History of Sigiriya
The romance of Sigiriya, the playboy’s palace in the sky, has provided inspired for many books, plays and even films, with more than one legend to explain its origins. All theories hinge around the cult of King Kasyapa. The Mahavansa records that King Kasyapa (reigned AD 477-495) killed his father, King Dhatusena, by plastering him […]
Arankele is one of the Sri Lankan cultural triangle’s best kept secrets, tucked away along a dirt track nestled deep amid thick jungle. The 6th-century cave her mirage lies 24 km (15 miles) north of Kurunegala and the short journey off Dambulla Road is well worth the detour. An austere sect of Vanavasin monks currently […]
MODERN DAY SRI LANKA
Sri Lanka is a parliamentary democracy with an elected president and freely contested elections. Sri Lankans enjoy a long life expectancy, a high literacy rate that belies its attractive per capita income, and one of the most advanced health system in Asia. Over the last 50 years the island has continued to see rapid economic […]
A Sri Lankan Holiday – 2013
One of the best news to come out of Asia in the recent past was the end of the long-running civil war in Sri Lanka in 2009. Sri Lanka is one of the loveliest islands in the region, it was known to Arab traders as ‘Serendip’, then fell under Portuguese and later Dutch and British […]
PERADENIYA ROYAL BOTANICAL GARDENS
About 6 km (or 4 miles) from Kandy are the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens (open daily, 7.30am to 4.30pm with an entrance charge), the largest and finest in Sri Lanka. Enclosed in a loop of the Mahaweli Ganga river, the lush 60-hectare (147-acre) gardens are stuffed with a baffling array of Sri Lankan, Asian and international […]
KANDY
Although Kandy is now Sri Lanka’s second-largest city, it retains a surprisingly quaint small-town feel, its modest grid of low-rise streets are lined with characterful mix of both Kandyan and colonial-era buildings and preserve a certain old-fashioned, rustic charm which even the often dense throngs of traffic and pedestrians can’t entirely obscure. At the west […]
MIHINTALE
The history of Mihintale is the history of Sri Lankan Buddhism, and the town is entrenched in popular consciousness as the birthplace of the Sinhalese Buddhist civilization. Simply put, this where Buddhism first arrived in this island. Legend has it that this is where the Indian missionary Mahinda or local known as Mihidum Maha Rahatung […]
Low-Country Waterfalls of Sri Lanka
Waterfalls are a beautiful gift of mother nature is refreshing and calming scenery to enjoy. Waterfalls have been the theme of many poems and short stories and many compare it to a pretty village damsel with long hair cascading down like liquid light. Some times the water falls slowly while at times it cascades in […]
SACRED BUDDHIST SITES OF SRI LANKA
A large footprint embedded atop a 2,234 metre mountain, Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak) is believed by Buddhist to have been made by Lord Buddha on this second visit to Sri Lanka in 523 BC. This site, which draws tens of thousands of pilgrims each year, is one of several sacred places associated with Lord Buddha, […]
TRINCOMALEE
Trincomalee derives its name from the Tamil words tiru-kona-nralai, meaning mountain sacred to Konesvara. This famous harbor, one of the largest and best-sheltered in the world, has at various times been the envy of the Danes, Dutch, Portuguese, British, French and Japanese, and during World War II it became a naval base to protect the […]
