Sri Lanka - a Land like no other
Published on Indulge - the weekend supplement of the Nation newspaper on 9th March, 2008
Whoever who coined ‘Sri Lanka - a land like no other’ either had his tongue in cheek or was intimate with the ways of the land, but never got the opportunity to go beyond matching words with deeds. It doesn’t take an expert in Sri Lankan history, culture or topography to realize the vast potential this land offers - not only as escapism, but also as enhancement of knowledge and experience that makes memories outstanding. A cursory glance would do.
Yet, we sell Sri Lanka as a cheap, beach destination for budget tourists on packages and even this poorly so. Take Arugam Bay - one of the best surfing turfs in Asia, but do we even have hotels worthy of the region? No! No! I didn’t wake up from a Rip-Van Winkle sleep - I am aware of the problems we had and problems still prevailing in the East.
I’m also aware that Israel is one huge booby trap - you don’t know when a bomb is going to explode. Yet, they entertain over 5 million tourists a year, while we struggle to get just 500,000 and we are in a much less diabolical state than Israel.
Check out our tours organized to ancient cities like Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. Most tour operators try to cram this entire experience within 1 or 2 days with stopovers at Sigiriya, Dambulla et al squeezed in tightly. These poor tourists are literally whizzed through the hot, blazing sun from one ruin to another that the whole experience for them is a big blur. They don’t even know where they’ve been - they are just so glad that it’s over.
How different this experience would be if it were better spaced out so that our esteemed foreign guest can absorb the historical significance, the political sagas, the great leaders of times past and the incredible monuments that have risen out of these times. A better organized tour, with better literature, with better trained guides would actually attract a better market segment to Sri Lanka, who will truly be able to appreciate this experience that they will make a better impression on our bottom line.
Why is it that our South is associated almost only with the beaches? South is a beehive of cultural activities and I’m not only talking of puppets and masks. There is a popular belief in the South that gazing into the new moon - 14 days after full moon - is good for eyes. However, eye-flies also come out at this time, spreading many eye-related diseases. To prevent this, villagers places a mixture of rice flour, coconut milk and jaggery (palm sugar) at the four corners of the house for the eye-flies as a form of alms-giving, though in reality they perish on alighting on this sticky substance. There are many such little, little customs in Down South and to imitate at least a few of these by the tourist sector would bring the true novelty to the holiday. Don’t be hasty to discount moon gazing as boring for this is an activity Japanese enjoy with gusto.
Surely, the tourists would go back and talk of the strange customs Sri Lankans have and this would ignite a curiosity amongst potential travelers. Thus, it would not be a question of which cheap beach destination to choose from, but an active desire to come to Sri Lanka to experience these particular novelties.
KandyEsela Perahara is very famous (justly so), but around the same time, there is another procession that takes place in Devundara – the southern-most tip of Sri Lanka. Apparently, in AD 790 a sandalwood statue of the Hindu deity, Vishnu, was washed ashore, but with the legs broken off. The local carpenters were commissioned to restore the statue, but they did a shoddy job, resulting in the statue looking as if it were leaning forward. God Vishnu was not amused and His wrath brought on many disasters to the whole caste of carpenters in the region, ultimately forcing them to leave the village. It is said that to this date, no one in this caste can settle in the area.
This festival to commemorate the power of Vishnu commences with 7 days of small processions beginning from the shores and culminating to a larger event on full moon Poya and goes on for another 7 days, ending with a colorful thovil (religious dance), fire walking ceremonies and an alms-giving of traditional devale (hindu temple) food of pani bath, hal kiri, mung bath, kaha walalu and chatu madura.
We are indeed a land like no other for we are blessed with all these fantastic happenings. We are also a land like no other, for we are just too lazy to put these cultural events in a cohesive manner so that it projects the unique identity of Sri Lankans to a worthier class of tourists.
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