Peter Morrell

A Tour of Sri Lanka

Liz Gill enjoys the range of experiences for body, mind and soul on this Pearl of the Indian Ocean

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Sigiriya or Lion Rock is Sri Lanka’s most dramatic landmark, a huge red stone monolith towering 660 feet above the surrounding land. Archaeologists think it might have been inhabited since prehistoric times but it was not until the 5th century AD that it became a fortress and a royal palace.

Fearing retribution for murdering his father and depriving his half brother, the rightful heir, of his birthright, the new King Kashyapa decided he needed somewhere more defensible than the old capital of Anuradhapura and chose the summit of the rock.

There he built magnificent dwellings, a big stone throne, walls decorated with frescos, water reservoirs and performance spaces for dancing girls – he is said to have had 500 concubines – and lived there for 20 years until his brother returned with an army and he was killed in battle.

Today the site can be reached by 1200 steps which I am planning to climb in humid 30 degrees heat with rain and a possible thunderstorm forecast and dusk not far away. Inside me a small voice is whispering ‘are you insane?’

An hour and a half later I am back at base, heady with adrenalin and able to brag I have done something which King Kashyapa and his queen never did – they were always carried up.

The climb has been gruelling but well worth it. Only ruins remain but along with the giant feet of a lion – the ancient entrance was through its mouth but only the feet have lasted – they give a sense of the splendour and scale of the place. And, of course, the view are sensational.

Not everyone reaches the top but I and my two companions have been greatly encouraged and assisted by our sure-footed and strong-armed young guide Lal who also made sure we did not touch any metal railings when lightning threatened.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site was the grande finale of a day which had included three other wonderful but completely different experiences. It began with boarding a cart pulled by two bullocks to trundle along tracks edged by rice paddy fields, cashew, orange and jackfruit trees and accompanied by sightings of egrets, kingfishers, an eagle and a hornbill. Earlier we have been thrilled to see a wild elephant blithely strolling along the side of the road, unperturbed by cars, lorries, buses, tuk tuks and our minibus.

At the Hiriwadunna lake we transferred from the carts to little catamarans and were rowed out across serene waters where our guide picked a water lily bud, rolled it between his hands to open it to a full flower and then broke halfway through the stem to transform it into a necklace. He performed another trick to make a lotus leaf and a few twigs into a rather fetching hat.

From the moorings we were led to a delicious lunch prepared by local women: a spread of a dozen dishes of subtly spiced chicken, fish and vegetables. What made them even more remarkable was that they’d been prepared in a mud walled kitchen over a simple wood fired range. Some of the processes used old style methods and tools which we were encouraged to try for ourselves. Fresh coconut, for example, was removed from its shell by rubbing it over a curved piece of hard wood; the salt, chilli and onions which were to be added to it to make the national accompaniment of sambal were crushed by rolling a round stone over a flat one.

The range of experiences for body, mind and soul which Sri Lanka has to offer is extraordinary, given this Pearl of the Indian Ocean as it is known is only a third the size of the UK. Sometimes they all cluster into one day.

At Ridee Viharayay, for instance, we walk steeply up through a forest to the dramatic viewpoint of Pahangala but then down again to a cave where a saffron-robed Buddhist monk leads us in a session of meditation. The cave has been used like this for centuries – “this is a living culture”, we are told, “we do the same things we did 2,000 years ago.”

We, however, are rather glad of some modern soft cushions as we settle on the cave floor to learn how to improve our concentration skills. One exercise involves breathing in for a count of five and out for a count of five. In another we are told to silently count down from one hundred – one number in, one number out. So effective is this in terms of relaxation that I actually fall asleep for a second or two, as, they tell me later, do some other members of the group.

The complex with its second century BC Silver Temple and numerous Buddhas including a 9ft recumbent one describes itself as a spiritual destination but after a vegetarian lunch we also have a fascinating practical hour learning about the tradition of turning ola leaves into books.

Before the Dutch invaders brought paper to the island it was these palm leaves that were the medium for the recording of all knowledge. We watch as the rind is stripped, learn how the leaves are boiled and fermented with a mixture that includes fruit juice and pepper to combat insects and then polished. Properly preserved they can last a thousand years.

We have a go using a sharp pointed stylus to inscribe letters onto a leaf which must be held in the hand – pressing it onto a hard surface would mean the tool would penetrate – before an ink made of charcoal and oil is wiped across with the letters then appearing as if by magic.

Participation is a key element of our trip. At Earthbound near Kandy, a combination of boutique hotel, Ayurveda treatments and a factory producing a range of household items and knick-knacks made from recycled waste paper, we are taken to a homeworker’s house and invited to try rolling the paper into thin straws. It is, needless to say, a lot harder than it looks so we content ourselves by buying some of the lovely finished products and having a foot or head massage afterwards.

The next morning we follow a dazzling display of Kandyan dancing and drumming by both adults and small children, including a 15 year-old boy’s virtuoso drum performance, by joining a dance workshop. It is great fun but an insight too into just how much discipline and practice the real thing must take.

In the afternoon we are given beautiful flower offerings to place in the Temple of the Tooth, one of the holiest places in Buddhism and so called because it houses the relic of the Buddha’s upper left canine. I am heartened that photographs are banned in the most sacred parts and that in other parts they are allowed but must not include people posing in them.

About 73 per cent of Sri Lankans are Buddhist but there are also Christians, Muslim and Hindu Tamils who were originally brought over from South India to work in the tea plantations and whose sense of being treated as second class citizens by the British and subsequently led to the civil war, now thankfully 16 years in the past.

We have a sweet morning at a Tamil village with its colourful temple, making mandalas by filling in rice powder patterns with coloured rice, helping to cook idli and vada snacks and dressing up in beautiful sarees for the women and vettis for the men.

Our hosts, Suresh and his wife Pria, point out that on the terraces beyond their house the vegetables grown are English ones – carrots, leeks, cabbages, potatoes, another reminder of the enduring influence of the men and women who ruled what was then Ceylon from 1815 to independence in 1948. This cool hill country of Nuwara Eliya in the Central Highlands is where they retreated from the heat of the lower regions to grow tea and to build bungalows, golf courses, race courses and railway stations.

We learn more during a six mile hike along the last stage of the recently opened186 mile Pekoe Trail which uses the old paths through the tea plantations to link villages and offer insights to the local communities and their lives. Along the way we are waved at by the women picking tea and greeted by children and their families, their smiles here and at all the other places we visit one of the enduring images of the whole trip.

We are at 6,500 ft , a reminder of the topographic and climate variability of the island: as well as these mountains there are wide golden sand beaches, tropical forests, long waterfalls and fertile fields.

For me it has been summed up by being very glad of air conditioning one day and very grateful to find a hot water bottle in my bed in the next.

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