being sometime around 47 to 44 BCE.

A palace priest, Niliya was placed on the throne of Anuradhapura in 47 or 44 BCE by his terrifying lover, the widowed Vijayan Queen, Anula. Anula had come into her inheritance by murdering five earlier monarchs: her husband Choura Naga, the twenty-eighth King of Anuradhapura; his successor, Choura Naga, the twenty-ninth monarch; and her last three lovers, Siva I, the thirtieth monarch, Vatuka, the thirty first monarch, and Darubhatika Tissa, the thirty second monarch. Within a year Anula had Niliya poisoned too.

Hidden down the 33rd Lane that turns off Colombo’s Bagatelle Road is Geoffray Bawa’s private town house, a rambling architectural marvel and museum which, whilst not run as a regular hotel, lets out two rooms to visitors. With demand far outstripping supply, getting to stay there can prove tricky – but lucky guests then have the great good fortune of having the entire museum, with its gorgeous assemblage of curios and masterpieces, all to themselves once the day trippers have gone.

Image courtsey of The Geoffray Bawa Trust.

A photograph by Alfred William Amandus Plate entitled "18th Hole and Club House Golf Links Nuwara Eliya Elevation 6200 Feet" dating to 1890-1910. Public Domain.

An illustration of a photograph of a corner of Nuwara Eliya's Lake taken in 1890. Public Domain.

“What is this life, if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare,” wrote Henry Williamson, the man who put ottars firmly on the literary map with “Tarka the Otter.” But care is what ottars now so badly need. Right around the world they face the very real threat of extinction; their potential demise a possible calamity still only being faced up to with modest corrective steps. The Ceylon Ottar (Lutra [Ceylonica] Nair) faces just the same, if not greater levels, of existential threat, though this does not appear to erode their abiding alacrity for play. Famously family-orientated (so much so that there is even a recorded case of an otter puppy being given by its mother to another mother who had given birth to a still born pup), they live in family groups and play and play – when not eating or sleeping. They are also scrupulously hygienic, with specific areas designed as ottar loos – this despite the fact that their poo is said to give off a scent not unlike that of jasmine tea. A distinctive sub species of the Eurasian Otter, the Ceylon Ottar is shy to the point of near invisibility. Covered in dark brown fur and about a metre long, weighing in at eight kilos, it lives off fish but is more than partial to any other smaller creature incautious enough to stray close to it in the rivers it inhabits.

Image courtsey of roar.media.

Arguments rage over quite how many birds are endemic to Sri Lanka. Of the almost 500 bird species that have been documented on the island, experts argue that only somewhere between 34 and 23 are truly endemic – a mere 5 or 6 per cent of the avian population. To put this in context, the authoritative International Ornithologists' Union classes 255 birds worldwide as owls of one kind or another. Looked at from this perspective Sri Lanka is something of a high achiever - a country that has 0.01% of the world’s land mass hosts 0.8% of its endemic owl species - the Sri Lanka Serendib Scops-Owl and Sri Lanka Chestnut-Backed Owlet.

Both species, by virtue of being endangered or nocturnal in preference are often hard to spot. You are more likely to see the some of the non-endemic species that have passed the challenging citizenship tests to become firmly resident in the country.

The Brown Fish Owl, more fondly known as the Brown Boobook, is some 13 inches in length. It is one of the most commonly seen owls, despite being nocturnal, having taken to roost in urban areas around Colombo and suburban zones with an easy going alacrity. As it dives for one of the tasty little reptiles or mammals that make up its diet, it can often be seen being mobbed by other, more suspicious birds. Its range stretches from India and Sri Lanka into the nearer parts of China and Indonesia.

Similar in range though larger in length (at 17 inches) is the Brown Wood Owl. Harder to find despite its loud, reverberating hoots, the Brown Wood Owl’s appearance offers you everything you might hope for in an owl: large serious black eyes set off within a frame of white feathers on darker ones.

The 10 inch Collared Scops Owl sticks to a similar Asian beat. It sport the same serious dark eyes but – like other scop owls, has those delightful tell-tale ears or head tufts - like Yoda in Star Wars - that give it the appearing of being able to listen to your every problem.

In all these attributes, it is very similar to the Indian Scops Owl that has also made its home among the trees and hollows of the Sri Lankan forests. Compared to its cousins, the Sri Lankan Serendib Scops Owl, is more muted in appearance, lacking the little ear tufts that so endear its relatives. It is a species new to science since just 2004, and, as a rainforest night roamer, is almost impossible to see.

The country’s only other endemic owl is the Chestnut-backed Owlet , a small stocky fellow barely 8 inches long; but one that is at least more visible for it can be seen often during the day and into the early evening.

Modest taxological arguments range over the status and endemic-ness of the Sri Lanka Bay Owl which calls both Kerela and Sri Lanka home. Coming in at around 10 inches in length, with a white feathered body and gorgeous white disc of a face, its eye area is picked out in darker feathers as if it has visited a Beauty Salon specialising in Baroque eye brows and eye lashes. It is happily well distributed - albeit a night creature. The Barn Owl, though not endemic, is nevertheless, a common sight across the island, happy, as its name suggests, roosting around humans in old buildings. Some 13 inches in length with a unmistakable white body and white disced face, it has acute hearing that it uses as it primary hunting sense – and it is one you might also need to harness for it has an ear-shattering shriek that it enjoys drawing out to its fullest extent.

All of these owls are most firmly pushed to the side lines by the Spot-bellied Eagle Owl, also known as the Devil Bird. This massive raptor, some 3 feet in length is the world’s sixth largest owl; and well distributed in Sri Lanka’s forests. Its grey and white markings make it easy to spot and the ledge-shaped tufts that lie horizontally over its eyes gives it a learned and quizzical look. But it is its savage, human-sounding shrieks that has granted it the greatest notoriety, for on the island it is also known as the Devil Bird and its cry is said to portend death.

The sixth monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), reigning from 437 BCE to 367 BCE.

Barely 100 years into their first royal dynasty, Sri Lanka had the great good fortune to encounter Pandu Kabhaya’s - one of its greatest kings. Inheriting, at best, a kinglet, he passed onto his Vijayan successors a fully functioning kingdom that for over centuries became a byword for opulence, sophistication, and progress. Pandu Kabhaya’s (improbably long) 70-year reign would have come as a blessed relief to family and subjects alike after a prolonged and murderous run of dynastic squabbling. This stemmed from his military campaign to wrest the kingdom of Upatissa Nuwara from Tisa, his uncle. A smart intelligence helped him see off repeated pre-ascension assassination attempts on his young life by his uncle Tissa. He won a total victory by 437 BCE, quite probably defeating or killing all but one of his other eight uncles in the process, putting the oldest, the ex-king Abhaya to work in his civil administration.

Pandu Kabhaya then set in train the real beginnings of the Anuradhapura Kingdom when he moved his capital to that site and, in Louis XIV-style, began building. Anuradhapura was then already some 200 years old and covered over 20 acres. Pandukabhaya took it to still greater heights. His efforts harnessed the country’s expertise in all areas of professionalism - from farming and engineering to administration and construction. By creating an unrivalled capital city, he was able to use it to project his dominance throughout the entire island. Documented remains of a great survey he conducted to assess his kingdom show some 700 villages spreading out across the island from the city of Anuradhapura across land described as Raja Ratna – the King’s country.

This ascendancy took the Vijayans time to foster, and for several centuries the kingdom co-existed with other smaller realms to the east and south before it was able to asset its pre-eminence. Anuradhapura was to become one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities – and for 1,500 years was the capital of the island state. Pandu Kabhaya was to give it its first palaces, new temples, pools, stupas, gardens, and dwellings. Nor did he appear to neglect the utilitarian, building hospitals, cemeteries, sewers and, in a marvellous feat of ancient engineering, constructing bisokotuwas to regulate the outflow of water from tanks and sluices to secure them against destruction in the annual floods

From the start Pandu Kabhaya’s rule respected his Vedda allies, the Yakkhas, Cittaraja and Kalavela, clans of the island’s earliest original inhabitants. The Mahāvaṃsa records his beneficial diligence:

“He settled the Yakkha Kalavela on the east side of the city, the Yakkha Cittaraja at the lower end of the Abhayatank…and on festival-days he sat with Cittaraja beside him on a seat of equal height, and having gods and men to dance before him, the king took his pleasure, in joyous and merry wise. He laid out also four suburbs as well as the Abhaya-tank, the common cemetery, the place of execution, and the chapel of the Queens of the West, the banyan-tree of Vessavana and the Palmyra-palm of the Demon of Maladies, the ground set apart for the Yonas and the house of the Great Sacrifice; all these he laid out near the west gate.

He set 500 candalas to the work of cleaning the town, 200 candalas to the work of cleaning the sewers, 150 candalas he employed to bear the dead and as many candalas to be watchers in the cemetery. For these he built a village north-west of the cemetery and they continually carried out their duty as it was appointed. Toward the north-east of the candala-village he made the cemetery, called the Lower Cemetery, for the candala folk. North of this cemetery, between (it and) the Pasana-mountain, the line of huts for the huntsmen were built thenceforth. Northward from thence, as far as the Gamani-tank, a hermitage was made for many ascetics; eastward of that same cemetery the ruler built a house for the nigantha Jotiya. In that same region dwelt the nigantha named Giri and many ascetics of various heretical sects. And there the lord of the land built also a chapel for the nigantha Kumbhanda.

Toward the west from thence and eastward of the street of the huntsmen lived five hundred families of heretical beliefs. On the further side of Jotiya’s house and on this side of the Gamani tank he likewise built a monastery for wandering mendicant monks, and a dwelling for the ajivakas and a residence for the brahmans, and in this place and that he built a lying-in shelter and a hall for those recovering from sickness. Ten years after his consecration did Pandu Kabhaya the ruler of Lanka establish the village-boundaries over the whole of the island of Lanka.”

Trade thrived exponentially; and there are even intriguing hints, documented by The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, of a small group of Greek merchants living in the royal city itself.

Credited with ending the guerrilla warfare that marked the resistance of the original island dwellers against the Vijayans, Pandu Kabhaya’s reign not only brought stability but bequeathed future constancy to the island, as his own son, Mutasiva, came peaceably to the throne in 367 BCE on his death.

The first of the Six Dravidian invaders of the Pandiyan Dynasty of South India; and the 72nd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE).

Leading a confederation of Pandiyan forces from South India, Pandu seized the throne from the reigning Anuradhapura king, Mittasena – who was to become the twenty sixth and last monarch of the Lambakanna Dynasty (1st Period). Decades of political turmoil and internecine regicide had numbed Mittasena’s kingdom, lowering its defences and its capability to meet any invader, let alone govern effectively. Mittasena, by all accounts a deeply devout king, was more given to religion than warfare. He enjoyed his throne for just a year before being killed in battle by Pandu. Pandu himself is thought to have been the 35th reigning Sri Lankan monarch to have died a natural death, the dates of his reign being 436 – 441 CE.

Illustration Credit: Fish Symbol - Later Pandya Collapsed Architectural Engineering Adinarayana Perumal Temple In Madurai Ground Report By S Rajagopal

The third monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), reigning from 504 BCE to 474 BCE.

Nephew of Vijaya, King of Tambapanni, the Vijayan dynasty’s founding father, Panduvasdeva was just what the nascent Vijayan dynasty needed to entrench itself. His greatest achievements were being able to rule for decades and produce heirs - albeit ones fixated on familicide. Whether his many sons all came from the same wife or not is unknown, for the harem was to be a key institution of the royal court, and a magnet for intrigue and politics until the last king of the last kingdom breathed his last. Panduvasdeva moved his capital from Upatissa Nuwara to the fortress of Vijithapura, close to what would later become its great capital, Anuradhapura. Today, he is chiefly remembered for the chaos that later enveloped the country as his 10 sons battled against the morbid predictions of a court soothsayer who predicted that they would all be killed by their nephew, Pandu Kabhaya, son of their only sister, Princess Citta.

Clothed in dexterous overlapping and generously rounded scales, the Indian Pangolin or Scaly Anteater (Manis Crassicaidata) is a unique cross between an architectural marvel, a desert tank, and a Viking warrior clad in chain mail. Measuring some fix feet nose to tail, it makes its home in rainforest and grassland and even colonizes modest hill country - right across the Indian sub-continent and all across Sri Lanka. It lives in burrows, some designed for sleeping, others for eating, its diet consisting of ants and termites, or, at a push beetles. Its long sticky tongue is specially evolved to dig deeply and productively into insect nests. Pregnancies last around two months and the cub (for there is usually only one) gets carried on its mother’s tail until it is able to move around confidently. Yet the Pangolin is teetering on the very edge of being critically endangered, not helped by increasing deforestation, but more especially because it is poached for its meat and its scales which are internationally traded as aphrodisiacs, rings, charm or crafted in grisly leather goods, like boots and shoes that surely shame their wearers more than they might be if caught dancing naked down Galle Face Green on the top of big red bus.

Image courtsey of edgeofexistence.org.

The twenty-fourth (invader) monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 98 BCE – 91 BCE.

One of 7 Dravidian chiefs from the Indian Pandyan Dynasty that forcibly took the Anuradhapuran Kingdom from its barely-established new ruler King Valagamba in 103 BCE, Panya Mara became king of Anuradhapura in 98 BCE by the simple expedient of murdering his Dravidian master, Bahiya. He has previously served him as chief minster. Much of his own short rule was dealing with threats to his own safety – from the avenging Valagamba - busy waging an ever more successful guerrilla war from the south - and from his own Dravidian colleagues, one of whom, Pilaya Mara, was to murder him.

Illustration show the famous statue of Parakramabahu the Great in Pollonnaruwa, taken by an unknown photographer at the turn of the century. Public Domain.

The 2nd of the Six Dravidian invaders of the Pandiyan Dynasty of South India; and the 73rd recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE).

Parindu inherited the throne from his father, Pandu, who appears to have died a natural death. But this was not to be the fate of his son. Parindu was murdered by his brother and successor, Khudda Parinda, becoming the 35th reigning Sri Lankan monarch to have been murdered for the succession after a reign of under a year (441 CE).

Illustration Credit: a reproduction of the PAndyian flag by Kiru-D-Kong

A beach town on the east coast north of Batticaloa, its sandy shores protected by a long reef.

A Sinhala term for the sub division of a korale, which is part of the administrative unit of a province.

A 1920s English drawing in Sri Lanka of peacocks. Artist unknown. Puiblic Domain.

Pearl Fishermen - a 19th centuary engraving of the French School. Public Domain.

An illustration by Unbekannt of pepper harvesting in the early 20th century. Public Domain.

The Indian Boar or Pig (Sus Scrofa Cristatus) is widespread across Sri Lanka and the Indian sub-continent. It is most magnificently differentiated from its European cousin by a crested mane that runs from head to back, sharp features, and a gratifyingly athletic build. It looks nothing like the naked pink pigs of popular imagining. They can weigh up to three hundred pounds and measure some five feet in length, with male boars being especially formidable in busting these averages. They are beautiful looking creatures, well able to cheer up the most fashionable of cat walks, should they ever be called to do so. They are social too, travelling in bands, often at night and much given to wrestling one another. Living in forest and scrubby grasslands, habitat loss has brought them ever closer into contact with humans, to the benefit of neither party. Fossil records from thousands of years ago who that they were preceded on the island by an endemic species some third smaller than the one that lives today - Sus Sinhaleyus.

Image courtsey of Bernard Dupont.

The twenty-fifth (invader) monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 91 BCE – 90 BCE.

One of 7 Dravidian chiefs from the Indian Pandyan Dynasty that forcibly took the Anuradhapuran Kingdom from its barely-established new ruler King Valagamba in 103 BCE, Pilaya Mara became king of Anuradhapura in 91 BCE by the simple expedient of murdering his Dravidian master, Panya Mara. He had previously served him as chief minster. Much of his own blink-short rule was spent dealing with threats to his own safety – from the avenging Valagamba - busy waging an ever more successful guerrilla war from the south - and from his own Dravidian colleagues. It is unclear whether he met his own death at the hands on his chief general, Dathika, who would succeed him, or Valagamba himself, whose military successes were at last lapping over closer to the gates of Anuradhapura itself.

West of Kandy is the little town of Pilimathalawa, home to three of the island’s most remarkable medieval temples - Gadaladeniya, Lankathilaka, and Embekka. For those in search of traditional brassware, it is also a retail magnet for oil lamps, elephants, statues and icons.

An illustration of a photograph by Alfred William Amandus Plate of a Pingo Carrier in the 1890s. Public Domain.

A celebration of that most modest of all plants, grass, Pitawala Pathana is found in the middle of the island beyond the road to Matale and north of The Knuckles. Here, at over 1200 metres above sea level grows a grass no taller than 10 mm, across ten square hectares of thin soil. The resulting natural grassland meadows play host to only the hardiest and least demanding species including the rare Marble Rock Frog, so endangered as to be facing extinction full on, with little hope of a reprieve. For those who like their fauna and flora to be on the flasher (Versace) side, Pitawala Pathana will only disappoint; but if subtlety, utter peace, and the road less travelled is your beat, then it will have been well worth the journey to have come here.

The last of the Six Dravidian invaders of the Pandiyan Dynasty of South India; and the 77th recorded monarch in Sri Lanka in the line running from Prince Vijaya (543 BCE).

Pithiya’s relationship with the previous king, Dathiya, is unknown, but the kingdom he gained was little more than a poisoned chalice. The boundaries of his Anuradhapura Kingdom had already begun to shrink alarmingly in the wake of the rebel attacks lead against the Pandiyan invaders by Dhatusena, a Sri Lankan Moriyan leader, who had corralled opposition to the invaders from his base in the south of the island. Pitjiya’s reign (450 – 452 CE) would have been filled with war and slaughter as he tried unsuccessfully to resist a resurgent Sir Lankan rebel force. He was to die in battle after just two years on the throne, the 11th reigning Sri Lankan monarch known to have died in this manner. After his death, the gains made by Dhatusena continued and within two to three years he was sufficiently confident of his position to declare himself the new King of Anuradhapura.

Illustration Credit: Reporoduciton of the Pandya flags courtsey of Tamil and Vedas.

Shallow seas, coral reefs, rangy sand dunes and golden beaches, dotted with little fishing hamlets - all marks the area around the little town of Point Pedro, the island’s northmost settlement. Tourism in almost any form, has yet to declare itself here.

Strung out to the west of Jaffna in the Palk Strait is the tiny coral island of Delft, bared fifty square mile and home to less than five thousand people. And five hundred wild ponies - the Mannar Pony (Eques Eques) to be exact. Dotted with Baobab trees, archaeological marvels from ancient to colonial times, and abundant wildlife, Delft has become the last refuge for the Sri Lankan Wild Pony, the direct descendant of the ponies exported to the island by the Portuguese and Dutch from Europe and their colonies in the East, to provide basic transportation. Left behind at Independence, and superseded by cars and lorries, they have carved out a fringe existence on the hot dry island, fighting off as best they can dehydration and occasional starvation. The Wildlife Department has since offered them a much greater degree of protection but if there are any deep-pocketed millionaires out there dissatisfied by the sight of the likely heirs, the wild ponies of Delft offer a much more attractive option for legacies and reputational garnishing.

Image courtsey of window2nature.wordpress.com.

A Victorian favourite made from ebony and porcupine quills, with occasional panels of now forbidden ivory, Porcupine Quill Boxes are the subject of fierce, secretive collectors for they are rarely if ever made today. They became something of a Sri Lankan speciality in the 19th century, with production centred around Galle, Matara and Matura. Given that the porcupine has some 30,000 quills and sheds them with alacrity, it leaves, in theory anyway, plenty to spare for artisan carpenters. It is the quills of the adult beasts that are used as those of the winningly-named infants, the porcupettes, are considered too soft.

Happily widespread, and at home in most habitats, the Indian Crested Porcupine (Hystrix Indica) is found right across Sri Lanka and India. Nikita Khrushchev, the bombastic Russian leader, was unexpectedly wise to the beast, stating to his enemies that “if you start throwing hedgehogs at me, I shall throw a couple of porcupines under you.” Up to three feet long and sixteen kilos in weight, they are, like Khrushchev, highly territorial. When their feel threated or their territory unacceptably encroached upon, their sharp quills will spring up, their teeth will clack loudly and, emitting a most unpleasant smell, they will go on the attack. Nocturnal, and usually hidden in the burrows that are their homes, they are eager consumers of bark, fruit, berries, vegetables and almost most plants in gardens and plantations. Gratifiyingly monogonmous, their pregneicies last eight months and the two to four cubs that are born live on with the parents until they are two or three years old. . Fossilised records from thousands of years ago show that the present procupine once had an ancestor similar though smaller to its form today, the Hystrix Sivalensis Sinhaleyus.

Image courtsey of www.hellabrunn.de.

It would take a good defence witness to convince a jury of the differences between a dolphin and a porpoise. Close scrutiny revels that porpoises have shorter snouts, smaller mouths, less curved dorsal fins, and shorter tubbier bodies than dolphins. And whilst Sri Lanka delights in making space in its oceans for seven types of dolphins, only one porpoise is seen here (and that very rarely) – the Little Indian Porpoise (Neophocoena Phocaenoides). Also known as the finless porpoise, its distribution stretches from Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, the Persian Gulf, the Taiwan Strait – and Sri Lanka. Shy, and most certainly not the boat leaping show-offs that characterise dolphins, they grow to around seven feet in length, talk to each other and, when not caught up in fishing nets or polluted out of existence, can live to around 30 years. They are, of course, sadly at the Threatened/Vulnerable end of the Conservation Table.

Image courtsey of r/Awwducational.

Sri Lanka’s first Palaeolithic and later Mesolithic settlers most probably arrived on the island by simply walking across Adam’s Bridge from the Indian sub-continent. Since Jurassic times (200-167 million years BCE) Sri Lanka had, as part of India, broken off from the great Gondwana sub content that had been formed in the Triassic era (300 – 200 million years BCE). Adam’s Bridge was becoming the sole point of access to the far south; but by 7,500 BCE it was almost unwalkable.

Beguiling hints of these earliest inhabitants are still only just emerging. Excavations conducted in 1984 by Prof. S. Krishnarajah near Point Pedro, north east of Jaffna revealed Stone Age tools and axes that are anything from 500,000 to 1.6 million years old. As the fossil record demonstrates, the land they inhabited was ecologically richer and more dramatic than it is today, teaming not simply with a plenitude of the wildlife still found in Sri Lanka today, but with hippopotamus and rhinoceros as well. Hundreds of millennia later, one of their Stone Age descendants was to leave behind the most anatomically perfect modern human remains yet uncovered on the island.

Balangoda Man, as he was to be named, was found in the hills south of Horton Plains inland from Matara, a short walk from the birthplace of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. His complete 30,000 year old skeleton is bewitchingly life-like. Probing his remains, scientists have concluded that Balangoda Man and his heirs were eager consumers of raw meat, from snails and snakes to elephants. And artistic too, as evidenced in the ornamental fish bones, sea shell beads and pendants left behind. All across the island, similar finds are being uncovered, pointing to a sparce but widespread population of hunter gathers, living in caves – such as Batadomba in Kuruwita (29,000 BCE – 9,000 BCE), Aliga (8,000 BCE) and Beli-lena in Kitulgala (28,000 BCE – 1,500 BCE). The tools and weapons found in these caves, made of quartz crystal and flint, are well in advance of such technological developments in Europe, which date from around 10,000 BCE compared to 29,000 BCE in Sri Lanka.

Later evidence indicates that Stone Age hunter-gathers then made the transition to a more settled lifestyle, growing, at least by 17,000-15,000 BCE, oats, and barley on what is now Horton Plains, thousands of years before it even began in that fulcrum of early global civilization - Mesopotamia. Astonishingly, their direct descendants, the Veddas, are still alive today, making up less than 1% of the island’s total population, an aboriginal community with strong animist beliefs that has, against the odds, retained a distinctive identity. Leaner, and darker than modern Sri Lankans, their original religion - cherishing demons, and deities - was associated with the dead and the certainty that the spirits of dead relatives can cause good or bad outcomes. Their language, unique to them, is now almost – but not quite - extinct. And perhaps it was the Vedda or their spirits that Fa-Hsien, the 5th century CE traveller had in mind when he conjured up his fable of early Sri Lanka in his book “A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms:”

“The country originally had no human inhabitants, but was occupied only by spirits and nagas, with which merchants of various countries carried on a trade. When the trafficking was taking place, the spirits did not show themselves. They simply set forth their precious commodities, with labels of the price attached to them; while the merchants made their purchases according to the price; and took the things away.“

Fa-Hsien’s colourful travelogue shows just readily the early origins of the country depend on myth and fable. Centuries passed before there are finally some tantalising hints of the Stone Ages’ transition into the Iron Age, and with it more evidence of new waves of colonization into the island from India. As new travellers arrived from the sub-continent, Balangoda man and his ancestors were pushed into the more inaccessible parts of the country, especially the rainforests of Sabaragamuva, a small part of which, Sinharaja Forest Reserve, miraculously survives in its original state today.

Using the progressive technology of the iron age, the new colonists were able to clear land and plant crops, mine for metals like copper, and even establish pearl fisheries. By 1,500 BCE there is evidence of cinnamon being exported to the ancient Egyptians. A series of major excavations in Anuradhapura dating to around 900 BCE has uncovered abundant treasure including artefacts that show the use of iron, the domestication of horses and cattle, the use of high-quality pottery and possibly even the cultivation of rice. The settlement was large – even by today’s standards: 4 hectares.

Other equally large settlements undoubtedly wait still to be found. One that has already been unearthed and studied are the burial mounds at Ibbankutuwa near Dambulla that date back to around 1,000 BCE. Here a wealth of pottery vessels interned with the dead contain ornaments of bronze and copper, beads and, most interesting of all, such stones as carnelian and onyx that could only have come to the island from India. Other such sites exist in places like Padiyagampola and Jamburagala in Yala. By the early 7th century BCE evidence comes of the use of the Brahmi script using a language that is an early form of Sinhala. Inventive, adaptive, increasingly sophisticated - urban living was arriving – whether as an independent island-wide development or because of the rapid spread of urbanised culture from India still using Adam’s Bridge as a convenient thoroughfare, is still the stuff of impassioned academic debate. Either way, the evolutionary ball was rolling like never before. From urban living, came city states. And into one of these, in 543 BC, stepped the Indian Prince, Vijaya, to found the country’s first fully recorded royal dynasty.

The twenty-second (invader) monarch of the Vijayan Period (543 BCE - 66 CE), the dates of his reign being 103 BCE – 100 BCE.

One of 7 Dravidian chiefs from the Pandyan Dynasty, in South India, Pulahatta seized the throne from the reigning Anuradhapuran king, Valagamba, in 103 BCE. His successes in so wining himself a kingdom would have come with troubling ease for Anuradhapuran had been seriously weakened by decades of misrule, drought, and plague. Valagamba himself had only been king for a few months before being ousted. But the defeated king smartly manage to avoid death, fleeing south to the relative safety of Ruhana and leaving the new Pandyan interlopers to loot within the much reduced boundaries of the Anuradhapuran Kingdom. One of Pulahatta’s most significant and (as it turned out) ruinous decisions was to appoint his fellow Dravidian chief, Bahiya as his chief minister - for by 100 BCE Bahiya had murdered Pulahatta.

The Kadupul Flower – known locally as the flower from heaven, or by its detractors as the Dutchman’s Pipe - is a once-a-year-only blossoming cactus whose Cinderella blooms die at dawn, and whose intoxicating fragrance command a price tag of $5,000/stem. Though not local to the island, it is much favoured by secretive wealthy Buddhists here as it is said that the offering of its petals will turbo charge any request or prayer made to Lord Buddha.

The crown has slipped slightly at this once grandest of grand hotels. Built by the last King of Kandy before being grabbed by the British Governor, The Queen’s Hotel opened as one of the island’s top hotels in 1869 attracting the great, the good and the wickedly wealthy. Its bar served Lord Mountbatten of Burma and every luminary before with rounds of cocktails and peppery gins. From its priceless position next to the Temple of the Tooth, guests can watch the birds on the Sea of Milk, as the lake opposite is called. Now more of an elderly stolid county maiden than a glamorous queen, it remains a decent and charming place, especially for those in search of shade, beer, and a rest from the relentless tide of busy Kandyans shopping and sightseeing just beyond its doors.

Image: Public Domain.

Illustration by an unknown English Photographer of Construction of the Kadugannawa Railway Incline in 1866 on the Colombo-Kandy line. Public Domain.