Arankele


Buddhism is about the potential that exists in the human mind. Independent of a Supreme Being, without preyer or worship, it shows the way of harnessing the potential of one’s own mind to discover the timeless purity, love, peace and wisdom that lies within each and every one of us. The end of that journey of…

A Weekend In Pasikudah


I spent the last weekend in Pasikudah. The sleepy little fishing village on the East Coast of Sri Lanka has become an high-end holiday resort in only a few years.   The journey from Colombo on the west coast took nearly ten hours, made all the more frustrating by idiot motorists and shoddily managed road…

Iron Age Burial Site At Ibbankatuwa


The Early Iron Age in Sri Lanka lasted from 1000 to 600 BC. An iron age settlement was founded around 900 BC at the site of today’s Anuradhapura – the first capital of Sri Lanka. Discovery of pottery from the site bearing Brahmi script and red glass beads indicate contact with North India and the absence of Dravidian script…

Eyeballing Elephant in Musth


  “You are guaranteed elephants at Hurulu Eco Park” the man at the hotel said. I had never heard of Hurulu. I knew both Kaudulla and Minneriya National Parks near Habarana usually had large herds of Elephants. In fact, Minneriya is renowned for its “Elephant Gathering” when herds of over 200 elephants are seen in…

Mystical Ritigala


Deep inside a Strict Nature Reserve are the sprawling, jungle-covered ruins of an extensive monastic and cave complex. The broken stone structures, fallen carvings and once-sacred caves lie on a 766m hill, a striking feature that looms above the dry central flatlands of Sri Lanka. It was a place of refuge as long ago as the 4th century…

Ironwood & Rose Quartz


One sunny afternoon last week, I drove to the village of Madatugama in the North-Western Dry Zone of Sri Lanka to see the Island’s largest Ironwood forest and the biggest Rose Quartz deposit in all of Asia   Ironwood Mesua ferara is one of Sri Lanka’s native plants with bright red leaves and fragrant white flowers. The…

Amazing Hasthi Kuchchi


Hasthi Kuchchi in the north-western province of Sri Lanka is one of the oldest temple complexes of the country, built between 307–267 BC as a meditation centre for Buddhist monks. This was the location where King Siri Sangha Bo (251–253 AD) offered his own head to a peasant. Today, the partially restored archaeological site is little…

Road To Habarana


  It is six in the morning on Independence Day and I am on a coach to central Sri Lanka in search of ancient monasteries and rose-quartz mountains   I am off on my travels again, this time to the North-Western Province of Sri Lanka, spending two nights at Habarana to see little known and…

“Miracle Of Asia”


It has an international conference centre without conferences, an international airport where no planes land, a port without ships and an international stadium without games. It is the Sri Lankan town called Hambantota. Some call it the Miracle of Asia!   We returned to Tissa after the morning game drive at Yala. The jeep driver…

A Game Drive At Yala


Yala National Park is the most visited and second largest national park in Sri Lanka. Initially, it was a hunting ground for the elite when the country was under British rule. It was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1900 and a national park in 1938. Yala has a protected area of nearly 130,000 hectares divided in to five blocks…