Sri Lanka Holidays; Biodiversity Hotspot

Western Ghats and Sri Lanka


Faced with tremendous population pressure, the forests of the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka have been dramatically impacted by the demands for timber and agricultural land. Remaining forests of the Western Ghats are heavily fragmented; in Sri Lanka, only 1.5 percent of the original forest remains. Population levels are also applying increased stress on the fringes of protected areas where many farms, loggers, and poachers use the resources illegally. Due in part to the varying effect of the yearly monsoons and the high mountain regions, this hotspot is home to a rich endemic assemblage of plants, reptiles, and amphibians. Sir Lanka alone may be home to as many as 140 endemic species of amphibians. The region also houses important populations of Asian elephants, Indian tigers, and the Endangered lion-tailed macaque. Freshwater fish endemism is extremely high as well, with over 140 native species.
overview The Western Ghats of southwestern India and the highlands of southwestern Sri Lanka, separated by 400 kilometers, are strikingly similar in their geology, climate and evolutionary history. The Western Ghats, known locally as the Sahyadri Hills, are formed by the Malabar Plains and the chain of mountains running parallel to India's western coast, about 30 to 50 kilometers inland. They cover an area of about 160,000 km² and stretch for 1,600 kilometers from the country's southern tip to Gujarat in the north, interrupted only by the 30 kilometers Palghat Gap. Sri Lanka is a continental island separated from southern India by the 20-meter-deep Palk Strait. The island, some 67,654 km² in size, has been repeatedly connected with India between successive interglacials, most recently until about 7,000 years ago by a land bridge up to about 140 kilometers wide. The Western Ghats mediates the rainfall regime of peninsular India by intercepting the southwestern monsoon winds. The western slopes of the mountains experience heavy annual rainfall (with 80 percent of it falling during the southwest monsoon from June to September), while the eastern slopes are drier; rainfall also decreases from south to north. Dozens of rivers originate in these mountains, including the peninsula’s three major eastward-flowing rivers. Thus, they are important sources of drinking water, irrigation, and power. The wide variation of rainfall patterns in the Western Ghats, coupled with the region’s complex geography, produces a great variety of vegetation types. These include scrub forests in the low-lying rainshadow areas and the plains, deciduous and tropical rainforests up to about 1,500 meters, and a unique mosaic of montane forests and rolling grasslands above 1,500 meters. Precipitation across Sri Lanka is dependent on monsoonal winds, resulting in much of the island experiencing relatively low rainfall (less than 2,000 millimeters per year), except for the south-western “wet zone” quarter, where precipitation ranges to as much as 5,000 millimeters per year. While dry evergreen forests occupy almost the entirety of the “dry zone,” dipterocarp-dominated rainforests dominate the lowlands of the wet zone, and some 220 km² of tropical montane cloud forest still persist in the central hills, which rise to a maximum altitude of 2,524 meters.

SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS: BIO DIVERSITY

Biodiversity Hotspots: Part 3. July 10th, 2008 |http://www.treasurenature.com/ Environment, Natural Wonders

Western Ghats and Sri Lanka (the Ghats are in Southern India).

The region harbors important populations of Asian elephants, Indian tigers, and the Endangered lion-tailed macaque. Sri Lanka is home to as many as 140 endemic species of amphibians. Freshwater fish endemism is extremely high, with over 140 native species. The region is faced with a tremendous population pressure.

East Melanesian Islands (Bismarck and Admiralty Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the islands of Vanuatu). Excessive logging, mining, and unsustainable farming practices have accelerated habitat loss in these islands, threatening the survival of one of the most remarkable number of endemic species — 3,000 unique species of plants, shrubs, and trees. Faunal diversity isn’t far behind, led by the majestic Solomon sea-eagle and more than a dozen threatened species of flying fox (large fruit-eating bats).

Himalaya (Northern Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and the Northwestern and Northeastern states of India). The hotspot is home to numerous large birds and mammals, including vultures, tigers, elephants, rhinos and wild water buffalo.

Indo-Burma (Eastern Bangladesh, Northeastern India, Myanmar, part of Yunnan Province in China, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and part of Peninsular Malaysia). Covering 2 million square kilometers (772,204.317 square miles) of tropical Asia, this immense treasure trove of biodiversity is yet to divulged a lot of secrets. Six large mammal species have been discovered in the last 12 years: the large-antlered muntjac, the Annamite muntjac, the grey-shanked douc, the Annamite striped rabbit, the leaf deer, and the saola. Bird life is also incredibly diverse, holding almost 1,300 different bird species. Sadly, these documented species and possibly a host of others still waiting to be discovered are in danger of being killed-off due to exploitation and habitat loss.

Japan. When we talk about this country, images of bullet-trains, cars, high rises, and other accouterments of modern technology usually comes to mind. However, the islands isolation has harbored Critically Endangered endemic species like the Okinawa woodpecker and the Japanese macaque (snow monkey). There are 46 endemic mammals.

Mountains of Southwest China (Southwest China and a tiny part of Myanmar). These mountains are host to different ecosystems, including the most endemic-rich temperate flora in the whole world. The golden monkey, giant panda, red panda, and a number of pheasants are among the threatened species endemic to this hot spot. Primary threats include Illegal hunting, overgrazing and firewood collection.

New Caledonia (Neighbor of Vanuatu). This small island (smallest of the hot spots) is home to five (5) endemic plant families, containing nearly 2/3 of the world’s Araucaria species, all endemic. Nickel mining, forest destruction, and invasive species threaten it’s biodiversity.

New Zealand. This country is home to a remarkable number of endemic species. None of its mammals, amphibians, or reptiles are found anywhere else in the world. In 700 years of colonization, 50 bird species have gone extinct.

Polynesia-Micronesia. 4,500 islands scattered across the Southern Pacific ocean, it is the epicenter of the Globe extinction crisis. From the time Europeans arrived there 200 years ago, 25 bird species were eradicated from the face of the Earth. The spectacular endemic honey creepers and other forest birds of the Hawaiian Islands are among those that are seriously threatened but still surviving in this hot spot.

Southwest Australia. This hots pot is characterized by high endemism among plants and reptiles.The primary cause of habitat loss in the region has been agricultural expansion, aggravated by extensive fertilizer use. Introduced species like foxes and cats threatened the local fauna.

Sundaland (Southern Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Western half of Indonesia, and the Nicobar Islands). Only one word can describe the biodiversity of this hot spot, spectacular. The better known of its fauna are all in danger of being wiped-out, led by the orangutang (man of the forest) and 2 species of Southeast Asian rhinoceros. Rubber plantations, oil palm plantations, and pulp production are 3 of the most threatening forces facing biodiversity in the Sundaland Hot spot.

Wallacea (central islands of Indonesia east of Java, Bali, and Borneo, and west of the province of New Guinea and Timor Leste). Flora and fauna species in this hot spot is so diverse, every island needs a Protected Area to safeguard its own species diversity. It is 2nd only to the Tropical Andes for bird endemism but also covers a relatively smaller area. It is threatened by a government-sponsored transmigration program, which aims to move people from urban areas into sparsely populated ones.

The Philippines . This archipelago of more than 7,000 islands is acknowledge as one of the word’s most biologically diverse countries. There are 6,000 plant and numerous animal species. Detailing the threatened and endangered species found in this country will take up one long article. Ironically, it is also one the most endangered hot spots with logging, farming, and population growth relentlessly pushing countless species to the verge of extinction.So that’s 34 remaining biodiversity hots pots. Thirty-four regions of the Earth where most living species of this planet are concentrated. Will that number decrease or remain constant? It depends upon us humans, I guess.

SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS: NGO Conspiracy in Sri Lanka

SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS: NGO conspiracy

Following is an extract from the article titled 'NGO conspiracy against religious milieu in Sri Lanka' written by W. T. A. Leslie Fernanado, a former High Court Judge & Vice President of the Newman Society Alumni Association. Sunday Obesrver, Sri Lanka, 29th June 2008

Quote
It is one thing for people of different faiths to work together for the common good while maintaining their religious identity. We could extend our goodwill for the religious activities of the adherents of other religions. Catholics organising Dansalas in church premises for Vesak should be appreciated. But we ought to know where to draw the line.

Once Prince Siddhartha walking on lotus flowers soon after birth was depicted in the premises of a church. In another year a Buddhist Bhikkhu preached Bana for Vesak in a Catholic church. The following year a statue of the Buddha was placed in the same church premises and a pandal was erected. There had been Vesak Bhakthi Gee in church premises as well. In some Catholic churches Vesak lanterns are hung and illuminated.

The church is a place consecrated to God. There is Holy Eucharist in the church and we Catholics firmly believe that God is present there. According to Buddhism, the Buddha is not a God but an enlightened human being. Paying homage to a human being in churches would amount to sacrilege and a big joke as well. Recently celebrating Vesak in churches was criticized in a popular column in a Sinhala Sunday journal.This type of deception would demean Christianity and would arouse the suspicion of intelligent Buddhists. It would confuse the young in their formative years and would mislead the ignorant.

Unquote

Sri Lanka Holidays Best Beaches Turtles

SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS: BEST BEACHES OF THE WORLD
We reveal for you to revel: the right stuff
We reveal for you to revel: our island, our nation & our faith will prevail

Riolta Lanka Holidays (Pvt.) Ltd., Sri Lanka
Website: www.rioltalankaholidays.com OR www.mysrilankaholidays.com

www.my-srilankaholidays.com
www.my-srilanka.com
www.bunpeiris.com

Having reached the top of the beach, the turtle then spend about another 45 minutes digging an enormous hole. Silence of the midnight is broken by periodic thrashing & sound of great clouds of sand being scuffed up. As the turtle begins to lay eggs, we can get close to watch,
Click here to read the whole article

Sri Lanka Holidays Turtles

Sea turtle viewing, cave swimming on green list Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- With more travellers expected to go green on their vacations next year, online travel community IgoUgo, owned by Travelocity, has come up with its top 10 eco-friendly destinations. The list is based on recommendations from IgoUgo editors who reviewed the journals by some of its 350,000 members.

1. Buck Island Reef National Monument - St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

The reef surrounding Buck Island was named first underwater national U.S. monument in 1961, which has resulted in an ecosystem so thriving that 30,000 visitors a year flock to see it.

View Larger Image

It's isn't easy being green. Just ask the leaf frogs in Costa Rica.

2. Sea Turtle Watching in Rekawa - Rekawa, Sri Lanka

Rekawa, is Sri Lanka's most popular beach for nesting sea turtles. Five of the seven species of sea turtle come to nest here.

3. Napo Wildlife Centre - Ecuador

Located inside Yasuni National Park, the new Napo Wildlife Centre is a co-operative venture with the local Indians.

4. Artisans D'Angkor Silk Farm - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Artisans D'Angkor is a state-run organization that promotes fair trade and sustainable development for Cambodians.

5. Celestun Biosphere Reserve - Yucatan, Mexico

Flat-bottomed boats take visitors into the lagoon where cormorants, egrets and herons can be seen along the way.

6. Rainforest Hike to Middleham Falls and Ti Tou Gorge with Ken's Hinterland Adventure Tours - Dominica

The Ti Tou Gorge, a cave-like river with a waterfall at one end, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience; there's nothing like swimming upstream in a dark cave.

7. Sadie Cove Wilderness Lodge - Kachemak Bay State Park, Alaska

Owner Keith Iverson has built wood cabins along the shore of Sadie Cove with a wharf over the water.

8. Volcano Trekking at Gunung Batur - Gunung Batur, Bali

Gunung Batur is revered as the second holiest mountain in Bali. The volcano is still active and smoke can be seen seeping from its main crater.

9. Strokkur Geyser - Geysir Centre, Iceland

This is the setting for Strokkur, the most active geyser at Geysir. It oozes up into a turquoise dome, before bursting into life as a 10-metre high jet of water.

10. Canopy Tour - Quepos, Costa Rica

A forest-canopy tour that can include up-close views of orchids in bloom and toucans sitting in the trees.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007

The Vancouver Sun, Canada 8th January 2008

Sri Lanka's non-stop epic

The Mahavamsa or Great Chronicle, Sri Lanka's non-stop epic
The oldest, continuously recorded history in the world is still being continued.
B. Upul N. Peiris ( bunpeiris ), Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 30^th Dec 2007

“Do thou, O lotus-hued One, protect with zeal Prince Vijaya & his followers, & the Doctrine that is to endure in Lanka for full five thousand years.” Mahavamsa

Sri Lanka, Sinhalese & Buddhism (543 BC- 2007 AD = 2550 years). Our nation will last for another 2450 years.

1815-1948 "The Sinhalese voluntarily surrendered their island to the British Sovereign with full reservation of their rights & liberties. They may thus claim to be one of the few ancient races of the world who have not been conquered."
(Sketches of Ceylon History by Sri Lankan-then called Ceylonese-Tamil scholar Ponnambalam Arunchalam, 1906)

Click here to read the whole article http://www.bunpeiris.com/2007/12/sri-lankas-non-stop-epic.html

Sri Lanka Holidays

Sri Lanka Holidays
Hydraulic Engineering vs. Water & Soil Conservation Ecosystems in Sri Lanka Part 1
Ancient Sinhalese of Sri Lanka, the protectors of United Biology
Following is an extract from an article by the illustrious D. L. O. Mendis

1. Water
Hydraulic engineering perspective – (Hard Technology); inanimate, active
Ecosystems perspective – (Soft technology): animate, passive

2. Small tank
Hydraulic engineering perspective – (Hard Technology): inefficient, early stage in evolution & development to be submerged by large reservoir built later
Ecosystems perspective (Soft technology): micro water & soil conservation ecosystem

3. Large reservoir
Hydraulic engineering perspective – (Hard Technology): efficient system in combination with channel distribution irrigation system
Ecosystems perspective (Soft technology): main item in macrowater & soil conservation eco-system, with micro water & soil conservation eco systems in command area

4. Diversion channel
Hydraulic engineering perspective – (Hard Technology): built to argument large reservoir-last stage in development of irrigated agriculture system
Ecosystems perspective (Soft technology): earliest stage in irrigated agriculture & evolution & development of water & soil conservation ecosystems

5. Vetiya
Hydraulic engineering perspective – (Hard Technology): abandoned small tank
Ecosystems perspective (Soft technology): deflection structure-micro water & soil conservation ecosystem; maintains water table

6. Downstream development area
Hydraulic engineering perspective – (Hard Technology): cleared of all vegetation to lay out channel irrigation system
Ecosystems perspective (Soft technology): must be designed as a series of micro water & soil conservation ecosystems, including forest areas

7. Forest areas
Hydraulic engineering perspective – (Hard Technology): limited to catchment area
Ecosystems perspective (Soft technology): not only in catchment area-should be interspersed with fields in development areas for better nutrient flows

End of the extract from an article by the illustrious D. L. O. Mendis

Extention
8. Objective or Focus
Hydraulic engineering perspective – (Hard Technology): Water per se
Ecosystems perspective (Soft technology): Water for People & nature

9. Paradigm
Hydraulic engineering perspective – (Hard Technology): Brohier’s four stage hypothesis (1956); republished by Joseph Needham (1971)
Ecosystems perspective (Soft technology): D. L. O. Mendis’ seven stage-hypotheses (1983)

For Part 2 click here

Today around 12,000 ancient small dams & 320 ancient large dams together with thousands of man-made lakes dot the lowlands, with over 10,000 reservoirs in the Northern Province alone.

Sri Lanka Holidays

Sri Lanka 543 BC
B. Upul N. Peiris (bunpeiris) of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
ANTIQBOOK Offered by: G. & J. Chesters - Book number: 83983

http://www.antiqbook.co.uk/boox/che/83983.shtml
The Revolt in the Temple.
Composed to Commemorate 2500 Years of the Land, the Race and the Faith

By D.C. Wijayawardhana,
Colombo: Sinha Publications, 1st edn, 1953**

Following is an excerpt from chapter 1 of above mentioned rare book
This copy of mine signed B. Donald B. Peiris 1967 belonged to my father.
B. Upul N. Peiris (bunpeiris) of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

The Wheel set in Motion

(1) The Birth of a Nation

Patitthissati devinda
Lankayam mama Sasanam
Tasma saparivararm tam
Rakkha Lankam ca Sadhukam
Mahavamsa

One of the greatest migrations in Indian history, most far reaching in its shaping-power on the fortunes of this country, took place when Vijaya & his followers landed in Lanka in 543 B.C.

In less than four generations, barren wastes were turned into fruitfulness by thousands of immigrants by thousands of immigrants from Northern India. Thousands of them came, ready for the day they landed on these shores to direct their strength to the development of the newly established State.

Most of these people were Sinhalese in heart & mind before they left their motherland. They brought with them, within them, rather, the ripened fruit of centuries of civilization, literature & art, poetry & music; & Aryan culture was bodily transported to create & enrich the virgin civilization of Lanka. These Aryans dotted the country with settlements of farmers. They turned their industrial genius to the founding of diversified industries, the building of cities, & the construction of wonderful irrigation works.

They fused easily & readily with those who had longer traditions than theirs of life in Ceylon. The mingling of these two streams of tradition & achievement soon created a social civilization which, almost from its inception, made a steady advance.

The stage was thus set for the greatest & grandest event that ever happened in this country-the introduction of Buddhism into Ceylon.

For a comprehensive understanding of this epoch-making event in the history of our country, it is necessary to go back to the very times of the active missionary period of the Master Himself.

The Buddha had blessed this island with three visits. On his first visit, on the full-moon day of Duruthu (January), nine months after He had reached Buddhahood, He took steps to ensure that the island would become the scene of great civilization.

And so it came to pass that, when, after forty-five years of toil for the welfare of the world, the Buddha, on the day of His passing away, lay on the bed spread for Him in the pleasure-garden of the Mallawa Princes in the city of Kusinara in India, from amongst the gods of the ten thousand world systems gathered there, the Master addresses Himself to Sakra (Indra), who stood near:

“My doctrine, O Sakra, will eventually be established in the Island of Lanka; & on this day, Vijaya, eldest son of Sinha Bahu, King of Sinhapura in the Lala country, lands there with seven hundred followers, & will assume the sovereignty there. Do Thou, therefore, guard well the Prince & his train & the island of Lanka.”

On receiving the Buddha’s command, Sakra summoned Vshnu;

“Do thou, O Lotus-hued one, protect with zeal Prince Vijaya & his followers & the Doctrine that is to endure in Lanka for full five thousand years.”

The command of the Master induced Vishnu to make himself responsible for the welfare of this Island in general, & of Buddhism in particular, for the ensuing five thousand years. And Vishnu, the more effectively to discharge his duty & responsibility, took under his protection a vessel that was at the moment drifting off the coast of Ceylon.

Thus did it happen that, on the very day the Lord died at Kusinara, Vijaya of the Solar race & his band of seven hundred followers of Sinhapura, in pursuance of the design of the Master, & of the gods, landed in Ceylon & so helped to found in Lanka what thereafter came to be known as the Sinhalese race.

The birth of the Sinhalese race would thus seem to have been, not a mere chance, not an accidental occurrence, but a pre-destined event of high import & purpose. The nation seemed designed, as it were, from its rise, primarily to carry aloft for fifty centuries the Torch that was lit by the great World-Mentor twenty-five centuries ago.

Sri Lanka Holidays: Total HolidayExperience (THE) - Part 1

Riolta Lanka Holidays: High Value, High Definition Holidays

Sri Lanka, the Land of Delights

By B. Upul N. Peiris (bunpeiris.com)

In the backdrop of Total Holiday Experience (THE) Sri Lanka Holidays, the underdeveloped island of Sri Lanka is the least promoted Asian tourist destination of the world. Arthur C. Clarke once described Sri Lanka “India without hassle”

Explaining the comparison to India

Firstly, Sri Lanka is an Eastern Destination anchored to 2550 years of unbroken recorded history, with seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including whole ancient cities of outstanding value to humanity. Here is an ancient Island with more than a couple of millennium of historical & cultural affinity, love & hate with the Indian sub continent- fons et origo (the source & origin).

Secondly, the islands being small (65,525 sq. km) without vast distances to travel one could easily get to the attractions, important sites within few hours drive. That is a luxury that wouldn’t be afforded in India given the geographical size of the subcontinent. To say that again, in Sri Lanka, there is no hassle at all in relation to distances from any of the numerous tourist attractions of the island to the other, no matter the diversity of the attractions: Beach, Soft Adventure, Cultural, Nature, Wild life, Bird life, Marine, Golf, Eco Luxury Hotels & Botanical Gardens or Unique.

Supplementing the quick-fire slogan

Neither in the lands of their (i.e. of the Indo-Aryan settlers) origin nor in South India did there develop an irrigation system of the magnitude or the complexity of that which the Sinhalese afterwards constructed in Ceylon; nothing comparable & contemporaneous (i.e.1st century A. D. - 12th centaury A. D.) with the ancient dam, canal & tank system of Ceylon, mingling the water of rivers flowing in different directions is known in continental India"
(A Short Account of the History of Irrigation Works, C. W. Nicholas, JRASCB 1960, 43-69)

It is well-known fact that for hardly any part of the continent of India is there such an uninterrupted historical tradition as for the island of Ceylon. This tradition up to the year A.D.362 is contained in the two Pali chronicles, the Dipavansa & the Mahavansa, but the Mahavansa was continued later on up to the eighteenth century, by the diverse authors at diverse times, so that now it comprises the whole history of the island, from the first immigration of the Aryans under Vijaya till the arrival of English.

Prof. Wilhelm Geiger, Munich, August 1932

Least promoted Asian tourist destination of the world.

For decades India has been among the top ten travel destinations of the world. The fact Sri Lanka has never been anywhere near the top ten, could only be construed as pathetic promotion of the island as a tourist destination during the period since independence in 1948 to date. The failure in promotion has been at once a crime & sin of the combination of indifference of successive governments of Sri Lanka, rigidity of bureaucracy of the state, lack of imagination of the citizens & lack of orchestrated effort by the private sector engaged in the business of tourism & hospitality.

Sri Lanka is nothing less than the Total Holiday Experience

Top Ten Aspects of a Total Holiday Experience

1. Aspect of sanctuary
2. Aspect of comfort
3. Aspect of diversity of terrain
4. Aspect of diversified climate & cultivation
5. Aspect of diversity of ecological system
6. Aspect of biodiversity
7. Aspect of conservation of water
8. Aspect of conservation of wildlife
9. Aspect of conservation of enriching culture
10. Aspect of unique attractions

For part 2 click here

“The Land of Delights”, Sri Lanka

An excerpt from
Ceylon, Ancient & ModernA general description of the island, historical, physical, statistical
By An officer, late of the Ceylon Rifles
London: Chapman & Hall, 193, Piccadill6 1876
Excerpt 1 from Chapter 1 of above mentioned work

Ancient Renown of Ceylon

Few countries have had a more ancient or extended renown than island of Ceylon, of whose Elysian charms ancients & moderns, Europeans & Asiatics, have alike written in terms of delight. From the earliest times a haze of romance has been thrown around it in the legends of the Hindus as the scene of the “Ramayana” one of the oldest epic poems in existence, which describes a war famous in the East as that of Troy in the West.

To the Greeks & Romans it was known as the mother of the most stately of elephants, the land of the sapphire & the hyacinth, the ruby & the pearl; an island, according to Plinny, about which many fabulous stories were circulated. The Chinese called it "the island of gems”, the Hindu poets “the pearl on the brow of India”, & the Persians “the island of rubies.” To the natives of the burning sands of Arabia, the arid & stifling coasts of the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, & many parts of India, the aspect of Ceylon as it rises from the sea-its lofty mountains & shores clothed to the water’s edge with the brilliant & luxuriant vegetation of the tropics-must have been a delightful change.

Persian writers dazzle the reader’s imagination with accounts of its productions, & rave of the delights of Serendib, where Adam & Eve consoled themselves for the loss of Paradise- a land flowing with milk & honey compared to the inhospitable & barren mountains of Persia.

Wassaf, a Persian poet, says it was so arranged by the Almighty, in order to break the force of a sudden change from the best to the worst; because if Adam had been expelled from Eden to a bad climate, it would have been the death of him.

The Mohammedans have many versions concerning the expulsion of our first parents from Eden. One legend states, that when they were cast down from paradise, Adam fell on the island of Ceylon, & Eve near Jeddah, the port of Mecca; after a separation of two hundred years, Adam was conducted by the angel Gabriel to a mountain near Mecca, where he found his wife, thence called Arafat, & that they afterwards retired to Ceylon; others say Adam fell on the peak, & remained standing on one log doing penance for a number of years. (Note Sale’s Koran, ch, ii.) Some say when the expulsion took place Iblis, or Satan, was sent to Moultan, the serpent to Ispahan, Adam to Ceylon, & Eve to Jeddah. This is again varied by including the peacock, which was expelled on account of its pride in its splendid plumage, & sent to Hindustan. It is uncertain whether the idea of placing Adam in Ceylon originated with the Mohammedans or Christians; perhaps the earliest mention of its found in Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria, AD. 864
In succeeding ages writers & travelers from all climes who have visited its shores, with few exceptions, join in a chorus of praise of its natural attractions. The sides of its mountains were strewn with gems formed from the tears of Adam, & the air was perfumed with the odour of cinnamon. In the fourteenth century Marlgnolli, Legate of Pope Clement VI., who visited the island on his way from China, alludes to the mountain “opposite Paradise,” & repeats the Mahometan belief in its proximity to heaven, which was only “about forty miles distant.” Ribeyro says, “as Ceylon is the key of India, it appears as if God had taken pleasure in enriching it with the earth’s choicest treasures.”

The renown of Ceylon as it reached in the seventeenth century, is quaintly summed up by Purchas, in his ‘Pilgrimage:’ ‘The heavens with their dew, the air with a pleasant wholesomeness & fragrant freshness, the water in their many rivers & mountains, the earth diversified in aspiring hills, lowly valleys, equal & indifferent Plains, filled in her outward court & upper face stored with the whole woods of the best cinnamon that the sun seethes, beside fruits, oranges, lemons, etc.,surmounting those of Spain; fowls & beasts both tame & wild, among which the elephant, honoured by a natural acknowledgment of excellence of all other elephants in the world, these all have conspired & joined in common league to present with a long & healthful life in the inhabitants to enjoy them, no marvel then if sense & sensualities have here stumbled on a Paradise.”
End

Hi. Join stumbleupon, you can make use of it as much as Google. That is not an ad. bunpeiris

A1

Someone has hacked into this blog of mine & posted Julie Christy's images herein while he still has access to post comments onto this blog. That is bad taste. Ironically I have been writing on ethics too in this blog. Someone has taken trouble to read right stuff & then come up with minor manifestations of bad taste. Pity!
bunpeiris

Collective Civic Responsibility Vs. Individual Freedom in the Third World

Collective Civic Responsibility Vs. Individual Freedom in the Third World

B. Upul N. Peiris (bunpeiris), Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

To: <info-27537065@bounce.colonize.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2001 1:16 PM
Subject: Re: bunpeiris, Your opinion could be worth...$1,000.00!
I never collected a penny for writing from Americans or for that matter, from anyone else. Never mind. A man has to do what he has to do. His has to give his two pennies worth. All must contribute to the humanity, hell or thunder.END BEGINNING. So I see you have bothered to ask me of an opinion of mine. A top of the rack punk; the lead hack of the pack. There is no doubt this is a part & parcel of your American advertising & propaganda. You are purely driven by commercial interest. Americans, for sure, know how to make money: they would collect everything ranging from our opinions to our garbage, recycle, repackage, brand & market it. They have all the Imagination & all the courage coupled with vast resources of a continent to follow up with tremendous innovation. From Asia only Japanese could stand with them.

But there are many others who are willing to lend their ears to the opinions of the Romans, Citizens, & friends. Let's add Indians too, after all they are one billion now. Nobody listen to Chinese but they have their way & say & get others to say very sorry even when no offence was intended. That's Chinese Chop Suey cum Kung Fu dish for you to be seasoned with American produced Soya Sauce. But then again, those that are willing to be simply polite & others who are genuinely sympathetic to the opinions of others are partly responsible for the chaos of our world. Everybody with an opinion end of taking up arms & causing violence: murder & mayhem; destruction& chaos & then others say that ex-marine thought different. (sorry for American slangbang English) Thought different my bum. The baby killer. May you burn in hell Bloody McVeigh!

Bring prosperity by killing 1.7 million. The 1.7 million Killer of Killing Fields himself was killed by a mosquito. John Lennon sang “Imagine”. Imagine no races, no religions, all for all & all are all. Lennon was gunned down. Today we are faced with million mutinies.. About a decade ago I happen to read a book review of a book written by one of the finest writers of our time. Even before start reading the article it dawned on me what it could be all about. The Name of the Book is
"Million Mutinies " & the name of the writer was V. S. Naipaul. It is only in January 2001 that I got a second hand copy of the book by American second hand bookseller powells.com. Thy Pax Americana, the kingdom of Dot.Com lands on your desk. Yet your heart is a blank book: your so called new world order is in wherever you can stand to your advantage with no ethics of consistency at all. Nobody wish to have a leaf of it. Having said that, we mustn’t forget philanthropists of the caliber of Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates & numerous others.

Now to drop a big brick & drive the Indian friends mad, allow me. Indians with their passion & penchant for taking up colorful language named the last civil disobedience against then ruling British, "mutiny ". They were clamouring for their bounty: India. With all that long civilization & all those pretty maids-Miss Words with such sexotic faces & exotic names such as Aishwarya, Sushmita, Diana, in a row, with all those unashamed ancient erotic carvings on, with those epics, Mahabaratha, Ramayana with only Homer's Iliad and Odyssey to take up the gauntlet, the land of Kama Sutra among million other magic, India is a divine bounty indeed.

Nevertheless, if it was then a mutiny, now in India are million mutinies of many colours & patterns. Naipaul explored his life long love, Indian society: opinions & views of multitude of races; innumerable frictions & fractions within the caste systems; contradictions & compromises of religious faith; whims & fancies of political forces; heat & passion of the idea of an one country called India although it had been one nation only twice in the history, first during King Asoka & then the British bloody colonialists

Naipaul's world was India & his million mutinies were confined to India. Once one is absorbed & then freed from Naipaul’s India, it wouldn't be difficult to see the whole world in million mutinies. And that was partly thanks to those who propagate opinions & giving way to individual freedom of expression without impressing upon all bums & mutts it would be better idea to adhere to the basic conception of collective civic responsibility. Then again, once again, this is an opinion. But then again it would suit the Third World, given the billions in China & India & exceedingly high density of population in other undeveloped countries with limited natural resources.

There is no transitional value except to hold Collective Civic Responsibility over & above Individual Freedom in the Third World. Until the undeveloped countries become developed countries, so called Universal Values of the Western Counties may best stand behind.

As Rodney King asked subsequent to Los Angeles Black American riots a decade ago, "can we all get along?'' Would it be possible for us to be magnanimous to the extent that we ourselves would suffer instead of making the others, even errant others suffer? One man did exactly that a couple of thousands years ago. Once I happened to view a part of a wonderful, beautiful film based on IRA. The young Irish Catholic, a would be terrorist argue with his mother in favour of taking up arms. "What else can we do if our grievances aren't redressed?" “Suffer it".

Other than your mother & your father there was only one man who had the right to say that. That was our man in Nazareth. Those people who had him killed are still waiting for their saviour: Waiting for Godot. It's 2001. If Ten Commandments aren't good enough, what is the option? To go with the blood & thunder, sword & fire, chaos & mutinies? So we will continue to have Million Mutinies.

The again, perhaps another man could say the same: the man who stood on the path of column of battle tanks in the Tiananmen Square during the civil protests of 1989, The silent hero is the icon of the century; a man standing down a tyrannical regime; frail flesh against unbending steel, mortality against on rush of terror, the very stuff of courage. That is the Right Stuff, indeed.

“There is no way that you can create a just society by wounding people, maiming people, and killing people”
Former IRA terrorist, the master bomber Shane Paul O'Doherty, renouncing violence

bunpeiris

B. Upul N. Peiris

Rambling Thoughts 1

Rambling Thoughts 1: Birds, Words, Corner Shot, Nuns, Deer Hunter, Pretty Women & Samson

by bunpeiris, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka Year 2004 (c) B. U. N. Peiris

Most of the European tourists tour in Sri Lanka are keen bird watchers. So I thought you too could be interested in the flying birds. Nice to here that you are & now have it right on your office desk. I of course, am a great lover of non flying long legged birds. No, I didn’t mean Ostrich & Kiwi. What do you imagine, am I a Camel? Yes, I know you guys in Europe have no problems, no qualms in watching birds of many feathers as they do have in America. So it was at the expense of Janet Jackson’s nipple that the Americans were leaving no effort spared to produce boobgate or nipplegate. Justine Timberlake & Janet Jackson were performing “Rock your body“ during the 18 minute interval show during AFP telecast of Super Bowl ( everything in USA is super & everything else in USA is grand, kidding or no kidding,) & Timberlake has just sung “I’ll get you naked by the end of this song“ as he moved in to pull off a leather cup to expose Janet. Timberlake was as good as his word, or the words he sang so enthusiastically. And thanks & credit to him, America had a gleeful eyeful of nice boobful! Alas! Activist groups cried bloody murder just for a tit as if it was dynamite. What the hell men, just shut up. Oh! Poor Janet. Don’t cry, honey we love your music. We love you too, with or without you displaying your lovely chocolate tit. This too will pass. Wet lingering French kiss between Madona & Britney Spears on the MTV awards last August passed too. Naughty MTV!

By the way,Janet, honey, if you hadn’t learned meanings of the words, decency & vulgarity in the secondary school, you could have joined my master class: Man is the measure of all things (with apologies to Pythogoras); words would not have existed unless the conceptions are already instilled in the humanity. “Shakespeare invented the human as we continue to know it“argued Professor Harold Bloom in his bold Thesis “Shakespeare: The Invention of Human.“ The Master has made use of 30000 words. Should that turns out be Greek to you honey, let us read German:Terry Lane has defined schadenfreude as the sensation experienced when you see two Mercedes Benz collide; Clive James admits to schadenfreude when he sees his rival's books in the remainders bin. What’s more, the word has come into vogue these days, with American news of the celebrity & elite. Times Digest of 14^th March 2004 ( from The New york Times) reports, “For many, the joint Omarosa-Martha beheading was a double schadenfreude. Both women have been frequently slapped with b word by detractors, who despise in them the aggressive, self absorbed & haughty behavior that is routinely countenanced in male masters of the universe.” The report refers to Martha Stewart, billionaire chef, designer celebrity who fell from grace with tax evasion charges & on obstruction of justice as well as the NBC hit reality show “The Apprentice“ contestant audiences loved to hate, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth who was ritually fired by real estate developer business tycoon Donald Trump. Two tragedies fell upon two women within the space of two days are twin joys (double schadenfreude) to most of other women as well as some men. Shameless Naked Apes!

R. C. Trench, etymologist and author of “English Past and Present and On the Study of Words” says “What a fearful thing that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others; for the existence of the word bears testimony to the existence of the thing.” Now you got the form & substance, honey, isn’t it? Didn’t I drive the point to the hilt, honey pot? The words decency & vulgarity exists together with the conceptions. Just remember, such little words & life would be much simpler to you, honey. Shut the f.. up man, treat the lady with some respect. Who the bloody hell are you to preach, what have you achieved? And the lady is in the top of the world.

The National Football League was fuming. “We were extremely disappointed by the MTV- produced half time show. It was totally inconsistent with assurances our office was given about the content of the show. The show was offensive, inappropriate & embarrassing to our fans & us. It’s unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime.” The Americans learned their lesson: on 29^th February 2004, at the Oscars, or Academy Awards, the U. S. film industry’s highest honors given by Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, for the first time ever the live telecast had a five-second delay in case some star decided to make some other daring move like Janet. It wasn’t needed. No star dared to pull Janetine stunts.

“It was not my intention that it go as far as it did. I apologize to anyone offended, including the audience, MTV, CBS, & the National Football League“ We accept your apologies sweetheart, yet just in case you are still serious of exposing your treasures- brown boobs with chocolate nipples- Private Ltd, producer of adult movies, sponsors of Cannes Hard Porno Film Festival of 2004, would surely be pleased to accommodate you to compete with gorgeous stars posing with pulled up or rolled up complementary Private brand T-shirts to dazzle proud creamy boobs with strawberry nipples.They did just that in 2003 at Festival De Cannes at the Mediterranean island of Santa Magurita, a French Reveira at Cannes. Those sultry & lissome hard porno stars, all pretty maids in row were nice, sexy & daring, perhaps even bit too daring for some of the professional, they had to lock themselves up in the nearest men’s room to get the the high tension off in the electrifying atmosphere. Most were not satisfied with showing off their luscious boobs. Kissing, hugging, caressing, necking, petting.. oooh! la la . This is France: that is the place. Hard porno festival: that is the time. Right time & ideal place for the perfect dolls, Janet, honey. Impressive tits of superstar Rita Palthoyana were at all times were focal point of most avid photographers, she obliged by even licking her own strawberry nipples while pushing up her proud cream boobs, that she cupped in her downy palms. And with all smiles radiant. You could be daring too Janet. And the American shy boys who daren’t steal a glance not to mention direct ogle would dream of a phonographic version of “Corner Shot“ with a shooting range of 200 meters with a 5.7 mm rifle that provides protection to the soldier by enabling him to engage targets out of their line of sight & shoot down a street, through a window or a door frame with maximum accuracy while keeping out of the line of fire. Russian soldiers during the bloody World War 2 siege of Stalingrad first had the idea of bending the barrels of their rifles to shoot around corners & their Nazi opponents developed a purpose built attachment fitted with a periscope they called the krummerlauf. E- mail address of the inventor, Amos Golan, a retired lieutenant colonel of Israeli anti-terrorist unit & joint CEO of Corner Shot Holdings, a Israeli-US company is available on order. Please contact bunpeiris@mosquito.net.bluelagoon We accept Diners Club Cards & Master Cards.

Oh! Yes, I agree with you, of course I’ll put my bet where your mouth is, on your side at your insistence that those TV viewers who made the protest & threatening to sue poor Janet are the ones, who would lean forward to ogle at the details of her chocolate tit. I wonder what would the Americans say for a Swedish style weather forecast with a sultry blonde meterologist stripping herself off piece by piece. Weather forecast with a striptease to entertain you. Joys in the world are endless as is the suffering. Oh! Sweet Jesus, Maria & Joseph, such toned & tanned long legs! Oh! Captain general Colombus, Santaaaa Mariaa, Nina & Pinta, grant us to discover what she uncover. What a gorgeous bird? Fly over my starboard & perch on my bridge. Oh! Dear! Deer Hunter ( handsome Robert De Niro), if you remember, was in love with the wife (regal Meryl Streep) of his friend (Christopher Walken) who became addicted to playing Russian Roulette on gambling in Saigon blackholes, refused to return to States. It was the wife of his friend that De Nero hunted & seduced since he returned to States. In Eastern Literature beautiful & innocent women are depicted as Deer. She deer. The title of the film “The Deer Hunter“ was arrived on this concept. The opening scene of the film, game hunting of Deer was not relevant to the title of the film. Nor was the Vietnam war in which the story was set in. In spite of being in love with the wife of his friend, De Niro returns to Saigon to bring his friend back to States & to back to his lovely young wife. “One last game, just one last... We will be returning Home.“ No, man, no... no no... do not do this.. no,. Gun held to the temple .. one gun .. one bullet... six chambers.. play the ultimate gamble... this just one last time, after all these years of astonishing luck, feel & weight of the chamber, the bullet was in the wrong chamber of the revolver. At April 1979,The Deer Hunter won Oscars for best film, best director, best supporting actor.

What would have stirred if not shaken (sorry Bond) the mind of a second world war veteran European (friend of a friend of mine) who fought in Russia that he could no longer aim a hunting gun at a Deer while still among traditional hunter family members? While Europeans are keen game hunters, even in that game Americans have done one better, or rather worse: in their gluttony to have more moose meat on the dining table, instead of hunting simply Moose they have started killing Wolves too. The theory is if the population of Wolves who prey on Moose is minimized the hunters will be able to have a part of the Wolf's share too in addition to the hunter’s share. To this end Alaska it is now legalized for private citizens to shoot wolves from fixed winged, single engine small private air crafts & helicopters.That is not game hunting, that is bloody slaughter. In one of the districts of Alaska, limit for killing wolves has been increased from 10 wolves a year to 10 wolves a day. Age-old war on Wolves has resumed with a age-old savagery by the modern naked Ape. Disgusting! Could you please pass roasted once again? Delicious!

In the experience of a European friend of mine, it was the birth of his daughter that triggered emotions that overwhelmed the appetite to hunt hares & ducks & fish. Amazing, isn’t it? But lovely. How nice to get rid of the habit of game hunting & angling? According to Buddhism it is a sin to take lives of other living beings. Once Reuter reported of how a Sinhalese soldier treated and cured a calf seriously wounded by a stray bullet during a battle with separatist Tamil Tigers. Even after a ferocious bloody battle the soldier’s kind feelings towards the beast remained unabated.Most of the battle hardened soldiers of Sri Lankan Army are still, at heart are boys from rural areas who wouldn’t say boo to a cat. Still more, in their rural upbringing, they are used to shepherd, york cows and buffalos. Once during a conscription interview a military officer questioned the would be soldier on his qualifications on sports. Sir I can wrestle with any rouge buffalo, tame & york it the plough within half an hour“ replied the boy. “Sir this is my youngest son. My two elder sons already gave their lives for our country. Take my third & only remaining son to fight for his country too, sir, for he is as brave as his brothers.“That was his mother.

In the biography of Asia’s second Pol Pot,“Inside an Elusive Mind” Prabhakaran, Indian journalist M. R. Narayan Swamy narrates. “Kittu frequently zipped around in Jaffna, with a small monkey perched on his shoulders. Kittu had once shot a monkey by mistake. When he saw that the killing had orphaned its young one, he made it his pet” No more monkey killing, bloody Ape. Kittu was Asia’s second Pol Pot’s most trusted lieutenant until he was killed in naval battle with Indian Navy during a gun running operation. In fact Kittu must have killed the monkey, in Vietnam style, for Monkey meat is a delicacy to the savages. Biographers are sympathetic to their heroes. but to give the devil his due credit, the Tamil Tiger would have saved the young monkey. Yet the Tamil Tigers destroyed the whole Island. As if the loss of lives & limbs were not enough, colossal damage to the economy wasn’t enough, byproducts of long drawn out war since 1983 have erupted in every sphere, field & aspect of our island nation: whole social fabric was torn into pieces; social conventions are shattered; sense of morality is blunted. We are sliding down the spiral towards the abyss. To the rich & powerful & corrupted, the poor & powerless & innocent have become the most exploitable citizens.

My second sister was given date a good three months following, for the surgical eye operation for Cataract. The best eye surgeon of the Island Dr. Perera has become so famous our people were wiling even to have been kept in the waiting list for long months. That was in the main government eye hospital in Colombo. Since it was an incredible folly to wait for three months, we tried another hospital a couple of miles from our city only to have the operation in April. I gaped, April??? “That’s how the matters grind on here.” said my father. “More like matters have grinded to a halt” I groaned. So we made a move towards a private hospital. The eye surgeon therein advised my sister to have the operation done by Dr. Perera himself, since he was the one who had already successfully operated her right eye a year ago. The kind doctor explained since my sister is still young & the technology used by herself (non foldable lens) & Dr. Perera (foldable lens) being different - it would be much better to have the operation done by Dr. Perera Good doctor scribbled a letter on behalf of my sister– Dear Dr. Perera, Please be kind enough…

There were 70 patients. We didn’t have a number, yet my sister was called in just after No. 6 patient. My sister rushed in with my eldest sister while I waited outside. Good Doctor has spoken to them kindly. I am unable to do the operation tomorrow. “today is 19^th Jan. Is 25^th Jan is fine for you?” That’s wonderful Doctor.” All of a sudden, the matter is so easy. I was naïve. I ought to have realized the leading medical specialists do have breaks & blanks in their schedule to entertain the requests of high & mighty. So why not oblige to a request by a friend?

At my brother’s home : “So what happens to the existing lens?” asked my 11-year-old nephew “I have no idea.” On the day of the operation while we were buying the crystalline foldable lens at M/s Delmage Forsyth & Co., I learned what happens to the existing lens. It is crushed in to dust with a drill & suctioned out of the eye & replaced with the crystalline lens. So I reported back to my nephew, (eh! His questions & queries are endless) when we returned home after the operation. “Last week he didn’t know what happens to the existing lens. Now he got to know that too. He wouldn’t play a second fiddle to grandfather” remarked my third niece to her elder sister.

The crystalline lens cost USD 100 & hospital charges USD 100. The most prominent eye-surgeon of the island, Dr Perera charges USD 70 as surgeon’ fees alone for an operation that is done in ten minutes. USD 70 X 30 Patients a day- 30 cataract operations. USD 2100 a day for at least 4 days a week. And the monthly salary of a female nurse is USD 100. Disparity of income tantamount to obscenity. It is profane & really offensive. How do we justify this colossal disparity in income of our little island? Nobody cares: nobody even dream of rectifying such affairs: regulating the hospital & doctors charges at private hospitals. Do our helpless Sri Lankans like it very much? Two decades ago seven newly formed finance companies collapsed making the depositors beat their breasts for the rest of their lives. Chairman of one of the companies escaped to Australia leaving a plaque on his office desk: “when going get tough, tough get going.’ Obviously a great fan of Bruce Springsteen. It was only after the notorious failure, the Central Bank introduced a regulatory body for the finance companies. Our bureaucrats failed to establish a regulatory body in the beginning & gave them the finance companies a free hand; our stupid masses, who failed to realize the absence of a regulatory body on finance companies, deposited their life savings in view of higher interest rates compared to established & renowned bans. That is our Island. This is third world.

Since we are now tired of discussing all these bitter affairs, perhaps it would be soothing to relax & focus on a Pretty Women. The business tycoon is furious his down town working class sleeping partner was snubbed. (“They were mean to me”) at a high end designer outfits, haute couture shop at Beverly Hills. He escorts her back.

Richard Gere: (Nodding at the direction of Pretty Julia Roberts) You see this lady over there? Do you have anything in this shop as beautiful as she is?

Beverly hill shop Manager: Yes, of course…. Oh! No no no I mean we have many things as beautiful as she would want to be, that’s … that’s the point… I think we can all agree on that.

Richard Gere: We are going to need few more people helping her out as we are going to be spending an obscene amount of money in here. So we need a lot more help sucking up money.

Beverly Hills shop Manager: Sir, if I may say so, you are in the right store & right city, for that matter.

Exactly how obscene the amount of money you have in min, profane or really offensive?

Richard Gere: Ree….a..a.lly Offensive.

Beverly Hill shop Manager: I like it very much.

If we do like it very much, the reason ought to have been we have become indifferent to our day to day travails amidst the chaos of social decline, caused by the mass murdering terrorists. Some years ago I too had a sort of disparaging indifference.

Once a friend of mine faxed me a letter to editor by one Mrs. G. narrating, vehicle traffic, garbage dumps, politicians what not…. I replied to him, minced no words: “While we are wondering about the lives of thousands of those splendid young men who gave their lives so that others could live, but all in vain since the days are numbered of the Island Race of 2550 years of unbroken recorded history, it is fascinating to see the suffering at which Mrs. G beating her breast about. She cry her heart out that of garbage close to her home; how sinister is the color of tinted shutters of the vehicles our buffaloes traveling by the Diyawanaa Oya; river that of being invaded her privacy at home by the policeman while she was not wearing her wonderful make-up. Which third world country is free of such harassment of the masses at the hands of those in power? If I have a reason to be glad, in spite of the imminent doom of the Island, let it be, that so far no politician was able to pump millions of Dollars of people’s money to Swiss banks as Bhutto, Marcos, Suharto & others of their kind did. Would you please come back when that happens? With Love (Italics are mine too )

My friend replied. “I have to give it it you! Know something, I was highly impressed by what she has written. However your comments completely changed my thinking... How come I missed such a vital point? Your writing is classic. Congrats.

Since then I have developed a sharply contrasting point of view: I have come to realize, in spite of the economic & social chaos caused by the terrorism, we must not fall into a time of indifference. We must talk of Kings & Cabbages: why we have only one cancer hospital for the whole island; why only 6 universities that could accommodate only the cream of the cream of the nation; why we do not get assistance from European countries to have technical colleges founded in the line of German Technical College of Sri Lanka: why don’t we found hospital in the line of Japanese gifted hospital; why we do not hire foreign physicians & specialists; why we do not have foreign expertise on national security; why should pay offensive government tax; municipality tax; why is the high price of rice; why public funds wasted on luxury cars for the politicians; why we have such a high percentage of cataract patients; why state transport decline day by day; why we do not have more & more duplication roads in parallel with main roads in the capital city; why we do not expand railway network; why is this cruelty to children. We must rise up, speak up, push our politicians, statesman & administrators & civil servant, & bureaucrats to wounds scattered all over the national social fabric. We must not sink into abyss. We must find solutions to all: solve all. All is not lost.

In his maiden speech, “Cruelty to children’, as a Member of Parliament delivered at the Rajya Sabha of India, in 1989, by famous Indian writer R. K. Narayan stated ”…. “I am now pleading for the abolition of the school bag, as a national policy, by an ordinance if necessary. I have investigated & found that an average child carries strapped to his back like a pack-mule, not less than six to eight kgs of books, notebooks & other paraphernalia of modern education in addition to lunch-box & water bottle. Most children on account of this daily burden develop a stoop & hang their arms forward like chimpanzees while walking, & I know cases of serious spinal injuries in some children too. Asked why not leave some books behind at home, the child explains it is her teacher’s orders that all books & notes must be brought everyday to the class, for what reasons God alone knows. If there is a lapse, the child invites punishment, which takes the form of being rapped on the knuckles with a wooden scale; a refinement from our days when we received cane cuts on the palm only. The child is in such terror of the teacher, whether known as sister, Mother Superior, or just Madam, that he or she is prepared to carry out any command issued by the teacher, who has no imagination or sympathy. “That was in 1989. On 3^rd March 2004, One Mohammed Haseebullah form India writing to Saudi Gazette states. “Finally we are on the Raj Bhavan road, but again there is a traffic jam. Another VIP entourage? No, this time it is an accident, an auto with just 11 school going children & their 20 kilo bags (each) collided with an Indian feeling- good father who was taking his four children to school on his scooter.”

Plight of school children in Sri Lanka is not far behind. When I asked my 10 year old niece why her school bag is so heavy she replied since on some days periods at school is not held according to the time tables all children are asked to bring all text books & note books so that they would be ready for any change of schedule in subjects on any given day. As Narayan said teachers of the third world countries have on sympathy or imagination. Once my eldest sister happened to witness the holy antics of the Reverend Mother, principal of the convent college to a couple of parents who were seeking admission of their daughter. “We do not accept Buddhist Children That is the end of the story” proclaimed the Reverend Mother thumping on the desk. Taken aback by the outrageous insolence the father of the child retorted. “This is not the manner even a reverend sister ought to speak. And you are a Reverend Mother, a principal of a college, if you have no idea how a Mother ought to speak, kindly that is, you must know at least how to speak as a human being …. Shouting & thumping like a thug. We are going to petition to Bishop himself.” My nieces were admitted to the Convent College only thanks to the recommendation letter from the Commanding Officer of the Air force base close to our city. It was at my behest my nieces started studying Christianity at the college. With my move, their father was quick to have them admitted to Buddhist Sunday School so that they could learn Buddhism at least on Sunday. His death in an air crash brought in untold sorrows & loss to all of us. He was our front man, point man. I have never seen him taken a step back. On that fateful day, it was not his turn to fly. When it was only a couple of weeks ago Tamil Tigers has acquired Surface to Air (SAM) missiles & shot down two military aircrafts, he volunteered to fly. He lived & died like Samson.

Taming of the Shrew, by the grace of god Skanda

Moola Mantra

Om Sharavana-bhavaya Namaha !

Gyaanashaktidhara skanda valliikalyana sundara
devasenaa namah kaanta kaartikeya namo
Om subrahmanyaaya namah !

[Adorations to Lord Subrahmanya!
Adorations to Lord Kartikeya who is known as Skanda,
Who holds the staff of wisdom,
who has the beautiful beloved Goddess Vallii,
Who is the enchanter of the mind of Goddess Devasena,
to that Divine Kartikeya I offer adorations again and again!]

Taming of the Shrew, by the grace of god Skanda

Images
Elephant worshipping at the temple of God Skanda Buddhist Stupa close to Hindu temple of God Skanda, God Skanda of Katargama River Manik Ganga at Kataragama The corssed tuskers are a torment to the noble beast Festival A main road running along the rainwater reservoir Offerings of fruits to God Skanda. Rain water reservoir at Kataragama Rosen Hotel

Romances From The Resplendent Island 2 by B. Upul N. Peiris

Sinhalese Prince Vs. Pandayan Princess

During the reign of Queen Leelawathie (1208 – 1210 AD, 1221-1222 AD)( the queen of King Parakarambahu the great ) in the resplendent island of Lanka, Princess Jinaraji, the daughter of King Veera Pandya the second of Pandyan Kingdom of Southern India was sent in pilgrimage to Kataragama, Sri Lanka. In spite of the expedition being one of pilgrimage, the princess has arrived with a force of 3000 Pandyan warriors at the sea port of Mantota. Not to be outdone, Queen Leelawathie too sent in a force of 3000 Sinhalese warriors led by her young nephew Prince Navaratna. Intermittent invasions of Lanka by the marauding Dravidian forces from Southern India was such, it was not for the Sinhalese Kingdom to take anything coming from South India for granted, no matter of the stated intentions, no matter how innocuous the expedition would seem to be.

Prince Navaratna, having arrived at Mantota, boarded the Pandyan vessel & welcomed the princess to his land, the ‘Land of Delights”. The princess while descending from the vessel to the boat lost her balance & slipped only to be held by the Prince The Pandayan princess, in spite of being saved from falling into the sea, in her arrogance, took umbrage, took it as an insult to be held even by a prince. The body guards of the princess, in their haste to appease a shrew of a princess took no time to push the prince overboard.

The prince having swum to the shore, in view of the insult to him, while still organizing the pilgrimage to Kataragama, managed to keep himself at a distance from the Pandyan princess. Princess Jinaraji was sent in to Sri Lanka for the sole purpose of easing the passage to her marriage: tales of her temperament & arrogance having spread over the lands, her hand in marriage wasn’t asked by any of the princes of the southern Indian kingdoms. The astrologers at the Pandyan court have prophesied pilgrimage to Kataragama, southern coast of island of Lanka would serve the purpose. In line with the requirements, an earthen lifelike statue of princes was made with a jewel in a closed fist of the statue. It was prophesied, would be husband of the princess would take possession of the jewel without breaking off the fist of the statue.

Prince Navartna, having led the pilgrimage, settled down to propitiate the deity of Katatargama, God Skanda as much in devotion as the princess herself. His petition was in search of justice against the insult done to him by the shrew of a princess. The prince paid homage to the deity day & night on both banks of River Manik in a couple of temples he himself erected in honor of God Skanda. At the end of the pilgrimage of princess, in the long voyage to Mantota, the party took a few days rest at Mahiyangana. On the bank of the River Mahaweli, the prince was visited by a hermit who pulled out a precious jewel from his turban. Entrusting the jewel to the prince, the hermit asked him to stay at the hermitage few paces alone the path until such time he return. While resting in the heritage, the prince fell asleep with the fall of the night only to be woken up by the warmth of a hugging & curving feminine body.

It was non other than the Princess Jinaraji herself who had lost her party, lost her way, lost her bearings while running for her life from a leopard. Having recounted her tale of helplessness, the princess fell on her knees & begged for forgiveness on the insult to the prince aboard her ship. The prince took her to his embrace & a night of lust & love followed. That was divine. They say you will never know the divine ways.

The retinue who had been searching the princess during the whole night was able to find her alone, unharmed in the same spot that she was lost but only in the following morning. The royal retinue returned to Pandya kingdom in due course only for the king & queen to be intimated that their unmarried daughter has conceived. Having heard of the state of the affairs from the princess, the King & queen accompanying the princess sailed to the kingdom of Lanka. Prince Navaratna was asked whether he was in possession of a certain jewel. When the prince presented the jewel entrusted to him by the hermit, it was apparent the forecast of astrologers had come true. With the consent of Queen Leelawathie, Prince Navaratna & Princess Jinaraji were united in holy marriage at Kataragama, the domain of God Skanda.

That was divine. You will never know the divine ways. We can get to know, by the grace of god. Let’s go to Kataragama, Sri Lanka & pay homage to God Skanda.

The best time to visit Kataragama

The town is at is best bold, bright & busiest during the Kataragama festival, held around the Kandy Esala Perahera pageant in Kandy- two weeks in July & August

The legend & the history

According to the legend, victorious King Duttha Gamini (161-137 BC) built the original shrine following his series of long battles against the mighty forces of Dravidian invader, Elara, at Anuradhapura. The legend is God Kataragama helped King Dutugamunu’s formidable Sinhalese army to cross the River Menik, which would have been an unassailable mighty river a couple of millennium ago. The history is (Mahawamsa) King Dutugamunu’s army was commanded by ten mighty warriors, Nandhimitta, Suranimala, Mahasona, Gothaimbara, Theraputtabhaya (formerly a Buddhist monk, he gave up the Buddhist order for the sole purpose of saving the Sinhalese & Buddhism from the marauding Dravidian invaders), Bharana, Velusumana, Khanjadeva, Phussadeva & Labhiyavasaba, all of them of superhuman strength & courage sans Achilles heel. Those ten mighty ambidextrous warriors of great strength & courage were ably assisted by great battle elephants. Foremost in strength, beauty, shape & the qualities of courage & swiftness & of mighty size of body was the royal elephant Kandula, who broke open the mighty door of impregnable Dravidian fortress at Vijithapura (city of victory), Anuradhapura

Just & Beautiful

Just & Beautiful 1
By Courtesy of Fernando Olmos
http://boggito.blogspot.com
Being a woman - or as Bachelet is fond of joking "a woman, a socialist,separated, agnostic: all the sins together" - has shaped both the president's agenda and her approach to politics. She has said her style is one "which could be characterised as more feminine, but which in reality, I think is more modern". Even so, it's hard to imagine a male president using the kind of language that she sometimes does. She called a law giving women the right to breast-feed at work "just and beautiful", and said of her own experiences at the hands of Pinochet's torturers "because I was a victim of hate, I have dedicated my life to turning that hate into understanding, into tolerance and, why not say it, into love".

The Land of Delights 3

Some of the international films shot in Sri Lanka:
In the 1950s:
"Outcast of the Islands"; "The Purple Plain" (with Gregory Peck); "Elephant Walk" (with Elizabeth Taylor); "Beachcomber", and; the classic and winner of seven Academy awards, "The Bridge on the River Kwai".
From 1979:
"Tarzan the Ape Man"; "Light over the Water"; "Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy"; "The Further Adventures of Tenessee Buck"; "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"; "The Iron Triangle"; "Ghosts Can't Do It; Jungle Book Two"; "Water".

September 9, 2007 3:15 PM

The Land of Delights 2

Chandran Rutnam and Sri Lanka's movie Ambassadors

Bandula Jayasekera June 05, 2006

Water, Deepa Mehta's last of a powerful and controversial trilogy of films set in India, is a powerful movie with a mixture of sadness, heartburn and beauty.

The beauty of this movie, which investigates the plight of widows and the social stigma attached to widowhood in India, comes from several quarters including My Sri Lanka.

From Galle-born child actress, (Galle is in the South of Sri Lanka) Sarala, who gives a heart-rending performance as little 'Chuiya,' to the supporting crew, a range of Sri Lankan contributors are linked with Water. Miracle man of Sri Lanka's set design, Errol Kelly, changed the Bolgoda Lake ( it is closer to Colombo) to create the aura surrounding the great river Ganjis of India after Mehta was forced to shoot the movie in Sri Lanka following Hindu fundamentalist protest against the production of the movie in India.

There is no question about the performances of lovely Indian/ Canadian actress Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas of Bandit Queen fame and John Abraham. But, what flows like water in this controversial movie is the beauty of My Sri Lanka thanks to Sri Lanka's moving movie man, Chandran Rutnam.

Rutnam and his Film Location Services have done a lot for Sri Lanka and taken the island's beauty to the world. He has also brought millions of dollars to the country as foreign exchange. In a way, Rutnam has become a true Ambassador for Sri Lanka though he has not been given any titles like Deshamanya or Deshabandu (These are awards given to Sri Lankans for their contributions to the country) . And at a time when many Deshabndus have become Videshabandus, Chandran has remained a true son of Lanka and lives in Sri Lanka though he owns two houses in the US and in Malaysia

Having started his movie career with Britain's Sir David Lean in The Bridge on the River Kwai at sixteen, and having studied with American director George Lucas in film school in the USA, Rutnam brought Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with actor Harrison Ford to Lanka.

Stephen Spielberg refers to Rutnam as "my most valued friend in South Asia." That in itself is one single honour for Sri Lanka. How many of us know that Spielberg fell in love with his wife Kate Capshaw during the filming of Indiana Jones in Sri Lanka? In a way, the credit for that also must go to Rutnam and My Sri Lanka. There is no doubt that Spielberg saw Kapshaw's beauty and charm better in Sri Lanka to have fallen in love with her here.

The world embraced the beauty of Bo Derek as Jane in Tarzan and the Ape Man and the jungles where Tarzan roamed as king. And these jungles are our own. The movie was shot at Udawatte Kelle, Kandy. ( Kandy is the Hill Capital of Sri Lanka) And Rutnam and his team were behind it too. He also took Bo and John Derek to Bentota ( known for its beautiful beaches) to film Ghosts Cant Do It. Even today there is a carving on a stone in Bentota, which says "Great Scot Loves You" - a message from late John to Bo. That's not all.

Rutnam and his team brought the graceful Geraldine Chaplin and Mother Theresa to Sri Lanka and built Calcutta in Colombo and a little bit of Oslo at a warehouse in Kelaniya. Rutnam brought many world-class directors and actors to Sri Lanka, whom I cannot name here due to space constraints.

Errol Kelly also needs special mention because this unassuming man from Kandy has created miracles by way of set designs using Mother Lanka as location for many Hollywood and other international films brought to Sri Lanka by Rutnam. Kelly would have won an Oscar for his creative genius had he lived in England or in the US. But, whatever Kelly has done, he has taken Sri Lanka to the world stage and made us proud. That too silently as he is

We have seen many articles and write-ups about Rutnam and Kelly. Indian television once described Chandran as Sri Lanka's "best-known address in Beverly Hills." Rutnam also brought to life a beautiful love story between a Tamil boy and a Sinhalese girl in Adara Kathawa (Love Story). May be its time to screen it again.

Coming back to our Location Scouts, I don't think the country has recognized their contributions enough. I think its time and it must be done now. They must be encouraged and supported by the State.

These location scouts took great pains to show the world that Sri Lanka is a lassana Sri Lanka (Beautiful Sri Lanka) even during the worst of times. When terrorists blew up banks and trains and killed innocent people in hundreds, these location scouts told the world that the whole of Sri Lanka is a beautiful studio and that dream makers of the world could weave their dreams in Paradise land.

This is my Sri Lanka and they are my Sri Lankans

The Land of Delights 1

Sunday, September 9, 2007

The whole of Sri Lanka is a film set, 2006unday, November 26, 2006

Sri Lanka offers a wide variety of locations, which the Academy Award winning director, Sir Carol Reed after shooting his film in Sri Lanka said, "The whole of Sri Lanka is a film set". Many international films have been shot in Sri Lanka. From Carol Reed's adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Outcast of the Islands", John and Bo Derek's version of "Tarzan the Ape man, David Lean's "Bridge on the River Kwai" to Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and most recently, "Jungle Book", "Mother Theresa" and Deepa Mehta's controversial film "Water".

The Sri Lanka stall was unique and it was under the banner of "Sri Lanka: The Ideal Film Location Destination".

The Sunday Times online Sri Lanka 26th Novemeber 2006

Unmada Chithra (The beauty who overwhelm one & all with maddening desire)

RITIGALA, SRI LANKA,

THE LAND OF DELIGHTS

Romances From The Resplendent Island 1 by B. Upul N. Peiris

Unmada Chithra (The beauty who overwhelm one & all with maddening desire)

The first king of Lanka, King Vijaya, who arrived in the Resplendent Island, the Land of Delights in the year of final extinction of Gauthama Buddha (543 BC), by karma, wasn’t blessed to have a son. Since the next best one, if there is such a one, no doubt is the nephew. Prince Panduvasdev (Pandu Vasudeva), son of the brother of King Vijaya, King Sumithra of Vanga Kingdom (modern Bengal) of northern India was brought into the island & was crowned the king of Lanka an year following the demise of King Vijaya.

Meanwhile in India, King Pandu of Vanga kingdom was threatened with war by no less than seven princes of seven neighboring kingdoms. The cause of the impending war, as in the Iliad & Ramayana & many other epics was non other than a woman: the king’s lissome daughter of matchless beauty. Her hand in marriage was valued, by the princes, over & above the war & death of hundreds of thousands of men. Well! Hell or nuclear bomb, you have to get your women, a man has to do what he has to do. Her marriage to one would cause numerous bloody battles since no prince worth his salt, with an army & kingdom in his possession, could leave a goddess-like princess to any other man. Her father King Pandu was no other than son of King Amithodana, the brother of King Suddhodana, whose son Prince Siddhartha transcended the human condition to become supremely enlightened Buddha. It was beneath the virtues of kings of Shakya clan to get involved in wars. The court astrologers came to the fore by making a timely prediction. Set the princess adrift in the ocean, she would safely reach an island, whose king would make her his queen. The princess together with 32 noble maids was set adrift in the great River Ganges. The river carried them to the ocean & by good fortune, the vessel caught favorable land-bound wind & ended up in the coast of Thammana of the kingdom of Lanka.

King Panduvasdev of the Resplendent Island, the Land of Delights, already being alerted by his own astrologers on a miraculous event to unfold had made his post at the coast. The princess & her entourage of 32 noble maids were taken to the kingdom in ceremony. As if the kingdom of the Land of Delights wouldn’t do, now the king had the untold fortune of taking a seaborne delight of a lissome princess of matchless beauty to his embrace: a Venus. The state of affairs couldn’t get any better. His ministers wouldn’t take a backseat either: they made swift moves to the 32 maids. All comes to the one who wait & make the right move in ripe time.

Unlike his uncle, King Panduvasdev was blessed with children; his Queen Bhadrakathyana gave birth to no less than ten sons. The only girl she gave birth grew up to be a maid of such beauty that would overwhelm one & all with maddening desire with the mere sight of her. Hence she was called Unmada (maddening desire in Sinhala) Chithra (picture). Like mother, like daughter, the beauty of the Unmada Chitra was the subject of royal astrologers: the Brahmins skilled in the sacred texts foretold she would give a birth to a son who would eventually slay nine of his 10 maternal uncles for the sake of sovereignty. Eldest son of the king, Prince Abhaya restrained his brothers from causing harm to his one & only sister.

Princess Unmada Chitra was imprisoned in the chamber built at the top of a light house like tower called Ek Tam Ge (meaning one chamber house in Sinhalese). The one & only chamber of the tower was at the topmost of the tower & access to which could be made only through the most exclusive chamber of the kingdom; royal bedchamber.

Having heard of the maddening beauty of the princess, a Prince by the name Deegha Gamini (Deega meaning tall in Sinhalese) was overwhelmed with the longing for her. The prince was a son of one of the 6 brothers-in-law of King Panduvasdev. They had arrived from Vanga kingdom of India on a visit, immediately following the arrival of Bhadrakathyana & then resolved not to return to Vanga but to take abode in the island of delights. Prince Deega Damini would spare no stone unturned & stealth scaled the lighthouse like pillar from the outside wall & then take a dive out of the window to the sea if he couldn’t take Ummada Chithra to his embrace. Lust & love would drive the lion-hearted to become larger than the life. Hiding his true intentions to the hilt, the prince sought the consent of his father to call upon the king.

The king Paduvasddev, impressed to no ends, by the stature & warlike skills of his nephew who paid him a courtesy call, appointed him a guardian of the royal place. Prince Deegha Gamini, by means of a collapsible mechanical ladder called “Karakataka Yanthra” succeeded in scaling the tower. It was the beginning of his nocturnal tryst with Princess Unmada Chithra. The princess didn’t fail either. She conceived. Swift moves brought in swift results.

Having heard of the affair & the result of it, & having resolved that no harm be inflicted upon the prince & the princess, King Panduvasdev summoned Prince Deegha Gamini & ordered, in view of the prediction, should a son be born, new born be put to death at once. The prince having taken his lion-hearted course of the destiny, having confronted the king & the royal court, from thereon the princess set to work. It was to be the time for womanly virtue of weaving a net of schemes & lies to save the life of her son. Princess Unmada Chithra had an attendant find peasant woman with the same maturity of pregnancy as herself. When the time was ripe, when the women gave birth to a daughter, the newborn girl was brought into the chamber by the attendant of Chitra. It was declared a girl was born to the princess. The mother & grandmother, who were in the scheme, joining the names of the grandfather & the eldest uncle, named the newborn boy Pandukabhya.

The newborn son of Chithra, smuggled out of the Ek Tam Ge by the attendant to a villager, who was sworn into the secrecy & whose wife gave birth to a son on that very day. The villager declared that his wife gave birth to twin sons. The prince was brought up in secrecy by the villager. Prince Pandukabhya, son of Prince Deega Gamini & Princess Unmada Cithra, in the prime of his life waged war against his maternal uncles. During the battle at RIITIGALA nine of his 10 uncles were killed. Prince Pandukabhaya, ascended the throne at the age of 37 to reign over the island of Lanka for 70 years during 437 BC to 367 BC.

RITIGALA, Sri Lanka

Ritigala is situated in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province, 27 mile from the ancient monastic city of Anuradhapura, one of the 7 World Heritage Sites of the island. The Ritigala mountain range comprises of 6 mountain peaks- Mount Ritigala, Mount Andiyakanda-Hinna, Mount Deviyange Kanda, Mount Maha Kanda, Mount Seethala Kanda & Mount Kuda Arabedda Hina.

RITIGALA, Sri Lanka

Where trekkers dare, epic, mythology, history, strict nature reserve, Sanjeewa Plant (Sansevi), an archaeological site, serene atmosphere & cool air, bubbling streams, huge boulders & noble trees, stone bridges, raised platforms & courtyards, forest monastery, ruins of an Ancient hospital

RITIGALA, Sri Lanka

According to popular belief, Lord Hanuman of supernatural powers, who could rise up to the occasion & become bigger than the task assigned, become bigger than the problem (with apologies to Suda Murthy of Infosys, India) flew, jump, travelled over Ritigala, by accident, dropping one of the chunks of the Himalaya, which he was carrying from India to Lanka for its medicinal herbs. Lord Rama’s brother, Prince Lakshmana was mortally wounded in battle & only a rare herb in the Himalaya could save his life. Well, come to think of it, the pocket of vegetation of healing herbs & plants at the strange mini-plateau at the summit of Ritigala that is distinct from the dry-zone flora of the lower slopes & surrounding plains at Ritigala could be accounted for. Perhaps.

Written by B. Upul N. Peiris

NOW MORE ON RITIGALA FOR YOU

http://www.buddhanet.net/sacred-island/ritigala.html

Ritigala Ritigala mountain is 2,513 feet above sea level, three miles long and lies in a north-south direction. It is the highest mountain in northern Sri Lanka and in the rainy season its summit is often shrouded in mist and cloud. The modern name Ritigala is derived from the ancient name mentioned in the Mahavamsa, Arittha Pabbata, pabbata meaning a mountain and arittha meaning dreadful, or alternatively safety. It was from here, says the great Hindu epic, that Hanuman leapt back to India to tell Rama that his kidnapped wife Sita, had been found. These are at least 70 caves at Ritigala which were prepared for monks between the 1st century BCE and the early centuries CE. An inscription in one of these caves mentions that King Lanjatissa the brother of Duttagamini gifted it and he probably founded the first monastery at Ritigala. The Culavamsa tells us that King Sena I built a monastery here for the Pansakulika monks and provided it with numerous slaves and servants. It is the ruins of this monastery that the modern pilgrim sees today. Sometime during the 8th century a group of monks broke away from the Abhayagiri and called themselves the Pansakulikas, that is ‘The Rag-robe Warers’. Wearing robes made out of rags, usually shrouds picked up from cemeteries, is one of the thirteen ascetic practices (dhutanga) allowed by the Buddha. The fact that the Pansakulikas chose to name themselves after this particular practice suggests that they were reformers, probably protesting against what they a saw as the comfort and indolence of the city monks. However, the remains of their monasteries suggest that they were something more than just a ‘back to the forest movement’. All of their monasteries have certain mysterious features unique in Sri Lankan monastic architecture; long paved paths often with roundabouts in them, large stone-lined and stepped reservoirs and strangest of all so-called double platforms. These platforms are made out of huge slabs of beautifully cut stone and always occur in twos, joined by a bridge. They are usually built on natural rock foundations and are always aligned in the same direction. Near the platforms is often found a so-called urinal stone some of which are elaborately decorated. In fact, these ‘urinal stones’ are the only things in Pansakulika monasteries with any decorations on them at all. Further, no stupas, image houses, temples or images have ever been found at Pansakulika sites. These mysterious features have so far defied all attempts to explain them. They were obviously related to some practices or rituals that the Pansakulikas did but what these were no one knows. For at least two centuries the Pansakulikas commanded enormous respect from both kings and commoners. But over the centuries they accumulated vast estates and their asceticism became more symbolic rather than real. In the 12th century they split into two rival sects and during the reign Vijayabahu I they left Polonnaruva in a huff when their wealth was confiscated as a part of the kings attempts to reform and unite the Sangha. After that they disappeared from history. The ruins at Ritigala comprise nearly 50 double platforms and other buildings and cover an area of about 120 acres. It can be worthwhile just following any path one happens to find and see where it leads. But be careful, the jungle is very thick and it is easy to get lost. Also be careful of snakes particularly the adder which becomes very still when approached and thus is easy to tread on. To the left of the parking area at Ritigala a rough path leads through the jungle to several caves where some eight monks are living. This is a properly functioning meditation monastery so if you do decide to visit maintain an attitude of quiet respect. Entering the ruins the pilgrim comes to a huge man-made reservoir created by building a bund across a valley down which two streams flow from the mountain. The circumference of the receiver is 1,200 feet and its inside is lined with stones meant to protect it and also to serve as steps for bathers. The top of the bund is also paved with large stones. Before being breached this reservoir would have held about 2 million gallons of water. Ritigala’s monks would have used this water for drinking and bathing but they probably also earned an income from it by channeling it to farmers. The path to the ruins runs along the southern bank of the reservoir, crosses a bridge, passes a circus and then leads to the first buildings. Turning right the pilgrim will come to the main refectory. This large rectangular building with a sunken and paved courtyard in its center with pillars around it. Note the several types of grindstones and the stone trough. As there were no villages nearby the monks could not go begging every day to get their food. Devotees probably donated raw rice which was cooked by the monastery staff and then offered to the monks. Monkeys at Ritigala Just near the refectory is a large area enclosed by a wall which like most of the structures at Ritigala is made of huge finely cut and dressed slabs of stone. Within this area are two pairs of double platforms. Note how perfectly the stones fit together. These seem to have been the monastery’s main reception buildings. On the northern end of the enclosure wall is a path that leads down a ravine to a river where there is a stone bridge and a bathing place. Return to near the north west corner of the enclosed area and the pilgrim will see a path leading westward through very thick forest. This paved path runs for about a 1000 feet and has several flights of stairs to allow for the incline and more difficult to understand, two roundabouts. The first of these roundabouts, roughly halfway along the path, is the largest, while the second smaller one is towards the end of the path. A little before the first roundabouts a path leads off to the left to an impressive stone bridge, several double platforms and caves. How to Get There The turn off to Ritigala is on the main Anuradhapura-Polonnaruva road some 7 km from Ganawalpola and about 16 miles from Habarana between the 6 and 7 mile post. The ruins are about 3 miles from the turn off and the road is unpaved but in good condition. The ruins are situated roughly half way along the mountain on its eastern side.

© 2007 Copyright Ven. S. Dhammika & BuddhaNet/Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.

Amazon Rainforest

Tribes of the Amazon Rainforest

Man has landed on moon and ventured deep into oceans. It is hard to believe that there are places right here on this planet, where mankind has still not been able to plant its stamp of modernization. According to a research there are almost a hundred ‘lost tribes’ that don’t have any contact with the outside world, or rather the outside world has failed to breach the barriers of their secured life and they are still holding on to their ancient cultures and languages in rainforests around the globe.

Amazon rainforest is one such place, with Brazil having the most number of indigenous tribes. The forest not only provides sanctuary to millions of plants and animals but is also home to many indigenous tribes. Even though the population is thinning in these tribes still their loyalties with their roots are as intact as ever. For people living in the technological world, the lifestyle of these tribes is nothing less than a shock, on the other hand, experts in the field believe that these people willingly choose to avoid us, civilized being, for unknown reason, one of which might be that since companies and countries had gotten in to their habitat they have caused more pain than gain like diseases and logging the forests.

Looking at their life style, it is quite obvious that they do not enjoy the creature comforts that we take for granted; a solid brick walled house, a car to more us from point A to B or the ‘essentials’ like TV , computer, dishwasher, microwave, a simple gas stove or even a tap with running water. They are more in touch with nature, having leaves and straws as the main construction material, as well as clothing items, if they feel like having any. For food they rely on hunting and farming both. The forest is a major source of food and is the basis of their medical system. As long as we are discussing eating habits, its worth mentioning that some still enjoy human meat.

Hygiene is another interesting aspect of tribal living. Lets just say they are normally not very keen on taking baths, so much so that some have a custom that females do not use water for cleaning… ever! Instead they use mud.

Of course, they do not have any formal schooling for the young, rather the elders have the responsibility to teach them the art of survival and inculcate the age old traditions in their next generations.

Not all of the Amazon tribes these days live in this type of seclusion. Civilization is slowly catching up and the main Amazon tribes have come into contact with modern man, his money and machines and are slowly getting absorbed by the Brazilian culture. A major problem facing these tribes now is a type of brain drain. Their youth are moving to the cities and becoming part of the cheap work force which has seriously depleted their population.

Whether you find their life style and customs archaic or fascinating, one thing is for sure, they are our last link with the past and the point of comparison between the old and modem man and provide a very different type of diversity to the human race.

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The Americans

All these years we have been listening to scientists engaged in multitude of projects to master to nature. All these years we thought the expeditions, experiments & explorations have been limited to the planet of ours. Now, the Americans have even mastered the powers of others planets to assist a man made spacecraft.
On 20th July 1969 UT 20:17:40 In 1965, when Armstrong landed on the moon, I heard my father saying most advanced technological breakthrough that turned out of the expedition was a panel of controls that could me activated merely by looking at it for few seconds. It was to be used in an emergency situation in which astronauts were rendered temporarily paralyzed- a sort of frozen situation. I was just staring at him, unable to believe what he was saying- activating machinery at a glance. “ Nihil per saltum” (Nothing at a glance) says my college motto, I muttered to myself. And now here is your information. I was staring at the PC for sometime. It took me sometime to realize I was staring.
In 1969, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin & Michael Collins were our heroes. We were awake all night listening to non-stop commentary of Apollo landing. There were no Television at that time in Sri Lanka. But the radio broadcast in my own language itself was exhilarating. There was an English language broadcast too. I even airmailed a post card with “Congratulations!” to NASA saying that was from Upul Peiris Prince of Wales’ College Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. In return I received a “Thank You” note & pictures of astronauts, & moon landing. Bookshops were flooded with Sinhala language editions of outer space, moon landing, space expeditions since Gagarin & Glen. Kids & grown up men & women in a little known little island very far from U. S. A. were all in party mood. And possibly they too had another reason to be joyful of; name of the NASA scientist in charge of examining 36 pounds of Lunar Rocks was Dr Cyril Ponnamperuma. A Sri Lankan. And our city, Moratuwa, 10 miles south to the heart of Colombo, by the side of the sea lagoon, have been well known for cricketers, party animals, singers. Apollo was son of Zeus & Leo, the god of Prophecy, Poetry & Music.
Com’n let’s dance.
What a long way, the Americans have come? Since Boston Tea Party on 16th December 1773, since dropping "Little Boy” on Hiroshima, the ultimate barbarous act of war-the nuclear bombing of a defeated nation protecting its own land- at 8:15 in the morning of 6th August 1945, since “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” on 20 July 1969. Today to harness the powers of other planets; to engage in expeditions to master the nature, not only of the nature of the earth but also of other planets too; to make the Naked Ape, the human race, the master; all else slaves of its whims & fancies. And its madness. Now landing from cosmic level to inevitable base level, the animal level, “ Discite grammatici cur mascula nomina cunnes. Et cur femineum mentula nomen habet “ (Teach us, grammarians, why cunnus ( vagina) is masculine. And Mentula ( penis) feminine)
Eleven-year-old Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798), after a moment’s reflection, writes out the following pentameter: “Dice quod a domino nomina servus habet” (Because the slave always takes the name of his master.) Each sex is the slave of the other sex; each sex depends on the other for pleasure.
Oh! Casa!

‘World Spice Food Festival’ in Sri Lanka 2007

Return of the ‘World Spice Food Festival’ in Sri Lanka

The World Spice Food Festival, the biggest food festival of the year in Sri Lanka, is back again by popular demand, the organisers said.

Organised by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board, this event has become an annual fixture that enlivens Colombo with a veritable jamboree of unique culinary experiences. Encouraged by the tremendous response and positive feedback from visitors to the fair in the past, this year too the event is organised by the Corporate Services Division of the Tourist Board together with the five star hotels and top restaurants in the city.

It will be held from October 18-28. Each participating hotel and restaurant will conduct a food festival for one week in one of their restaurants, where world class chefs will be flown in from different different countries who are specialists in the cuisines on offer.

A spectacular highlight of the main event of the festival is the ‘Hawker Street’, to be held on October 19-20 at the Nomads Grounds, allowing visitors to the festival the ease and facility of browsing through the food stalls along with friends and family. HSBC is once again the main sponsor of the event.

The participating hotels, cafes, and restaurants that will don the chef’s hat at the ‘World Spice Festival’ are Hilton Colombo (Mexican); Taj Samudra (Italian); Trans Asia (Singaporean); Cinnamon Grand (Japanese); Holiday Inn (Indian South); Ceylon Continental (Indonesian); Mount Lavinia Hotel (Thai); Galle Face Hotel (Austrlalian); Galadari (Chinese); Water's Edge (Malaysian); Raja Bojun (Sri Lankan); The Mango Tree (North Indian); Sakura (Japanese); Han Gook Gwan (Korean) and Siam House (Thai).

Sri Lanka hotels

The only difference between first class travellers and first class idiots is the price they pay. So which one are you?
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Music arrangement Vijay Verghese Print This Article E-mail This Page Hotel Contact Info Deer Park Elephant Corridor Hantane Bungalow Havelock dining Helga's alfresco AFTER years of scraping the bottom of the budget-holiday barrel, Sri Lankan resorts are striving for a new image - and a new kind of visitor: the discerning traveller who wants a good deal, with a difference. The tsunami notwithstanding, the tourism infrastructure remains substantially intact with inland resorts totally unaffected. Popular beach areas like Bentota remain open. There are now scores of special offers (like one free night for every night stayed, after the first five) at re-opened beach resorts. Since tourism helps not just those employed in the industry, but many others - such as fishermen, craftsmen and guides - to survive, there is an extra 'feel good' factor to a holiday in Sri Lanka. See Sri Lanka Hotel Contact Info Miles and miles of beach Many mass-market beach resorts close in May for an off-season revamp, while new off-the-beach-and-beaten-track resorts have recently begun welcoming guests. This will delight those who like to think of strife-riven Sri Lanka as the more gracious Ceylon, since these new or revived resorts of character emphasise individuality laced with lots of TLC. Send us your Feedback / Letter to the Editor Changes have resulted from the increase in tourism since the cessation of open hostilities in 2002 between the warring LTTE (based in the north and east of the country) and government forces. Although holiday resorts were never the prime targets of terrorism, the long civil war and the current uneasy truce has damaged the island’s economy as well as the hospitality industry. The domino effect of low (and low-spending) arrivals caused the collapse of hotel standards, both in state of repair and caring service, leaving a product that lacked lustre. The year 2003 brought some relief, and record visitors. Now, during the slow period in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami, resorts have found the impetus - and time - to upgrade and improve their image again. Illuketia: colonial charms Sri Lanka’s appeal lies in its diversity, and resorts are opening that focus on the independent visitor with a special yen. Ancient ruins, Buddhist culture, adventure tourism like white water rafting and mountain biking, game park safaris, colonial lifestyle, and Colombo shopping and casinos are a small part of the island’s lure. Conventional beach hotels that offered as a diversion only buffet dinners and a local calypso band wearing silly straw hats, are adding value. Some have opened “wellness” spas, others – like the Bentota Beach Hotel – have opted for novelty restaurants. This 35-year old property has opened a cellar fine dining restaurant with show kitchen as well as upgraded buffets and set menus, so even the full board guest has a memorable gourmet experience. Other resorts are bolder in their themes. It’s possible to stay in a tea planter’s bungalow or a peasant’s mud hut, in a jungle tree house or a designer-statement villa. It’s not just the diversity that’s attractive about holidaying in Sri Lanka, there’s also the ease with which it can be done. While there are companies that will organise individual tours, independent visitors can easily make their own arrangements on arrival. There is a tourist information office at the airport, and a counter where taxis can be hired. Also at the airport, after immigration, there are duty-free shops for arriving passengers to stock up on booze. Visitors are given a 30-day permit on arrival. There is no customs declaration required of foreign currency being brought in, unless it is in excess of US$10,000. Visitors with nothing to declare can use the customs Green Channel, although there are occasional spot checks. Up to the tea country by train Minivans with an English-speaking driver can be hired from Rs4,000 (about US$41) a day. However, if doing this, be firm and know where you want to go. Good drivers can be informative about local traditions, others may be reluctant to follow your itinerary and try to steer you to gem shops or hotels where they’ll get a commission. Actually, most hotels provide the driver with free food and a free bed in dedicated drivers’ quarters when they bring guests. (An exception is Helga’s Folly in Kandy, which is why drivers try to deter visitors staying there; Helga directs drivers to a local guesthouse instead.) Advance reservations at resorts are not necessary except at peak times such as December/January on the west and south coasts, April in Nuwara Eliya, and during the “Perahera” season in Kandy, which falls in late July. Kandy is the ancient hill capital and has retained a charm that Colombo has lost. It is compact with bustling – but friendly – crowds, a lake and the world-famous Temple of the Tooth. At the annual Perahera the tooth casket is paraded around town in a spectacular pageant with acrobatic dancers and drummers and Kandyan chieftains in attendance. Over 100 caparisoned elephants, whip crackers and jugglers take part in the over 10 nights of celebration, climaxing on the night of the Esela full moon. There is a daylight Perahera the day afterwards. Kandy, perhaps because it has always been on most visitors “must see” list, has an eclectic range of amazing resorts. The most amazing is the aforementioned Helga’s Folly, a chalet style building where every room has a view of the lake, and enough fantastic décor to satisfy the inner child. “If this is a folly,” wrote a recent guest in one of the voluminous guest books, “it’s foolish to be wise.” Helga's folly: eclectic Helga, who presides over her erstwhile home with the grace of a princess, has created a fantasy with outrageous colour schemes and candle-lit parlours of antiques and whimsy. “It’s tongue-in-cheek,” she says to startled guests. “Staying here should be fun.” It’s an attitude that has made the place popular with cosmopolitan trendsetters. There are 25 rooms in operation, some of which are air-conditioned, and the food is as memorable as the over-the-top décor, with such dishes as fish poached in tea. The Olde Empire hotel is a down-to-earth contrast boasting a balcony, overlooking the temple square, that is a meeting place for young backpackers. The regular room rate increases from budget to big-spender during the Perahera season because of its proximity to the parading elephants. Rooms, apart from one, have shared bathrooms and the hotel enjoys the unusual intimacy of a travellers club and local tavern. At the other end of town, and price bracket, with impressive service and large rooms with splendid river views, the Mahaweli Reach has expanded over three decades from a family guesthouse to a homely five-star resort of character. It has a sparkling new business centre and a new dynamic-looking gym In the island’s interior near the cultural sights, the lakeside Culture Club offers a ‘back-to-nature’ experience in peasant-style mud huts with thatched roofs, alongside regular accommodation designed like temple chambers. For a real backwoodsman encounter with nature, guests can stay in one of four tree houses at Rafter’s Retreat with the river rushing below. In one cabin the bathroom is down a ladder made of branches hidden under a trap door set in the planks of the floor. Daylong white-water river rafting expeditions, with lunch of village cooking, take off from the retreat, at US$27 per person. Sigiriya Rock: Better than Ayers Standing starkly in 200 acres of scrubland, in “nature-scaped” gardens is the new Elephant Corridor, so-called because of its location at the crossroads for wandering animals of the wild. It boasts one of Sri Lanka’s most expensive rooms, the Presidential Suite at US$1,250 a night (but that can sleep eight). There are 21 suites in huts of granite blocks of striking hue. Within easy motoring distance of the Sigiriya Rock and the ruins of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, this hotel provides a jungle base of heightened ostentation for the jaded jet setter. The Deer Park is more homely in character with 74 comfortably-furnished cottages and a rambling presidential villa with its own swimming pool. Located near the lake at Giritale, it is handy for viewing the ruins of Polonnaruwa as well as for indulging in environmental bliss. Recently adopted as one of the international Colours of Angsana brand of resorts, it has a rural charm spiced with urbanity that pitches it among Sri Lanka’s best hotels. For colonial style comfort in the manner of an English country house, Glendower in the hill country retreat of Nuwara Eliya, is warmly welcoming (there are log fires in the public rooms). Although it is a reproduction bungalow, it has nine rooms and suites with teak floors, handcrafted polished mahogany furniture, and beds that guarantee a good night’s rest. Even the quilts are filled with silk. Its King Prawn Chinese restaurant provides a relief from the bland boarding house fare of its grander neighbouring hotels. One of the most unusual hotels is a few miles away, at 6,700 feet above sea level, in the middle of acres of rolling hillsides carpeted with tea and often bathed in mist. The Tea Factory resembles a gigantic and thrilling construction made by a zealous boy out of a Meccano set. The exterior has preserved the original tea factory’s corrugated iron walls, painted silver, and hundreds of tall, wooden casement windows. Inside its reception hall atrium (once the tea drying room) latticed with steel, two giant wooden fans turn slowly in the roof. The generating engine remains connected to a Heath Robinson contraption of pulleys and chains that powered the old tea rollers and sifters. Picking tea near Nuwara Eliya The hotel’s 57 cosy bedrooms are equipped with heater, a bathtub and lashings of hot water, and a kettle for making tea from the estate’s own brand. It’s a snug kind of place, ideal for lazy lingering in isolation for a few days or hiking in hills, forests and village hamlets. There is a traditional, unreconstructed colonial hotel that has escaped the popularity of those in Nuwara Eliya, in the neighbouring tea town of Bandarawela. The Bandarawela Hotel was opened in 1893 and, despite an occasional lick of paint or modification, remains reassuringly locked in a time-warp somewhere between 1930 and 1950. At 4,000 feet above sea level, on a bluff overlooking the town, it was originally favoured as a sanatorium by the then Ceylon’s British residents. Its beds with brass knobs and the hushed, measured tread of the sarong-clad staff convey a sense of restful calm. Tea on the lawn or in the long verandah lounge is a ritual, and the restaurant caters for those with a tea planter’s healthy appetite. While there are now several tea plantation bungalows that take guests, the pioneer is the Kelbourne Mountain Resort, at Haputale. With gob-smacking views across forested canyons right down to the south coast, there are three bungalows set in the hillside around a central garden that has a dining pavilion and kitchen. Meals from the resident chef’s menu can be served in each bungalow’s dining room and a bungalow boy is on call for whatever guests want. Aerie Cottage has two parlours and two bedrooms, each with attached bathroom, and the other two bungalows can sleep six each. Tea grows up to the window ledges. Here is plantation living in style with good management to keep the experience trouble-free. Stupa: Buddhist echoes Rooms are available in several tea plantation bungalows including one, Devon, that overlooks the stunning St Clair Falls. Guests are expected to bring their own food for the resident caretaker to cook. Breakfast is provided for guests at the Hantane bungalow, a three-wheeler drive from Kandy and close to the Tea Museum. The planter’s lifestyle (butler and cook on hand with meals from a plantation menu) can be enjoyed at the hill country St Andrew’s and Thotalagala bungalows. The new Boulder Garden Nature Resort, near Ratnapura and the Sinharaja Forest, comes with a health warning on its rate sheet: “It is home to many jungle creatures and they visit our guest facilities. Our suites are thatched …wide open to the symphony of nature.” But they are elegantly furnished and have attached bathrooms. The bar is in a natural cave, the restaurant under a rock. All sorts of adventures are promised or simple relaxation in a wonderfully wild environment. Woodland living in a style that is frequently featured in fashionable glossy magazines is to be found at Illuketia, a few kilometres inland from the southern coastal road near Galle. The property consists of two villas, one with its own pond and open-air bathrooms, another with cloistered rooms around an interior swimming pool. The furniture is bold colonial, with Chinese touches, and the atmosphere grand. Get your footprints here first The Sun House was created as a boutique-hotel in a colonial mansion overlooking the Galle harbour. Its approach up a road lined with suburban houses, to a door set in a wall, gives no inkling of the idle splendour within. There are five double rooms with four-poster beds and a Cinnamon Suite complete with library and lounge that takes up the whole first floor. Dining is on the loggia by a garden with terraces and a sunken swimming pool. High walls keep out the world. Across the road, the recently renovated Dutch House known as Doornberg was built in 1712 and its outside wall and entrance verandah look appropriately dilapidated with peeling umber paint. Its four huge bedrooms come with colonial period furniture including Edwardian style bathtubs. Columned cloisters enclose a sun-drenched lawn, with frangipani blossoms floating in clay pots and a path that leads to a lower-level swimming pool. Opened in Galle Fort is a remarkable conversion of the ruins of a 17th century Dutch mansion into the Galle Fort Hotel done with passion and love by a Malaysian former investment banker, Chris Ong, and his Australian former film producer partner, Karl Steinberg. Guests enter through the verandah, adapted to a café serving eclectic food conceived by Ong, and a dining hall furnished with exquisite Chinese porcelain, to a courtyard with swimming pool and tall columns. Amangalla: remodelled relic Three garden rooms lead off the cloisters and there are nine elaborately furnished suites including the largest (2,500 square feet) in Sri Lanka. All this pomp and grandeur is made more fun by the serving lads who wear, instead of the traditional tunics and sarongs more suited to the colonial atmosphere, T-shirts and beach shorts. The place has every sign of becoming trendy and already several international magazines have done fashion shoots there. In the same road and league is a hotel, formerly famous as the New Oriental, now transformed by the Amanresorts group into Amangalla. With parts of the building harking back to its days as a barracks during the 17th century Dutch construction of the fort, the hotel was affectionately known as NOH from its beginning in 1865 until its reincarnation 140 years later as Amangalla. Visitors who pop in for drink on the broad, art-deco tiled verandah, as they did in the old days, are astonished by the successful transformation of the property from seedy to sophisticated. The dated essence of its predecessor has been lovingly enhanced with spit and polish. The shining wooden floorboards of the Grand Hall are original, as are the metre-thick walls and the corridors of suites and chambers. While four-poster beds and some of the chunky period furniture remain, more comfortable, slimmer pieces have been added creating a confident elegance. Hidden in the cloistered garden is a huge, sleekly modern swimming pool and The Baths – a spa. Amanwella: modern touches Amanwella, opened in March 2005, is at Tangalle, 77km from Galle along the south coast road. The drive takes at least two hours, allowing time for adjustment to the contrast in Aman styles. Amanwella is resolutely modernist, the first glimpse new arrivals have being a forest of tall, black square concrete columns complementing the palm trees of its coconut grove location. Accommodation is in 30 villas strung out in three tiers along a hillside curving around a golden beach. The villas have glass-sided walls and no curtains, and partial privacy comes from the closing of lattice screens. With roofs of old clay tiles, the villas blend beautifully into the environment and inside all the furniture and fittings are locally made from dark-grained palm wood. The latest technology powers the lights and air-conditioning which means some guests need instruction on how to operate them. Each villa has a private swimming pool and there is a huge one in the main complex, where there is also a library, a restaurant with an excellent menu, and a bar so demurely lit at night, one wonders if it’s there. (Amanwella and Amangalla are featured in our Top Asian Hotels section with more information and stunning visuals.) Transport, Sri Lanka style... Even Colombo has a resort of character rivalling the traditional Galle Face as a unique place to stay in the city. While Galle Face Hotel is gradually being renovated and preparing to open a long-closed wing, the Havelock Place bungalow (opened in 1999 and combining two converted colonial properties) has become the place to stay for those seeking solace after a surfeit of slick, modern city hotels. Resembling a quiet country retreat, yet within a three-wheeler ride of the city’s action, it has a swimming pool with Jacuzzi, a gourmet restaurant (Asian-fusion menu) and broadband internet with WiFi facility. With only three suites and three doubles – all with four-poster beds, wooden floors and individual patios – it is a place with character and comfort that its regulars would like to keep secret. Send us your Feedback / Letter to the Editor FAST FACTS back to the top The Sri Lanka currency is the rupee and US$1 = 98 Sri Lankan rupees approximately, according to the day’s rate of exchange. Keep exchange receipts to facilitate changing rupees back to a foreign currency. There are banks after clearing customs at the airport. Hotels calculate bills in US dollars but accept legally acquired rupees (or all major credit cards) for payment. Hiring of chauffeur-driven cars or minivans for an independent tour can be arranged through a hotel’s travel desk or at the airport. Self-drive cars can be hired but can be more expensive (and more stressful) than hiring one with a knowledgeable chauffeur. Among recommended travel agents for local arrangements are Aitken Spence Travels (e-mail: travels@aitkenspence.lk and www.aitkenspencetravels.com), Ceylon Tours (e-mail: clntours@sltnet.lk and www.ceylontours.com), and Walkers Tours (e-mail: wtl@keells.com and www.walkerstours.com). The website of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board is www.srilankatourism.org. Our contributor, Royston Ellis, is the author of Sri Lanka available through www.bradt-travelguides.com Rates are per night for double occupancy without breakfast, except where indicated. Service charge (10 percent) and government tax (currently 15 percent) have to be added to room rates indicated by ++. Rates increase at Kandy hotels during the Perahera Season (check dates) and for the high season, from October. Amangalla. Tel: [94-91] 223-3388, fax: 223 3355, (e-mail: reservations@amanresorts.com or www.amanresorts.com). Rates from US$500++. Amanwella. Tel: [94-47] 224-1333, fax: 224-1334 (e-mail: reservations@amanresorts.com or www.amanresorts.com). Rates from US$650++. Bandarawela Hotel. Tel: [94-57] 2222501, fax: 2222834 (e-mail: ashmres@aitkenspence.lk or www.aitkenspencehotels.com/bandarawela/index.htm or www.aitkenspenceholidays.com). Rates from US$40++. Bentota Beach Resort. Tel: [94-34] 2275176, fax: 2275179 (e-mail bbh@keells.com and www.johnkeellshotels.com). Rates from US$90++. Boulder Garden Nature Resort. Tel: [94-45] 2255812, fax: 2255813 (e-mail: scrama@eureka.lk and www.bouldergarden.com). Rates from US$168++ Culture Club. Tel: [94-66] 2231822, fax: 2231932 (e-mail: edchm@sltnet.lk and www.connaissance.lk). Rates from US$77++ Dutch House, Doonberg Suites. Tel: [94-91] 4380275 (e-mail: sunhouse@sri.lanka.net and www.thedutchhouse.com). Rates from US$330 nett. Deer Park. Tel [94-27] 2247685, fax: 2246470 (e-mail: deerpark@angsana.com and www.thedeerparkhotel.com). Rates from US$75++. Devon (and other plantation bungalows). Tel: [94-11] 2304695, fax: 2300836 (e-mail: tea@keells.com. Rates from Rs6,250 (sleeps 10). Elephant Corridor. Tel: [94-66] 2231950, fax: 2231952 ) e-mail: hotel@elephantcorridor.com and www.elephantcorridor.com). Rates from US$200++. Galle Face Hotel. Tel: [94-11] 2541010, fax: 2541072 (e-mail: gfh@diamond.lanka.net and www.gallefacehotel.com). Rates from US$58++. Galle Fort Hotel. Tel: [94-91] 223-2780, fax: 223-2939 (e-mail: info@galleforthotel.com and www.galleforthotel.com ). Rates from US$150++. Glendower. Tel: [94-52] 2222501, fax: 2222749 (e-mail: hotel_glendower@hotmail.com). Rates from Rs1905++ Hantane Bungalow. Tel: [94-60] 2800993 (www.hantanebungalow.com). Rates from Rs1,320 BB; entire bungalow (sleeps 12) Rs6,420 BB. Havelock Place Bungalow. Tel:[94 -11] 2585191. fax: 2584655 (email: havelock.bungalow@mega.lk and www.bungalow.lk). Rates from US$80++ Helga’s Folly. Tel [94-81 2234571, fax: 4479370 (e-mail: chalet@sltnet.lk and www.helgasfolly.com ). Rates from US$75 plus $20 extra per room during Perahera. Illuketia. Tel: [94-91] 4381411 (e-mail: villa-srilanka@sltnet.lk and www.villa-srilanka.com). Rates for Pond House (sleeps 4) from US$800+; main villa, per double suite from $250, entire villa (sleeps 8) from US$800 plus 15 percent government tax. Kelbourne Mountain Resort. Tel: [94 57] 2268029, reservations tel: [94-11) 2573382, fax 2573253 (e-mail: kelbourne@eureka.lk . Rates from Rs5,000 nett for bungalow (sleeps 4/6). Mahaweli Reach. Tel [94-81] 4472727, fax: 2232068 (e-mail: mareach@slt.lk and www.mahaweli.com). Rates from US$100++ plus $25 per room per day during Perahera season. Old Empire Hotel. Tel: [94-81] 2224284 (e-mail: fernandovja@eureka.lk). Rates from Rs500 (sharing bathroom) and Rs1,090 (with bathroom) plus from Rs3,000 to Rs6,000 per room per day during Perahera season. Rafters’ Retreat. Tel: [94-36] 2287589, fax: 2287509 (e-mail: channap@itmin.com). Eco Lodge (Tree House) rates from US$42 nett (BB). St Andrew’s & Thotalagala Bungalows. Tel/fax: [94-11] 2381644 (e-mail: salessvh@sltnet.lk and www.sigiriyavillage.lk). Rates from US$150 (sleeps 8). Sun House. Tel: [94-91] 4380275, fax: 2222624 (e-mail: sunhouse@sri.lanka.net and www.thesunhouse.com). Rates from US$120 nett; Cinnamon Suite from US$265 nett. Tea Factory Hotel. Tel: [94-52] 2229526, fax: 2229606 (e-mail: ashmres@aitkenspence.lk and www.aitkenspenceholidays.com). Rates from US$130++ back to the top Note: Telephone and fax numbers, e-mails, website addresses, rates and other details may change or get dated. Please check with your dealer/agent/service-provider or directly with the parties concerned. SmartTravel Asia accepts no responsibility for any inadvertent inaccuracies in this article. Links to websites are provided for the viewer's convenience. SmartTravel Asia accepts no responsibility for content on linked websites or any viruses or malicious programs that may reside therein. Linked website content is neither vetted nor endorsed by SmartTravelAsia. Please read our Terms & Conditions.
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Sinhalese

An extract from
An Account of the Interior of Ceylon
& of Its Inhabitants
with
Travels in that Island
By
JOHN DAVY, MD. FRS.
1821

Quote
The Singalese are a courteous & ceremonious people, & whilst they attend most particularly to all their minute distinctions of caste & rank, they are mutually respectful: the man of rank is not arrogant, nor the poor man servile; the one is kind & condescending, & the other modest & unpresuming. The friendly intercourse of different ranks is encouraged by religion, & strengthened by the circumstance, that, on one side there is nothing the great are so ambitious of as popularity; & on the other side, nothing the people are so desirous of as favour.
Unquote


John Davy (1790-1868) was a British doctor and amateur chemist, and brother of the noted chemist Sir Humphry Davy, and cousin of Edmund Davy.

John Davy was born in Penzance, Cornwall. He assisted his older brother Humphry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain for two years before heading to Edinburgh University, where he earned his degree in medicine in 1814. Davy is perhaps most noted for his discovery of phosgene ^[1] [1] in 1812, and which name he coined. He also discovered silicon tetrafluoride.

Upon graduation, Davy joined the British Army Medical Department and became Inspector General of Hospitals. He used his position to travel to a great number of the English colonies, including India, Ceylon, and Barbados.

In 1834 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. From 1836 to 1840 he produced nine volumes on the collected works of his brother. After a brief time spent living in the West Indies, Davy returned to England, where he died in 1868.

In 1863 he discovered that eggshells have about 8,000 pores that are large enough for oxygen to flow in and carbon dioxide to flow out by pumping pressurized air into an underwater egg and watching thousands of tiny bubbles appear on the surface of the shell. ^[2]

McVeigh

Dear Dr. A.

First & foremost, let me tell you Dr., you are in the minority as far as the Timothy McVeigh’s sentence is concerned. A recent Gallup-CNN poll found that the horror Mcveigh unleashed made him an exception even for some people who generally oppose the death penalty. Eighty percent said they thought McVeigh should die. Then to a few people of my level of barbarism, it appears that if a simpler punishment than the death by 3 killer injections existed, perhaps it would have been to hack off his two arms from the shoulders itself so that he wouldn't be able to load loads of explosives any longer to rented trucks & saw off his legs from the waist joints itself so that he wouldn't be able to drive trucks any longer to huge buildings that house playschools among others. Arrangements could have been done at great Automated American butchers where mass slaughtering of cows done by guillotine as it is being the USA with the best of technology & the best & highest of everything produced invented & discovered since Columbus from Colt 42 at High Noon to two Nuclear Bombs to a country defending itself & to the Micro Processor with incredible 35 million transistors thanks to which this message is transmitted to your goodself on the double, double quick, in real battle speed. Now the modified version of Mr. Mcveigh, or rather dead stump could be immersed in a glass vat borrowed from the so called British artist Damien Hurst & could be exhibited at one of the top modern arts museums amidst audio-video displays of McVeigh’s Oklahoma bombing & by the side of Mr.Hurst’s cross section of a pregnant cow in a glass vat containig gallons of formaldehyde. Just in case you still have not heard of Mr. Hurst’s , let me tell of his masterpiece: all you need is bit of twisted imagination & a chainsaw. That is his art in his own words & that's art for you. Now Mr. Hurst, to which tradition, to which cannon, to which school does your masterpiece belong? That is nothing less than the gullibility of the human nature exploited to ridicules lengths: one of the finest weapons of mass murderers is the unimaginable stretch of credulity of the human race.

Now, that is fine twisted imaginative art created out of our finely twisted young man of a mass murderer of 128 men, women, children & toddlers. Still more to do justice to his 4 limbs, those could be sent out to four corners of the world, one to most popular gateway to Great wall of china, another to ticket counter at Eiffel Tower in, another to the main assembly hall of United Nations & the other to the jungle hide out of Asia’s Second Pol Pot, who became the frst man ever to mastermind & succeed in assassinations of two ruling leaders, of two countries, a President & a Prime Minister, both by suicide bombings, among thousands of innocent civilians by way of bombing aircrafts, trains, buses, bus holts, banks, temples & mosques barring churches which he spared in view of patronizing bishops.

If that is unbelievable imaginative barbarity of a cannibal, what was the bombing of Oklohama building? No. its not eye for eye nor toth for tooth I am clamouring for. Its both eyes for the eye & whole set of teeth for the tooth.

You must be wondering whether it is the same man who wrote of Iliad & Madame Bovary so passionately. Take heart, professor, the most basic character of Christian Thought, according to Henri De Lubec is the acceptance of “paradox”. If that wouldn’t convince you how do you see the three-headed version of Lord Shiva, the Trimurthi depicting his role as creator, preserver & destroyer? That’s 3 in 1 for you, by the Lord himself. No I am not a Hindu.

Death sentence to McVeigh is not a matter to lament with. Should anyone wish to lament anytime he may find endless suffering of mankind is beyond his compassionate contemplation. Within reality of our day to day to life justice is an indispensable element & capital punishment is a necessary tool. If we fail to recognize our elements we would be no better than a fish out of water doomed to quick death. Retribution is not merely mindless vengeance, as Plato reminds us in the Protagoras, but “ a deterrent so that the criminal may not strike again”. To the Greeks, a society, a society that cannot punish but only forgive & rationalize is as culpable, as amoral, as the criminal himself. It asks more of us get into the ring & get dirty with evil, to punish face-to–face the suddenly repentant, than to forget & ignore at a safe & snug distance. The law & its justice must prevail above all, at all times, in all circumstances for the mere survival of human race if not for anything else. Even thieves- to protect them from killing each other- divvy up their loot according to an abstract & unchanging notion of what is just & fair. Justice is a necessary & absolute idea, existing & refined from time immoral, & to be shared by any who enjoy even the most minimal concept of humanity.

And we must not forget long before the conventional judicial systems, long before the emergence of Judeo-Christian civilization, it was Greek civilization which brought light into the darkness of chaos. The canons of Homer’s Greeks, whatever their claimed pedigree, are the product not really of Gods or even of mere age, custom, & practice. They are guides hammered out through trial & error, vote & veto, consensus & discord. They derive from generations of rational discussion & argumentation by wise men-ultimately from the traditional approval of the citizenry. Instead of lamenting the death of McVeigh, the academics of literature may do better to lament the death of Homer, the Greek Cannon.

Coming back to the credulity of the human race, it would be interesting to note that in 1979 Professor Ben Kiernen of Yale university, USA admitted he had been “late” in assessing the Cambodian tragedy at the hands of Pol Pot. The good Professor was 2 million people & rivers of blood & tears late; thousands of nights of untold miseries late. The long years of inaction of the United nations & United States simply to keep the Khmer Rouge patron China at the negotiating table was to cause the 2 million human lives off the surface of the earth as if they were flies. And if United Nations & USA had their own reasons, albeit unjustifiable, for the inaction against heinous crimes, crimes against humanity, what was the reason for Prof. Kiernen?

Was it stacks of United States Dollars from the Communist propgandanists, was it desire to sensationalize the news, was it that he was labouring under the delusion that he would be able convince the credulous world how intellectual he was by means of presenting the genocide from the point of view or rather no point of view of the Pol Pot, was it to play down the heinous genocides by Pol Pot so that United Nations & United States could buy time, or was it simply a totally distorted & debased version of a human conscience?

The truth is the academic morons of the caliber of Professor Kiernen are aberrations of human nature as much as mass murderers of the caliber of Pol Pot, Milosevic, Radvan, Hitler, Stalin & Asia’s second Pol Pot. So was McVeigh. These cannibals are not created in the image of god, these are Devil himself incarnate. Swifter we make them buried six feet under, better for the human race.

McVeigh's victims being Americans unlike Pol Pot's & Asia's second Pol Pot, no effort was spared to hunt him down. Yet it took another five years for American justice System to prove him guilty spending millions of United States Dollars. Imagine for a moment, with such a huge amount of money , the number of scholarships in USA that could have been granted to South Asian Computer wiz kids lead by India? Wishful thinking of wiz kids & money of the Americans' apart, the main draw back in the justice system today is its inability to cope swiftly with terrorism. The time for whole new code of laws has come; the time to talk of kings & cabbages has arrived. New draconian sets of laws against the devils must see the light of the day breaking out of the darkness of black death. A bible of International & domestic laws ought to be composed so that the mass murderers who perpetuates heinous crimes against humanity could be brought into justice swiftly by the Defense Command of the victimized countries instead of leaving matters to judicial systems, the conventional justice systems of those countries. Yet unfortunately, today our civilization is in total anarchy & held hostage by a handful of terrorists-beasts who make a mockery of the institutions of democracy & justice. Still more in the name of justice, mass murderers even when arrested, as in the cases of McVeigh, Oclan & Serbian killers were allowed to further burden their countries with long time consuming legal proceedings with their inherent money devouring nature in addition to the burden of damage done to the property of the state & lives already taken. The very system against which they unleash terror provide shelter to them.

Having released such malicious barrage over McVeigh, let me tell you it is very difficult for me to imagine, given a chance, I would have been glad to view his death, alive or by closed circuit television or by commercial telecast. And no survivors of McVeigh’s victims derived a flash of a joy from seeing him killed either. All of them merely accepted it as a justice done by way of necessary evil: capital punishment.

Writers and Writing

1 As we know, there is often a great difference between the man & the writer. The writer may be bitter, harsh & brutal while the man may be so meek & mild that he wouldn’t say boo to a goose

W. Somerset Maugham

2 Literature, literary creation, is not distinct or separable, for me, from the rest of the man… I may taste a work, but it is difficult for me judge it independently of my knowledge of the man himself; & I will say willingly, tel arbre, tel fruit
Saint- Beuve

3 The writer’s true self is manifested in his books alone.
Marcel Proust

4. I think, like most writers, that I am most completely myself when I write, & not the rest of the time. I have a social self, & my full self can’t be released except in the writing.
Salman Rushdie

5 The artist was what he did-he was nothing else.
Henry James

6 Like God in the universe, the writer should be omnipresent in his work but never visible.
Gustav Flaubert

7 Who does not wish that the writer of “The Illiad” had gratified succeeding ages with a little knowledge of himself
Samuel Johnson

8 The poet may mean more than he knew-easily may not want to tell. No reason for not asking.
William Empson

9 If you are puzzled by what someone is doing, asking him what he is trying to do is such an obvious step that no smart argument could possibly talk us into thinking it foolish.
Morse Peckham

10.The author should die once he has finished writing, so as not to trouble the path of the text.
Reflections on “The Name of the Rose: Umberto Eco

11. The design or intention of the author is neither available nor desirable as a standard for judging the success of a work of literary art.
The International Fallacy: W. Wimsatt & M. C. Beardsley

12 You can’t draw the line & say I’m a writer & I’m only going to speak out on issues that affect writers. I’m also a human being, & if people are detained without trial & are neither released nor charged, then one must oppose these things entirely.
Nadine Gordimar

13.In Spain the writer is always a presumed heretic
Camilo Jose Cela

14.Fiction isn’t truth. It’s a type of writing from which some form of truth emerges.
Muriel Spark

15. I felt I had this responsibility to my community to represent us in all our diversity
Sandra Cisneros

16 Madame Bovary is me
Gustave Flaubert

17 I’m so dazzled by the richness of the world that I think fiction is not quite catching it
V. S. Naipaul

18. I was not interested in what I thought; I was interested in what the people thought”

19.For me, art must transform. I don’t want to be served up life as it is. I know that I want to be served up that alchemical transformation that turns gunmetal into gold.
Athol Fugard

20 I am just the chronicler. My passion is to discover, & to write about it.
Tom Wolfe

21 When I am writing, it’s like being possessed. I write the books that I do because I can’t avoid writing them.
Salman Rushdie

22. I’m a journalist at heart; even as a novelist, I’m first of all a journalist. I think all novels should be journalism to start, & if you can ascend from that plateau to some marvelous altitude, terrific. I really don’t think it’s possible to understand the individual without understanding the society

23 The highest complement you could give me is to say you found something I wrote funny. I would love to be thought of as a writer of funny things
Robert Drewe

24 I don’t think there’s any final defined role that a writer has in any society. One of the basic functions of the writer is to confront society with things it might not like to see out in the open.
Not that I think of the writer as a public crusader, because that would debase literature to the level of propaganda.
If I write about Apartheid it’s only because it affects my own private, most personal life every day of my existence
Andre Brink

25 I hate writing. I mean, I hate actually doing it, & trying to think about the readers as would be an agony. There’s something about writing that is completely draining.
Penelope Fitzgerald

26 A writer should let his books be read, & not let his shadow steal their light.
Viktor Pelevin

27 The idea that the writers should not argue about the world & simply write their little stories is a defeat
Salman Rushdie

28 A few years ago, a British journalist asked Mr. Lodge just how much firsthand experience went into the stories of extramarital adventure in his fiction. The novelist replied that he had always been faithful to his wife. In an essay, he once wrote that he head covered the struggle for sexual liberation “as a war correspondent, never a combatant.
David Lloyd

29 Critics have written that death was theme in your latest short-story collection, “Lost,” presumably because they knew that you are now in your 80s. Is it a theme?
Nobody will ever allow that the writer has imagination & can project through different ages. One of the first stories I ever published was about an old man who goes on a visit to his son & daughter in law. It’s all about his feeling not wanted, feeling lost & out of it. But how did I know? I was 15 years old.
Nadine Gordimar

30 My novels are concerned with either social or historical issues. For me, fiction is all about the people. Whether good or bad, the characters have to be vividly portrayed.
Writer Li Guo (Lee Kim Chai)

31 I think a writer has to be responsible towards history & society.
Writer Li Guo (Lee Kim Chai)

32 The Novel was there not to convey abstract ideas or philosophies,
nor to form symbolic shapes or offer lazy consolations.
It was about character & freedom, & dealt with the reality of human figures in their emotional & moral lives.
If it resembled philosophy, it was quiet distinct from it.
Iris Murdoch (1919-1999)

33 After all, nothing can be as astounding as life. Except for writing. Yes, of course, except for writing, the sole consolation.
Orhan Pamuk (Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006) in his book “The Black Book” (1994)

34 Essential function of literature
In an interview following the Nobel Prize, Orhan Pamuk stated that the essential function of literature is to recognize that the other person, whom culture, politics & propaganda represent as enemy, is no enemy. As he put it, “He is like us; she is like us. We are other.
Orhan Pamuk

35 I have much respect for Faulkner. What Faulkner did was to combine complicated history with modernist literature, experimental literature, with an art that is authentic & new & daring. I have also tried to do it.
Orhan Pamuk who considers that the greatest virtue of the citizens of Istanbul is their ability to see the city through both Western & Eastern eyes.

36 Coleridge said, in his “Biograhia Literaria,” that there are two kinds of imagination, the Primary & Secondary. We all, he said, possess the Primary Imagination, we all, have the capacity to perceive, to notice. But what only poets- loosely translated as all truly creative people, I suppose- have, the Secondary Imagination, is the capacity to select, & then translate & illuminate, everything that has been observed so that it seems to the audience something entirely new, something entirely true, something excitingly wonderful or terrible.
Joanna Trollope 2001

37 Writing is a long process of introspection: It is a voyage toward the darkest caverns of the consciousness, a long, slow meditation
Isabel Allende

38 The challenge of a historical novel is not to render a perfect imitation of the past, but to relates history with something new, enrich & change it with imagination & sensuousness of personal experience
Orhan Pamuk
(In the Swedish Academy prize citation, he is commended as an artist who "has discovered new symbols for the clash & interlacing of cultures.”)

39 Nabokov (author of Lolita) , a verbal magicician surpassed only by James Joyce, did all this with his kaleidoscopic words, not one of them dirty.

40 In essence, it requires journalists to explain the pattern behind events & not merely report events; reveal the structures that are operative & in people’s daily lives & not merely report the incidents in those lives.
James Fallows

41 Other men are mere scribblers in comparison. That a foreigner should write like this is one of the miracles of Literature.
George Gissing on Joseph Conrad

42 The writer’s life requires the jolts of fresh experience, & you can’t get these from an occasional holiday on the Costa Brava. You have to get out altogether. I am speaking as a professional writer, not as a remittance man or as a Gauguin revolting against bourgeoisie. A lot of professional British writers manage to strike fire out of a British environment. The job of the serious writer is not to confirm readers & critics in their prejudices about what is or is not important. I saw the narrow insularity of British life when I get back from Borneo. People I met in pubs, when told where Borneo was, used to ask what kind of television programmes we had there. It struck me that you couldn’t make literature out of suburban adultery, the mythology of television entertainers, or the assumption that certain sports & political figures are of shattering world importance. If I wanted to go on writing, I had to get out.
Anthony Burgess

43 I just write what I see happening. I’m a weatherman, trying to forecast what’s ahead.
I’m waiting for the next shift in the weather. I spend a lot of time looking at the sky.
J. G. Ballard

44 The artificiality of fiction is usually condemned when it presents a property not much found in real life-that of coincidence. Dickens is regarded as a prime offender, but it may be that without coincidence the novel cannot properly exist. Characters appear, disappear, then appear again, but in a manner so obviously contrived that we know that we are outside the stringencies of real life.
Anthony Burgess

45 There is no need for the writer to eat a whole sheep to be able to tell you what mutton tastes like. It is enough if he eats a cutlet. But he should do that.
Somerset Maugham

46 If I write about a place, I have been there. If I write about a meal in Indonesia I have eaten there in that restaurant. I don't think you can fool the reader.
Sydney Sheldon

Language Vs Writers

1. The English Language has been taken over, or taken to heart, or taken to tongue, by people whose original language historically it was not
British Novelist of indian origin, Vickrem Seth

2. The beauty of the English Language is that no body watches over it. It is allowed to blossom like an enchanting hybrid.
Ana del Corral, Cardiff, Wales

3. Q 'States of Emergency" was written in English. Have you stopped writing in Afrikaans?
A. No. Writing is an extremely private thing, & one of my main reasons for writing 'States of Emergency" in English was because it was an autobiographical account of a very painful experience. Using English gave me a certain distance. But I will continue to write in Afrikaans. It's easier to express myself & it's an adventure working in a young language
South African novelist Andre Brink

4. When he won the Nobel Prize, Bashevis Singer called YIDDISH "a language of exile, without a land, without frontiers. It contains treasures that have not been revealed to the eyes of the world.....
In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise & humble language of us all, the idiom of the frightened & hopeful humanity.
He went on to note that Yiddish contains no words "for weapons, ammunition, military exercises, war tactics." For Singer, Yiddish was not only a language but a way of life.
In the Yiddish mentality, there is 'gratitude for everyday of life, every crumb of success, each encounter of love...It does not demand & command but it muddles through, sneaks by, smuggles itself amidst the powers of destruction, knowing somewhere that God's plan for creation is still at the begining.

5. Speaking a foreign language, we cannot so easily speak our minds, but we do willy-nilly speak our hearts. We grow more direct in another tongue say the things we would not say at home-as if, you might say, we were under a foreign influence.
Inhibitions are the first thing to get lost in translation: "Je t'aime" comes much more easily than "I love you"
Small wonder, perhaps that spies are gifted linguists by nature as well as by training (John le Carre was one of the most brilliant language students of his day) : entering another another tongue, we steal into another self.
And even when we're not speaking Spanish but only English that a spaniard will understand, the effect is just as rejuvenating.
How vivid the cliche "over the hill" sounds when we're explaining it to an Osaka businessman? How rich the idiom "raining cats & dogs!"
Speaking English as a second language, we find ourselves rethinking ourselves, simplifying ourselves, committed, for once, not to making impressive sentences but just to making sense.
English is the official language of the European Free Trade Association, though none of its six members has English as its mother tongue. Why? Well, says the secretary -general disarmingly, "using English means we don't talk too much, since none of knows the nuances"
Pico Iyer

6. ...So I believe the plain style in English relates to a number of characteristics which are innate in the national culture.
It relates to the pragmatic quality, both of English philosophy, & of English life.
It relates to the sense of moderation;
it relates to the English dislike, or distrust, of extremism of all kinds;
it relates to the high value & virtue which the English believe is derived from naturalness-the desire to have a moderate form of nature, not nature red in tooth & claw, but nature modified, controlled, restrained.
These writers often produce language which is of great beauty, but it is beauty of a subtle kind;
it is beauty which arrives not out of emphasis, but out of soft & gentle modulations designed to increase the precision of meaning.
It is, I believe, one of the great themes of the life of the English nation, that we have had so many writers on such a wide variety of subjects, who have been able to use the English language in so natural, & so plain a way.
William Rees-Mogg

Protection of the weakest

Duties Vs Responsibilities; Law & Order Vs Justice 8 Protection of the weakest

1.There is technical Progress, but this is not the same thing as the progress of humanity as such. In every civilization this process is very complex. In western civilization-which used to be called Western-Christian but now might better be called Western-Pagan-along with the development of intellectual life & science there has been a loss of serious moral basis of society.

During these 300 years of western civilization, there has been a sweeping away of duties & an expansion of rights. But we have two lungs. You can’t breathe with just one lung & not with the other. We must avail ourselves of rights & duties in equal measure. And if this is not established by the law, if the law doesn’t oblige us to do those, then we have to control ourselves.

When Western society was established, it was based on the idea that each individual limited his own behaviors. Everyone understood what he could do & what he could not do. The law itself did not restrain people. Since then, the only thing we have been developing is rights, rights, rights, rights at the expense of the duty.
Dissident Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Noble prize for Literature in 1970)

2. Solzhenitsyn & I differ most sharply over the defense of civil rights, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom to choose one’s country of residence, the openness of society.

For me, these rights constitute the basis for a fully human life & for international security & trust. I have no doubt whatsoever as to the value of defending specific individuals. Solzhenitsyn assigns only a secondary importance to human rights & fears that concentrating on them may divert attention from what he sees as more important matters.
Father of Russian Nuclear Bomb, dissident writer Andrei Sakharov (Noble Prize for Peace in 1975

3. The words law & order have so frequently been misused as an excuse for oppression that the very phrase has become suspect in countries which have known authoritarian rule. Some years ago, a prominent Burmese author wrote an article on law & order as expressed by the official term “nyein-wut-pi-pyar”. One by one he analyzed the words, which liberally mean ‘quiet –crouched-crushed-flattened,’ & concluded that the whole made for an undesirable state of affairs, one which militated against the emergence of an alert, energetic, progressive, citizenry.

There is no intrinsic virtue to law & order unless ‘law’ is equated with justice & ‘order” with the discipline of a people satisfied that justice has been done.

The Buddhist concept of law is based on “dhamma’, righteousness or virtue, not on the power to impose harsh & inflexible rules on a defenseless people. The true measure of the justice of a system is the amount of protection it guarantee to the weakest
Aung San Suu Kyi (Noble Prize for peace in 1991)

Weep with these novels as if the reality itself wouldn’t do

Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

http://www.online-literature.com/hardy/tess_urbervilles

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

http://www.online-literature.com/victor_hugo/les_miserables

A Word to the Terrorists

1. There is no way that you can create a just society by wounding people, maiming people, killing people.
Former IRA terrorist, the master bomber Shane Paul O'Doherty, renouncing violence

2. "When I was 16, nothing seemed so romantically self-sacrificial as a fight against the odds for an ideal. But I didn't realize that militaristic activities repudiated the democratic process and the will of the people."
Former IRA terrorist, the master bomber Shane Paul O'Doherty, renouncing violence

3. In my view, one of the principal lessons is that the end, no matter how noble and attractive it may seem, never justifies indiscriminate means.
The man who brought an end to the cold war, President Mikhail Gorbachev (Noble Prize for Peace in 1990)

4. My message would be that there are things worth fighting for. There always will be, just as there will always be people who think that there is nothing worth fighting or dying for.
A world in which brutality and lawlessness are allowed to go unchecked is not the kind of world we are going to want to live in.
Someone has to say, "This isn't right, you can't get away with doing this. And if you never stand up, more lives can be lost farther down the road."
Lt. Gen Walter Boomer, Commander of the U. S. Marine forces then camped in the Saudi Arabian desert in 1990

5. 1.7 million Cambodians were killed (1975-1979) by the terrorist Khmer Rouge Pol Pot. Nobody was there to save the innocent. Since China has allied with Cambodian government, USA had to turn the blind eye to the mass murderers of the killing fields. Today you have museum of human skulls, thousands in glass cupboards. We agree with the illustrious general.
Pandia Lanka Light and Enlightenment

6. You know what's wrong with the world today, Andy? People aren't true to any one philosophy. They pick and choose among all different ones.
They choose loyalty when it suits them
They choose change when it suits them
They do exactly as they please, and they can always find and justify what they're doing
They can make it seem like, no matter what, they're being true to some morality or other.
But you can't just pick little pieces of the package, Andy, You go with the whole program, or it doesn't mean a thing,
Like this business with Tommy Agro- supposedly he's got this certain set of rules, this code of honour. He lives by it until there's a crunch, then what happens? Uh-Oh, the rules just changed. Now it's survival, the law of the jungle, saving his own skin.
Well, okay that sounds fine too. Only, what happened to the first code? He hasn't just left it behind, he's damaged it. That's what people don't realize. You take this pick and choose attitude, you drain the life out of your own beliefs. After a while, what's left?

Mafia Captain Joseph "Pinney" Armone in a conversation with FBI Agent Andy Kurins

7. What the terrorists do: to correct one supposedly an injustice, bring about millions of forms of injustice; to bring about so called liberty, put millions into the prison of terror; to bring about so called freedom, bring misery and tragedy to millions. Are you the so called Liberator?
Pandia Lanka Light and Enlightenment

8. The country is exhausted from 30 years of war. We have not even built one kilometer of road; there are no schools, no clinics, no employment, no security. All leaders have to respond to the needs, pressures and anxieties of their own people. Our people now feel that armed struggle is no longer the road. So we could not lead them anymore if we still insisted on armed struggle
Rebel leader Jonas Savimbi of Angola in 1995, having lost 500,000 humans

9. Time passes, and marathon runners get tired. This has been a very long race-too long. I feel I am a slave of the revolution
President Fidel Castro in 1993

10. Following this Castro, undid his military fatigue and for the first time, wore a three-piece suit and attended a Paris Fashion Show. Hail Castro!

11. At the core of the Greek belief system lies the conviction that there are unchanging absolutes in the world, ageless and immune from situation and interpretation, a small but vital body of knowledge that is largely agree-on and indisputable. It is this moral universe which Antigone called 'agrapta nomima' the unwritten laws

12. One of the most important things in the Torah is "Do not murder"
Baruch Goldstein, the gunman who killed 29 Muslim worshipers at the Hebron Mosque, in an antiwar essay he wrote at age 13 in Brooklyn , New York, U. S. A.

Anuradhapura

Anuradhapura
Polonnaruwa | Kan...

About 205 km north of Colombo is Anuradhapura, the first capital of Sri Lanka established in the 4th century BC that remained the Royal Capital for over ten centuries. Several magnificent dagobas, buildings, monasteries, ponds, irrigation tanks spanning one thousand five hundred years bear testimony to a glorious and technically advanced civilization. Ruvanveli, Jetavana, and Abhayagiri are huge dagobas that stand majestically having withstood the battering of elements for over fifteen centuries.

Foremost among the numerous historical monuments in Anuradhapura is the Sacred Bo Tree - Sri Maha Bodhi, grown from a branch of the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment. A mass of stone pillars close to the Sri Maha Bodhi identified as the Brazen Palace was once a nine storied building. Isurumuniya is famous for its beautiful stone carvings. Samadhi Buddha image is a masterpiece of sculpture. Among the extensive ruins covering the city of Anuradhapura are Buddha images, temples, palaces, bathing ponds, monasteries, hospitals, alms halls and beautiful stone carvings and irrigation tanks.

Dagoba
A dagoba is a dome enshrining sacred relics or the bodily remains of the Buddha, or articles used by Him like the alms bowl and other objects of veneration. It is built in different sizes on a pedestal with a spire on top crowned with a pinnacle. The earliest dagobas had a stone umbrella on top of the dome in place of the spire. The largest dagobas in the Island are seen at Anuradhapura.

Thuparama
Thuparama is the first dagoba to be built in Anuradhapura during the reign of King Devanmpiyatissa (3rd century BC) enshrining the right collarbone of the Buddha, His alms bowl and other relics. The original dagoba, which was much smaller in size, was renovated and rebuilt several times and the last restoration had been in 1862 in it its present form. The concentric rows of stone columns around the dagoba had at one time held a wooden roof in position over it.

Ruvanveli Dagoba
Ruvanveli Dagoba built by King Dutugemunu who ruled the country in the 2nd century BC is a huge dagoba measuring 103 metres in height with a circumference of 287 metres. The dagoba was in a state of disrepair when discovered in the early 20th century and was restored in its present form according to earlier dimensions.

Jetavana Dagoba
Jetavana dagoba is an enormous brick structure standing in the centre of a large monastic complex, built in the 3rd century AD by King Mahasena. The dagoba stands on a square platform measuring 3.2 hectares in extent and is rated as the largest and tallest brick built monument in the world. In its original form it would have been 120 metres high, shorter than only two Pyramids of Egypt. It has been declared a World Heritage Site. The super structure of the dagoba is currently being restored under the UNESCO Cultural Project.

Abhayagiri Dagoba
This colossal dagoba is the centrepiece of a monastic complex founded by King Valagamba in the 1st century BC that subsequently developed into an international institution attracting scholars from many countries. The Chinese monk Fa-hien came here in the 5th century in search of Buddhist manuscripts and spent two years. In its original form the dagoba was 115 metres high but now it is only 75 metres high with a circumference of 667 metres. It was at the Abhayagiri complex that the sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha brought to Sri Lanka was first housed.

Sri Maha Bodhi
The right branch of the Bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa) in Buddha Gaya in India under which the Buddha attained enlightenment was brought to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC by Arahat Theri Sanghamitta, the daughter of Emperor Asoka. It was planted in Anuradhapura and is venerated to this day by the Buddhists from many countries of the world. This is the oldest recorded tree in the world of which the exact age is known

The Brazen Palace
The Loha Pasada or the Brazen Palace was founded in the 2nd century BC as a chapter house. In its original glory it had been nine stories high with a roof of copper tiles, hence the name Brazen Palace. The original building was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt and renovated several times by different kings. What now remains is a mass of 1,600 stone pillars standing close to each other.

Isurumuniya
This picturesque rock temple dates back to the 3rd century BC. The beautiful stone sculptures seen at the temple are considered the most beautiful works of art in Anuradhapura. The Isurumuniya Lovers, bathing elephants in bas-relief, man seated in relaxed form are yet unidentified but beautiful to look at. A small dagoba on top of the rock and a pond at the base add beauty to the place

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UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka

Brief Description

This sacred Buddhist site, popularly known as the city of Senkadagalapura, was the last capital of the Sinhala kings whose patronage enabled the Dinahala culture to flourish for more than 2,500 years until the occupation of Sri Lanka by the British in 1815. It is also the site of the Temple of the Tooth Relic (the sacred tooth of the Buddha), which is a famous pilgrimage site.

Media

• NHK World Heritage 100 Series [Windows Media required]

Links

WHTour : visit this site in panographies (360 degree imaging)

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka

Brief Description

A sacred pilgrimage site for 22 centuries, this cave monastery, with its five sanctuaries, is the largest, best-preserved cave-temple complex in Sri Lanka. The Buddhist mural paintings (covering an area of 2,100 sq. m) are of particular importance, as are the 157 statues.

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• WHTour : visit this site in panographies (360 degree imaging)
  
• Travel Guide (Embassy of Sri Lanka)
  

United Nations - Copyright © 1992-2007 UNESCO World Heritage Centre, All Rights Rese

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka

Brief Description

Located in south-west Sri Lanka, Sinharaja is the country's last viable area of primary tropical rainforest. More than 60% of the trees are endemic and many of them are considered rare. There is much endemic wildlife, especially birds, but the reserve is also home to over 50% of Sri Lanka's endemic species of mammals and butterflies, as well as many kinds of insects, reptiles and rare amphibians.

Activities

• The World Heritage Forest Programme

Links

• WHTour : visit this site in panographies (360 degree imaging)
  
• Natural site datasheet from WCMC

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka

Brief Description
[Sacred City of Kandy]

This sacred Buddhist site, popularly known as the city of Senkadagalapura, was the last capital of the Sinhala kings whose patronage enabled the Dinahala culture to flourish for more than 2,500 years until the occupation of Sri Lanka by the British in 1815. It is also the site of the Temple of the Tooth Relic (the sacred tooth of the Buddha), which is a famous pilgrimage site.
Media

* NHK World Heritage 100 Series [Windows Media required]

Links

* WHTour : visit this site in panographies (360 degree imaging)

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka

Brief Description

Founded in the 16th century by the Portuguese, Galle reached the height of its development in the 18th century, before the arrival of the British. It is the best example of a fortified city built by Europeans in South and South-East Asia, showing the interaction between European architectural styles and South Asian traditions.

News

• Dec 30, 2004
  UNESCO offers tsunami assistance to countries in South Asia

World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka

Brief Description

This sacred city was established around a cutting from the 'tree of enlightenment', the Buddha's fig tree, brought there in the 3rd century B.C. by Sanghamitta, the founder of an order of Buddhist nuns. Anuradhapura, a Ceylonese political and religious capital that flourished for 1,300 years, was abandoned after an invasion in 993. Hidden away in dense jungle for many years, the splendid site, with its palaces, monasteries and monuments, is now accessible once again.

Links

WHTour : visit this site in panographies (360 degree imaging)

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka

Brief Description

Polonnaruwa was the second capital of Sri Lanka after the destruction of Anuradhapura in 993. It comprises, besides the Brahmanic monuments built by the Cholas, the monumental ruins of the fabulous garden-city created by Parakramabahu I in the 12th century.

Links

WHTour : visit this site in panographies (360 degree imaging)

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka

Brief Description

The ruins of the capital built by the parricidal King Kassapa I (477–95) lie on the steep slopes and at the summit of a granite peak standing some 370 m high (the 'Lion's Rock', which dominates the jungle from all sides). A series of galleries and staircases emerging from the mouth of a gigantic lion constructed of bricks and plaster provide access to the site.

Links

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Reports from Western Travel Guides & Experts

Ancient Citadels...

In these troubled times, there may be a lesson in re-examining five ancient citadels of power that ultimately protected no one.

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By Rod Lopez-Fabrega

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...it may be instructive to look in on five ancient citadels.

In a time when free and open societies are being pushed by the insidious currents of terrorism and protectionism to revert to a fortress mentality, it may be instructive to look in on five ancient citadels scattered throughout the world. They are fascinating examples of the extremes taken in widely divergent places in the world for the protection of individual rulers, a group of dissidents and an opportunistic community, all of which saw themselves under permanent threat physically, politically or economically. These ancient citadels are not the fortified castles of the European dark ages or the Samurai bastions of Japan that protected the rulers and their fiefs when under siege. They are: Sigiriya in Sri Lanka, Masada in Israel, Machu Picchu in Peru, Gwalior in northern India and Petra in Jordan. The first four were planned as permanent refuges that protected their residents from all outside access, allowing entry of travelers and others only after the most carefully controlled scrutiny. The fifth is unique in that its geographic location allowed it to prey on and profit from one outside source only: passing caravans. The important lesson to be learned may be that these ancient citadels failed to insulate their inhabitants. All are now easily accessible--with no restrictions--to any adventurous traveler with the modest price of admission.

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Sigiriya, was converted into a citadel in the fifth century A.D.

Sigiriya, the big rock Sri Lanka, the small island nation once known as Ceylon, juts out into the Indian Ocean, separated from the Indian sub-continent only by the narrow Palk Straits. It is a land rich in history and in some ways a microcosm of everything that makes India such a fascinating place. Thrusting upward from the plains of Sri Lanka's North Central Province is Sigiriya, the Lion Rock. Named for lions that lived in its lower caves in pre-historic times, the 650-foot-high rock was converted into a citadel in the fifth century A.D. by Kasyapa, a security-obsessed usurper to the throne of Anuradhapura. Known throughout Sri Lankan history as the king with the artist's soul, Kasyapa built a sumptuous palace on top of this impregnable rock, and its ruins are still there. It is said that he intended to reproduce on earth a palace and mountaintop city modeled on the abode of Kuvera, god of wealth. That included a harem of 500 beauties and all the attendant comforts. Portraits of all 500 ladies were painted on the steep walls of the precipitous ledges that served as trails to reach the palace. A few of these portraits of the ample-breasted beauties remain and can be admired in a side cave as visitors clamber up metal catwalks now anchored to the cliff sides. In order to administer to Kasyapa's lesser needs, the rock was surrounded by sumptuous terraced gardens, pools, fountains, quarters for his army and servants and several perimeter moats filled with man-eating crocodiles. Archaeologists are still excavating the grounds. Halfway up the rock is a natural mesa known as the Lion Terrace, so called because the overhanging rock (now demolished by time and weather erosion) looked like a lion's head and the lion's two front paws (still there) frame the staircase leading to the final climb. The ironic end to the story is that Kasyapa finally came down from his aerie and was killed in battle with his brother. In all, the citadel of Sigiriya was his haven for the short period of 18 years. Now it is accessible to anyone who is reasonably fit. Anyone over 50 will receive a "diploma" for having climbed The Rock. Visitors can stay for dinner and overnight at the Sigiriya Village Hotel, a short distance away from the citadel. The hotel grounds are sumptuous, its high-ceilinged reception and dining pavilion are stunning, and guest rooms are spacious and comfortable

Pandia Lanka Light & Enlightenment: BirdLife

Pandia Lanka Light & Enlightenment: BirdLife
http://www.birdtours.co.uk/birdseekers/reports2007/replacements/Sri-lanka/sri-lanka-2006.htm

BirdLife

SRI LANKA – Jan - 2006

244 Bird Species recorded

Leaders: Nick Bray & Upali Ekanayake

Day 1 Sunday 15th January

Our KLM flight landed at Colombo Airport right on time after an uneventful overnight journey, and with immigration and customs formalities taking no time at all we were soon meeting our excellent guide and good friend Upali. The transfer to our hotel at Ingiriya took a little over two hours, during which time we clocked up some of the commoner Sri Lankan birds such as Brahminy Kites, Common Mynas, White-throated Kingfisher, and both House and the newly split Indian Jungle Crow. After a refreshing shower we drove the short distance to Bodhinigala Forest, only stopping to marvel at the colours on several lovely Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, and finally when the track became impassable due to a big ditch. So from here we all went on foot, and there’s nothing like your first morning’s birding in a new country, with everyone soon ticking off a whole new bunch of great birds. No sooner had we left the coach than a pair of White-bellied Drongos appeared, and were quickly followed by a flyover Oriental Honey Buzzard, and our first endemic and recently renamed Black-capped Bulbul (formerly Black-headed Yellow Bulbul) showing very well in some nearby bushes, and as we watched it feeding a Yellow-browed Bulbul flew in and gave a superb display as it sipped nectar from some pink flowers. A troop of Tocque Macaques was enjoyed by some of the group, before a Giant Squirrel showed alongside the path and was joined in the same tree by a Black-naped Monarch. Moving deeper inside the forest the strong sunlight was replaced with much dimmer viewing conditions as the dense canopy hardly let any sunlight in at all, but this lush forest is home to some excellent birds for which it is necessary to be very patient and quiet. Our approach began to pay off although the heat and humidity were both rising rapidly, but a Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher allowed us to scope it, as did a close Brown-breasted Flycatcher, and as we watched the latter species a pair of Pale-billed Flowerpeckers flew into some bushes next to us. Meanwhile our first attempt at Chestnut-backed Owlet proved very frustrating as we could only hear it calling from amongst the dense forest on the hillside above us, but some reward came in the form of our first Green Imperial-pigeons. At one point the canopy opened up to reveal the sky and we saw a Crested Hawk-eagle fly over. As we paused here a Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill and a huge Crimson-backed Flameback (recently split from Greater Flameback) bumped up our list of endemics, although brief views were had only of a skulking but incessantly singing Brown-capped Babbler, whilst the confiding Sri Lanka Kangaroo Lizard we saw is also only found on this beautiful island. Returning to the coach Orange (split from Flame Minivet) and Small Minivets were seen, whilst the Emerald Dove that was sat on the dashboard of the coach was unexpected to say the least! After lunch and a siesta we returned to the forest, and it was immediately apparent that bird activity had increased dramatically as a small flock near the coach held several Yellow-billed Babblers, Black-naped Monarch, Bright-green Warbler, Jerdon’s Leafbird and our first and certainly spectacular Asian Paradise-flycatcher. A couple of Purple-faced Leaf Monkeys were then seen, before a Brown-headed Barbet was spotted by Dave nearby, and once inside the forest it didn’t take long to connect with a pair of Malabar Trogons and a Large-billed Leaf-warbler. However, find of the day must go to Gill, who picked up the Chestnut-backed Owlet that had been calling for ages and finally allowed us to scope it. But our day wasn’t yet over, and after a short wait we tried to lure in Sri Lanka Frogmouth – but sometimes things don’t quite go to plan. Yes there were several calling, and yes everyone had flight views of several birds high up in the canopy but we just couldn’t locate one perched close. But by now it was getting late and another fine meal was beckoning us, so after a quick wash and brush up at the hotel we drove to a nearby hotel for some well earned cold drinks and more great food.

Day 2 Monday 16th January

After breakfast at the other hotel we decided to check out the surrounding area rather than visit the forest again, and what a good decision that turned out to be. We didn’t stray more than a couple of hundred metres from the hotel and managed to see quite a few species, starting with a close and confiding Indian Pitta perched on a horizontal branch a few metres above the ground. A nearby tree held a Black-hooded Oriole, several Ceylon Hanging-parrots, as well as Oriental Magpie Robin, White-browed Bulbul and a Brown-headed Barbet. The surrounding area also gave us White-breasted Waterhen, Rose-ringed and Alexandrine Parakeets, Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Ashy Woodswallow, Small and Orange Minivets, and a brief Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher as well. So we loaded our luggage onto the coach and drove for a couple of hours through the picturesque Sri Lankan countryside to Kitulgala, and our excellent hotel situated alongside the Kelani River. It was here that the film Bridge on the River Kwai was made and the hotel is steeped in history, and certainly has a lot of character whilst giving access to some superb birding opportunities. With a little spare time before lunch a quick scan from the grounds produced an Indian Black Eagle flying over which was really appreciated by everyone, and there was also a flock of Indian Swiftlets above the forested hills, an Oriental Honey Buzzard and a Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill. So after lunch and a little rest we drove upriver and made our way across the suspension bridge, with the song of a Golden-fronted Leafbird ringing out from the forest. The trail passed numerous small settlements with villagers going about their daily business (and most seemed to know Upali), but the surrounding forest was a little quiet except for a Chestnut-backed Owlet which Rod found calling from a rather exposed perch. However, dark clouds then rolled in from the surrounding hills and we took shelter under the eves of a cottage from a heavy downpour, seeing Square-tailed Black Bulbul (1 of 2 splits from Black Bulbul) and Lesser Hill-myna. But the rain seemed destined to continue for the rest of the day, so we walked back to the coach and returned to the hotel rather bedraggled.

Day 3 Tuesday 17th January

As we were about to board the coach this morning a quick check of a large tree in the gardens produced Oriental White-eye, Jerdon’s Leafbird (now split from Blue-winged Leafbird), Pale-billed Flowerpecker and a Sri Lanka Hanging-parrot. From here it was just a short drive to the suspension bridge once again and within a couple minutes of crossing the other side we were enjoying good views of 3 Brown-capped Babblers feeding on the forest floor. Continuing along the path, we entered a dense section of forest and immediately heard a Spot-winged Ground-Thrush which eventually showed well after a bit of searching. The views through the scope were breathtaking, but just as we were leaving it or another bird hopped out of the undergrowth and proceeded to feed just a few metres in front of us and right out in the open! The path then took us parallel to the Kelani River, where at an open area a Shikra was seen perched in a palm tree, with our first flock of Ceylon Rufous Babblers performing admirably alongside the path, and shortly after we reached a good viewpoint where we could look down on the forest. Here we saw Black-rumped Flameback, Yellow-fronted and Brown-headed Barbets, Black-headed Cuckoo-shrike, with an Indian Black Eagle, several Ceylon Swallows (a recent split from Red-rumped Swallow), and Indian Swiftlets in the clear blue sky above. A short while later we heard a Green-billed Coucal, but try as we might never managed decent views, despite a pair song-duetting across a narrow stream from us. In the afternoon we returned to the same area, seeing Sri Lanka Hanging-parrot, Common Iora, more Ceylon Swallows, cracking views of at least 3 Ceylon Grey Hornbills coming down to feed on a Jack Fruit, Greater Coucal, and an extremely close encounter with a roosting Sri Lanka Frogmouth just before dusk rounding the day off in spectacular fashion.

Day 4 Wednesday 18th January

With the sun not yet even glimmering above the distant hills we were ready and waiting for another shot at the mystical coucal, and with an air of expectation we stood in the gloom listening to Asian Koel and Common Hawk-cuckoo calling from the surrounding forest. Once there was sufficient light we walked down a narrow path and waited for what seemed like an eternity, before using a little ‘tape’ persuasion that resulted in racing heartbeats when a likely looking bird was spotted by Dave flying above us into the dense canopy. In fact at least 2 birds were initially present, and when one of these was positively identified as a Greater Coucal everyone felt more than a little deflated. However, after a few heart-rending minutes our target species called close by and with some good fieldcraft and a little luck the much-wanted Green-billed Coucal placed itself on several life lists! In fact over the course of the next 20 minutes we were treated to several decent views of a pair before one bird sat out on a bare branch in a gap in the canopy for a good 5 minutes allowing us to scope it at leisure. All I can really say is Wow!! So after much celebration we drove back to our hotel for breakfast before boarding the coach for the journey to our lunch stop at Ratnapura.

Our route passed thoroughly typical Sri Lankan countryside, consisting of rice fields with the odd Asian Openbill and various egrets on view, and lush tropical forests which at one site held a large roost of Indian Flying Foxes. On arrival at a lovely hotel in the middle of the gem mining area of Ratnapura we were ready for lunch, but the temptation to keep on diving outside into the extensive grounds was far too tempting! And over the course of an excellent meal and a short walk afterwards we had some good sightings, including Asian Paradise-flycatcher, Scaly-breasted Munia, close perched Ceylon Swallows, several Crested Serpent-eagles, Small Minivet, brief Pied Flycatcher-shrike, White-browed Fantail, Land Monitor, and a Common Skink. But it was very hot and with a couple of hours drive in front of us we decided to head off to the Blue Magpie Lodge at Sinharaja. Situated right next to the premier rainforest in the country, this is the place to stay in the area, with spacious rooms, hot showers and good food. Everyone met at the dining hall for tea and biscuits, and which also gave us the opportunity to scan the wet meadow below us and adjoining forest, where practically the first bird we saw was a Brown Shrike of the Phillipinus race, and were quickly followed by several Layard’s Parakeet feeding in a nearby tree. Several flowering Bombax trees were attractive to numerous species and held our first lovely Legge’s Flowerpecker, along with lots of Square-tailed Black Bulbuls, Ceylon Hanging-parrots, and flocks of Oriental White-eyes. Other species seen included a couple of White-breasted Waterhens walking across the field and Asian Palm Swifts flying over, as well as Ceylon Junglefowl and Banded Bay Cuckoo calling from nearby.

Day 5 Thursday 19th January

We awoke to a dense mist this morning, which proved very frustrating as we could hear many birds singing and just about make out some movement high up in the flowering Bombax trees in the lodge’s grounds. During breakfast the weather began to clear and it was finally possible to make out at least 3 Sri Lanka Mynas and several Lesser Hill-mynas through the scope, which enticed some of the group to leave their scrambled eggs! However, everyone was eager to set off shortly after breakfast, and we boarded two Landrovers for the bone shaking uphill journey to the entrance of the National Park. On arrival at the entrance gate we began to walk along the main path and it didn’t take us long to score with the first of 9 endemic White-faced Starlings to be seen today, shortly followed by a pair of Ceylon Blue Magpies scoped across the meadow. As we followed the track towards the Research Centre, the distinctive call of Ceylon Spurfowl could be heard from the dense forest above us, and shortly after we saw a lovely white Asian Paradise-flycatcher and a small flock of Ceylon Rufous Babblers (formerly called Orange-billed Babbler). Several species of butterfly were very much in evidence this morning including the impressive Tree Nymph and several Lemon Emigrants. As there is only one main path transecting the park, we took our time and were rewarded with very close views of a confiding Brown-breasted Flycatcher and shortly after a male Legge’s Flowerpecker feeding right beside the path. At the Research Centre a pair of Pied Flycatcher-shrikes was scoped at the top of a very tall tree bordering the clearing, and there was also a Spot-winged Ground-thrush feeding on the forest floor as we took a side trail, but on the whole things were a little quiet. So we had a break here and scanned the surrounding tree tops, seeing Brown-throated Needletail and Little Swift overhead in the clear blue sky. But probably the highlight here was 3 Ceylon Blue Magpies that flew in and began to feed at the back of the Research Centre just a few metres away from us. As we walked back to the entrance gate for our picnic lunch, a flock of Ceylon Rufous Babblers crossed the track in front of us and this time we managed to pick out our first Ceylon Scimitar-babbler and a Ceylon Crested Drongo. We hadn’t gone further than 200 metres when another flock of Ceylon Rufous Babblers began calling from the hillside across from us, and pretty soon they began flying across the small meadow and across the track in front of us. There must have been nearly 100 present as we could hear a real din from inside the canopy, and slowly but surely more and more came into view. We waited for a good while hoping for some different species, and finally a pair of Red-faced Malkohas was spotted perched in a tall tree for several minutes allowing everyone good scope views before they flew to join the rest of the flock in the dense canopy. More Ceylon Crested Drongos and Ceylon Scimitar-babblers and a White-faced Starling also joined in the fun as well. But we were not finished yet, as Upali spotted the first of at least 25+ Ashy-headed Laughingthrushes feeding below us along a small stream. In fact everyone was treated to crippling views as the flock fed close to the path, some birds even clambering along tree trunks and branches in plain view.

As our picnic lunch was delayed due to all this activity we decided to call it a day after lunch so we returned to the lodge for some cold drinks, during which time a pair of Indian Pygmy Woodpeckers (formerly called Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker) appeared in one of the trees bordering the lodge, and we also found the first record for the area of Yellow-eyed Babbler which was feeding along the edge of the meadow by the dining hall. Later in the afternoon we drove back up the hill towards the entrance gate and made our first attempt at Serendib Scops-owl, but the hand of fate was against us and nothing was heard or seen at all.

Day 6 Friday 20th January

A few Ceylon Hill-mynas appeared once again in the flowering Bombax tree in the lodge grounds this morning, before a Ceylon Blue Magpie greeted our arrival at the entrance gate to Sinharaja this morning, and no doubt was going to join a flock that had started to form across the meadow from us. Also caught up in the activity were a few White-faced Starlings and a Ceylon Crested Drongo, both of which were seen well as we followed the main path, along with Ceylon Junglefowl and a Brown-capped Babbler before possibly the main highlight of the tour happened. Noticed simultaneously by Rod and Roger, at least 4 Ceylon Spurfowl showed incredibly well to the entire group as they made their way alongside a small stream below us and we could look down on them as they picked their way slowly along the forest floor. Indeed they had nowhere to go but along this narrow strip of forest that was bordered on the other side by an open field, and inevitably they sought the sanctuary of the dense forest and came onto the path in front of us before flying off into thick cover. This was certainly the best view the leader could remember and to have such prolonged views is something none of us will ever forget. Wow! Further along we came across another flock containing Ceylon Rufous Babblers, Ceylon Crested Drongo, Malabar Trogon, Asian Paradise-flycatcher, Red-faced Malkoha and a few brief Ashy-headed Laughingthrushes. Some more calling spurfowl were heard before Large-billed Leaf-warbler and 3 Ceylon Blue Magpies showed well at the Research station, along with several species of unidentified frog and a perched Crested Goshawk. However, if we thought the spurfowl views were great, then the sight of the near-mythical Serendib Scops-owl at a daytime roost amongst dense cover was absolutely breathtaking. All credit to Upali, who has a network of contacts unparalleled on this island and it was one of the guides who he knows very well that had somehow tracked down this roost. But a word of caution, as there was another day roost the same guide had found a short distance away, but the birds had been disturbed by repeatedly noisy bird groups – some of them from the UK. I’m pleased to report that with a small modicum of common sense everyone was able to see the bird several times through my scope (after queuing quietly some distance away) and we left the site as we had found it, with the owl totally unconcerned by our presence. The walk back to our jeeps at the entrance gate was a leisurely affair as everyone was full of high spirits, but we still saw another Brown-capped Babbler and a Malabar Trogon, plus a Green Forest Lizard. Several cold beers were consumed back at the lodge later that afternoon as we celebrated seeing the owl, and having the afternoon off to relax. A Fan-throated Lizard appeared near the dining hall as we were finishing off an excellent lunch, before we had a siesta. Later in the day a few of us took a short walk seeing Brown-headed Barbet, Black-headed Cuckoo-shrike, Blue-tailed Bee-eater, and 2 Ceylon Grey Hornbills.

Day 7 Saturday 21st January

We left the wonderful Blue magpie Lodge after an early breakfast this morning and drove to our next hotel situated beside a large lake at Embilipitiya. With some time spare either side of lunch, a few good birds were seen including Indian Cormorant, Spot-billed Pelican, Striated Heron, Great Egret, Red-wattled and Yellow-wattled Lapwings, White-bellied Sea-eagle, Whiskered Tern and Stork-billed Kingfisher. Afterwards we drove the short distance to Udawalawe National Park, and boarded our two jeeps for a fascinating few hours birding amongst rolling grasslands more reminiscent of Africa than Asia. As we entered the park an Indian Roller perched in one of the numerous dead trees got the ball rolling, and was quickly followed by a pair of Ashy Prinias, with this latter species proving to be very common here. The scenery here was unlike anything we had encountered so far, and as we scanned the distant escarpment a Woolly-necked Stork soared into view, and closer at hand an Indian Black Robin (formerly called Black-backed or Indian Robin) perched up on a dead branch for all to see, before a close Indian Elephant provided a fitting photo stop. Further along the same track, with so many good eyes scanning the tall grassland we found a further excellent selection of species such as a Blyth’s Pipit in a dead tree, singing Plain Prinia, the first of many Tricoloured (Black-headed) Munias, a nice pair of Plum-headed Parakeets, as well as a White-browed Fantail flying across the track in front of us, plus a pair of Yellow-eyed Babblers perched up in the open. Then a superb Little Green Bee-eater came into view, and was followed by a Coppersmith Barbet singing from on top of a tall tree, and there followed in quick succession another Woolly-necked Stork, 2 Jerdon’s Bushlarks, Crested Hawk-eagle, Rosy Starling, female Montagu’s Harrier, an awesome Grey-headed Fish-eagle, and a herd of 10 Indian Elephants. Shortly after watching a gang of Common Langurs crashing through the trees, a Sirkeer Malkoha put in an all too brief appearance, before the first of at least 5 Grey-bellied Cuckoos were seen. As we watched the first of these, a Pied Cuckoo was also found, and then a Blyth’s Reed Warbler skulked as is the norm in some low bushes, but a pair of Yellow-fronted Pied Woodpeckers (formerly called Yellow-crowned Woodpecker) were much more obliging. Then the first of several good views of Barred Buttonquails had us screeching to a halt, and further stops were made for some perched Ceylon Swallows, soaring Crested Treeswifts, and several Orange-breasted Green-pigeons before reaching the reservoir. What a scene confronted us here, as several Spotted Deer, Water Buffalo, Golden Jackal and a bathing Indian Elephant completed the non-avian highlights. At the edge of the water stood Painted Storks, along with Spot-billed Pelicans, Black-necked Stilts and Oriental Darters, whilst a pair of Lesser Whistling-ducks were perched in a dead tree. A large flock of Whiskered Terns patrolled the area, as a huge White-bellied Sea-eagle looked down on proceedings from his lofty perch. Leaving here a close Crested Hawk-eagle provided stunning views in the clear evening light, but unfortunately the Jungle Cat running across the track provided only fleeting glimpses. To round off proceedings we had first class views of several more Barred Buttonquails, along with a pair of Malabar Pied Hornbills perched briefly in a large tree before flying across the beautiful landscape and into the distance. Wow!

Day 8 Sunday 22nd January

We departed around 6.30am for the hour long drive to Bundala National Park, where on arrival a male Asian Koel flew over the reserve centre a couple of times. After a short wait for the park staff to sort out permits, we drove down to a marshy inlet which kept us occupied for a while, with several wader species present including Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Black-winged Stilt, Marsh and Wood Sandpipers, a flock of Little Stints and Curlew Sandpipers, Kentish Plover, and a few Pintail Snipe. An Asian Openbill walked across the marsh into full view, whilst our first Purple Sunbird sang from a small bush behind us. Driving towards the entrance gate produced more Yellow-wattled Lapwings, as well as a single Purple Swamphen, before reaching the entrance gate where a Jungle Prinia sang from the top of a bush. The first section of track was bordered by dense bushes and scattered trees, so we had to stand on our seats to get an overview of the surrounding habitat, and we saw a pair of confiding Crested Hawk-eagles squabbling at the top of a tree, an Indian Black Robin and several Indian Peafowl that appeared in quick succession, followed by a few Lesser Whistling-ducks on a small pond. Moving on, a Pied Cuckoo flew across in front of us, before we had reasonable views of a lovely Blue-faced Malkoha perched amongst a group of bushes. A couple of Golden Jackals then followed, as did Purple Heron, before we reached the saltpans. There were literally birds everywhere here, but our attention was initially drawn to a flock of terns congregated on a small sand spit in a large lagoon, and which held several Caspian as well as a few Gull-billed Terns, plus Common and White-winged Terns. In front of us were several small pools holding Lesser Sand Plovers, Kentish Plover, plus several Little Stints. After sifting through the flocks of Curlew Sandpipers and stints, a cracking Broad-billed Sandpiper was found and it was great to be able to compare size and structure with the other waders. A larger roost a few hundred metres further along the bund held over 20 Great Crested Terns, a few Lesser Crested Terns, several Common and some Little Terns as well. There were also several hundred Black-tailed Godwits, many more Lesser Sand Plovers, plus Common Greenshank, lots of Marsh Sandpipers, as well as big numbers of all the previously mentioned species. Then a dark phase Western Reef Heron showed in another spot, and a flock of Greater Flamingos were seen in flight. As we moved along the bund we could view lagoons either side of the jeeps and were able to look right down on the waders feeding just a few metres below us, and we saw Ruddy Turnstone, plus a lone Ruff and a small party of 5 Red-necked Phalaropes on another salt pan. We got out of the vehicles at one spot and scoped these last birds, also picking up Oriental Skylark, Paddyfield Pipit, Garganey and Common Ringed Plover which is a scarce bird in Sri Lanka. Driving back along the same route we saw a brief Marsh Mugger and a White-bellied Sea- eagle flying over. At a secluded marsh surrounded by scrub and bushes several Pacific Golden Plovers were stood amongst the grass, along with Eurasian Curlew, with White-winged Terns flying all around. A few Alpine Swifts picked up by Rod were a surprising sight here, before we returned to the visitor centre and drove to the garden of a friend of Upali where a pair of Indian Scops-owls looked down on us from their daytime roost. So after lunch and a rest at our hotel in Tissamaharama, we drove the short distance to a ‘tank’ or reservoir where Purple Swamphen and Pheasant-tailed Jacana showed well. An Indian Reed-warbler (a recent split from Clamorous Reed Warbler) sat out in full view quite close to us in the late afternoon sun, whilst some flight views of a Yellow Bittern were appreciated. Just then a young boy whom Upali knows led us to view a roosting Brown Fish Owl amongst the palm trees and what views we were treated to. Apparently this bird lost an eye 4 years ago but still manages to survive against the odds! We then knew our luck was well and truly in as a female White-naped Woodpecker was sunning itself on a palm tree as we walked along a path, and it stayed there for ages allowing everyone great views. Whilst here Carol spotted our only Black Bittern of the trip along the drainage ditch and it showed quite well perched amongst some small trees and there was also a male Asian Koel calling from a tree above the path. So we decided to quit while we were ahead as all target species had been seen and returned to the hotel a little earlier than planned! What a day!

Day 9 Monday 23rd January

We entered Yala National Park shortly after sunrise, seeing Little Ringed Plover around a small pool, then Ceylon Woodshrike, Ashy Drongo, a flock of House Swifts overhead with some Ceylon Swallows, female Asian Koel, and the first of many Ceylon Junglefowl. The track wound its way through dense scrub jungle and numerous tall trees, which played host to several perched Crested Treeswifts, and we carried on around some large rock formations to a series of pools where Green and Wood Sandpipers and a huge Marsh Mugger were seen. Sightings came thick and fast and we made numerous stops, starting with a herd of Spotted Deer that appeared on the far side of the pool, and a brief Indian Baya Weaver also put in an appearance, before an inquisitive Ruddy Mongoose came into view. A female Black-headed Cuckoo-shrike flew into the top of a tree, and a pair of Barred Buttonquail paused long enough for us to get a decent view as they crossed the track in front of us, and a great looking Stripe-necked Mongoose walked past the jeeps. We then came to a large lake, covered in lily pads where a small bushy island was home to a colony of nesting Oriental Darters, and around the water we also saw a few Black-crowned Night-herons, Spot-billed Pelicans, Black-headed Ibis and some Wild Boar. The next pond held a fine trio of Green, Wood and Marsh Sandpipers, with some lovely Orange-breasted Green-pigeons feeding on the ground. Next up was a dark-looking Eurasian Hoopoe feeding in an open, grassy area, before we drove along the main ‘highway’ through the park, seeing a flock of Brahminy Starlings in a big tree, a close Indian Pitta skulking in usual fashion at the base of some bushes, and a Crested Hawk-eagle, before taking a side track to view a marshy inlet where a huge female Black-necked Stork literally dwarfed a nearby Grey Heron. The area bordering the inlet held several Ashy-crowned Sparrow-larks, and a distant Malabar Pied Hornbill was also seen here. Back on the main track a short while later, a very confiding White-rumped Shama flitted from perch to perch alongside the jeeps, and a Sambar was seen before reaching the beach. Here a male Black-necked Stork was present, along with White-bellied Sea-eagle, and a close Pale-billed Flowerpecker. Continuing on, a pale race of Giant Squirrel was seen, before we reached another lily-covered lake with numerous dead trees that held a Grey-headed Fish-eagle, and nearby we saw Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, a pair of closer Malabar Pied Hornbills, and had several more views of Indian Elephant. We left shortly before noon and drove to Yala Village where as we waited for our rooms to be made ready we scanned the lake from the observation platform, seeing many Marsh Sandpipers, as well as Curlew Sandpipers, Little Ringed and Kentish Plovers, and a pair of Great Thick-knees. After lunch and a siesta we drove back to the entrance gate to Yala NP seeing a Sirkeer Malkoha and an Ashy Drongo along the way, and checked out a huge lagoon, seeing more Ashy-crowned Sparrow-larks, Eurasian Hoopoe, Indian Thick-knee (split from Eurasian Stone Curlew) and Paddyfield Pipit. As we watched a large flock of Rosy Starlings in a nearby tree, we became aware that a fine male Indian Baya Weaver was visiting a nest below them and got good views through the scope. Along the shores of the lagoon several more Great Thick-knees were present, with several Lesser Sand Plovers and Pacific Golden Plovers, and another Broad-billed Sandpiper was present amongst the flocks of sandpipers and stints. As the sun slowly set, Dave picked up a Jungle Cat slowly walking along the far shore, and there was also an Indian Elephant and Wild Boar as well. To round off another good day, we saw at least 4 Indian Little Nightjars (formerly called Indian Nightjar) with one bird in particular giving very good views as it flew around us.

Day 10 Tuesday 24th January

We set off on the long drive up to the highlands of Nuwera Eliya, stopping along the edge of Yala National Park to walk along the road. The habitat is really good here, with mature trees and a dense understorey providing lots of cover which is attractive to numerous species, and we had good views of Ashy Drongo, several Thick-billed Flowerpeckers (at last), at least 3 Blue-faced Malkohas, a flyover Indian Cuckoo, several perched Crested Treeswifts and Ceylon Swallows, Golden-fronted Leafbird, Small Minivet, Common Tailorbird, and a few Brown-headed Barbets. After a packed breakfast we settled back in our comfortable coach and continued the drive out of the lowlands, with the scenery changing to reveal steep hillsides and impressive waterfalls. At one such scenic location we stopped at a small café for drinks and ice cream and saw Blue Admiral and Blue Mormon Butterflies, although great hilarity ensued when a very bold macacque stole my packet of biscuits. A couple of hours later we arrived in time for a late lunch, before visiting Victoria Park where 2 new endemics duly made their way onto our ever growing list in the form of Ceylon White-eye and Yellow-eared Bulbul. With a rather uncharacteristically obliging Indian Blue Robin, our first Forest Wagtail and an Indian Pitta, there was never a dull moment, although it was surprising not to find any Pied Ground-thrushes (we later learnt they had become extremely elusive and may not be present here on a regular basis any more). As we drove back towards the hotel, Upali suggested we walk through a small patch of woodland, which provided further close views of a pair of Indian Blue Robins.

Day 11 Wednesday 25th January

After a reviving cup of tea by reception we were away very early and set off in two small minivans for the trip up to Horton Plains. Arriving just as the sun was about to break above the horizon we positioned ourselves alongside the small pool, where right on cue we heard the elusive Ceylon Whistling-thrush. After a series of high pitched calls the male was picked up perched on a branch overhanging the water, but quickly disappeared before all but a few of the group could get onto it. A few minutes later the call could be heard behind us and we were extremely fortunate to relocate him on a branch more or less at eye level and were able to watch it for several minutes singing from an exposed branch. Wow! So with that traditionally tough endemic under our belts we set off after the few remaining birds for our list, with a Sri Lanka Bush-warbler providing a few glimpses below us, before a pair of Eurasian Otters began playfully crossing the pool. What a show they gave, and were seemingly in the middle of some private game as they splashed and splashed in front of us, giving a series of snaps and squeaks. Continuing along the road, a Dusky-blue Flycatcher (formerly called Dull-blue Flycatcher) appeared next to us and gave a fine show, as did another Sri Lanka Bush-warbler that crawled in mouse-like fashion over and around a tussock just a couple of metres away from us. Several Yellow-eared Bulbuls and Ceylon White-eyes were also seen, before a Sri Lanka Woodpigeon began calling from the hillside above. After what seemed like an eternity, during which frustrating time we grilled every tree on the forest above, the woodpigeon kept on calling but remained out of view, until Upali picked one up not too far away, and we watched it feeding right out in the open. So from here we returned to the vehicles, with Dave catching a glimpse of Ceylon Scimitar-babbler, and just as we were about to board the vehicles a female Kashmir Flycatcher appeared on the other side of the pool. So everyone jumped out and was treated to prolonged views of this excellent bird. We then drove up onto Horton Plains and walked a little way along the road that transects the moorland, seeing Paddyfield Pipit, Pied Bushchat, and plenty of Sambar in the bleak habitat. We took breakfast outside a small canteen which served delicious hot tea before returning along the same road. This time we chanced upon a buteo species perched on a tree stump near the road, which turned out to be the newly split Himalayan Buzzard, and whilst watching this bird a Mountain Hawk-eagle flew by. Our next stop produced several Hill Swallows, a Philippine Shrike, a few Black-throated Munias and an absolutely superb full breeding plumage male Kashmir Flycatcher. Further along the road we saw another Himalayan Buzzard, as well as Black-shouldered Kite, and had close views of Grey-headed Canary-flycatcher to round off an excellent morning’s birding. The afternoon session was taken at one of Upali’s secret sites where after a slow start searching for our last endemic along a narrow stream we eventually came up trumps. First of all an Indian Blue Robin was seen doing what it does best, ie skulking, and that was followed by at least 2 Grey-headed Canary-flycatchers. As afternoon turned into early evening a male Pied Ground-thrush was scoped in some trees below us, and that was followed by a female Sri Lanka Whistling-thrush stood on a rock mid-stream below us. Then a Sri Lanka Bush-warbler and a male Kashmir Flycatcher were seen by some of the group, before a pair of Jerdon’s Baza made their way on to several life lists as they flew through the trees at eye-level. What a great couple of hours!

Day 12 Thursday 26th January

With some time free before leaving this area, we made a vain attempt for the elusive Ceylon Scaly Thrush, with only the leader catching a glimpse, but a little compensation came in the form of a female Ceylon Whistling-thrush and a brief Velvet-fronted Nuthatch. So after breakfast we set off on the journey to Kandy, stopping at a tea factory along the way, before arriving at our next hotel. After lunch a quick stop was made at a souvenir shop on the way to Peredinya Botanical Gardens. Here Sri Lanka Hanging-parrots and Alexandrine Parakeets were very evident, whilst along the river a Ceylon Small Barbet was scoped before we found a Common Hawk-cuckoo. Also seen here were Brown-headed Barbet, Black-rumped Flameback, and a flowering Bombax tree was full of Lesser Hill-mynas. Overhead Brahminy Kites and White-bellied Sea Eagle were seen, although the Eurasian Collared Dove seen by Noel was the rarest species present!

Day 13 Friday 27th January

A fine Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher was soon joined by a Brown-breasted Flycatcher in a poolside tree at Udawatakele Reserve this morning to get the ball rolling. The pool here was made famous by Bo Derek taking a swim in a Tarzan movie, but the best we could come up with was a Stork-billed Kingfisher and a Soft-shelled Terrapin! We followed a track through some excellent forest, and at one point we had a very close White-rumped Shama, and equally crippling views of a Brown-capped Babbler and a male Indian Blue Robin all in the same spot. Around the corner a Common Hawk-cuckoo put in an appearance, before we staked out a clearing where there were numerous birds feeding. Several Square-tailed Black Bulbuls, Crimson-fronted and Yellow-fronted Barbets, Pied Flycatcher-shrike, Orange Minivet, brief Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Golden-fronted Leafbird, Layard’s Parakeet, and many Lesser Hill-mynas completed the picture. So from here we drove to our next hotel at Sigiriya, stopping to scan a tank in the rain and where we found a male Cotton Pygmy-goose on the way, along with Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Purple Swamphen and Purple Heron. Unfortunately the rain would continue to hamper our birding efforts all afternoon, but in between showers we did find a superb Shaheen Falcon perched on the rock face, as well as White-browed Bulbul, Grey-bellied Cuckoo, Ceylon Woodshrike, a Shikra being mobbed by a pair of White-browed Fantails, and several more White-rumped Shamas. Probably the highlight this afternoon was the point-blank views of an Indian Pitta just outside the rooms of some of the group!

Day 14 Saturday 28th January

The rain continued all morning with just a few brief pauses, during which we ventured out once, seeing Malabar Pied and Ceylon Grey Hornbills and White-rumped Shama, with a huge moth providing some distraction in the lodge. So we took the opportunity to relax, before having a fine buffet lunch and then setting off on the long drive to Colombo. Just 20 minutes down the road and the coach had to return for a missing jacket, during which time a few of us hopped out as the clouds seemed to be lifting and took the opportunity to scan a large lake, finding 7 Cotton Pygmy-goose, Large Cuckooshrike and Grey-breasted Prinia to take our group tally up to a very respectable 244 for the trip. There was also a fine selection of commoner birds present and it was nice to get out and stretch our legs before rejoining the coach. On arrival at our hotel we said our goodbyes to Upali, who had been an excellent guide and good friend, and we sat down that evening to our last meal together before retiring for the night. Our coach picked us up very early the following morning and took us the short distance to the airport. Unfortunately our flight was delayed by a couple of hours which meant we missed our connection in Amsterdam, but after a little delay we finally boarded a flight later in the evening and eventually arrived at a somewhat chilly Heathrow Airport.

On behalf of Upali and myself I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the group for making it such a pleasure to lead.

Nick Bray.

Pandia Lanka Light & Enlightenment: Eco Concept Luxury Hotels

Pandia Lanka Light & Enlightenment: Eco Concept Luxury Hotels

Eco Concept Luxury Hotels

Hotel Vil Uyana set in a man-made wetlands Vil Uyana, situated within view of Lion Rock Citadel Sigiriya, on the flatlands, the dry zone, the land of water reservoirs (Wewa Bandi Rata of ancinet Lanka) that stretch to the west, integrates into an ancient plan - a plan to irrigate, in the tradition of the Sinhala kings since 543 BC The man-made wetland micro eco system on reclaimed agricultural lands within the Dry Zone, provides the unique setting for this new luxury, one of a kind property. Rooms over water, rooms within the paddy fields there, here over the reed beds, crocdiles, birds & elephants. And then there is an opportunity of participating in both the farming and harvesting. Vil Uyana is spread over 24 acres and has 25 Chalets set in 3 distinct ‘habitats’ : 7 Water Pavilions, 6 Paddy Field Villas, 2 Marsh Villas and 10 Forest Lodges.

Pandia Lanka Light & Enlightenment: Best Beaches of the World: Bentota Beach Resort, Sri Lanka

Pandia Lanka Light & Enlightenment: Best Beaches of the World: Bentota Beach Resort, Sri Lanka

There's a kind of hush

There's a kind of hush

By B. U. N. Peiris, Lakshapatiya, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

24^th June 2005

“Do your allotted work regardless of results, for men attain the highest good by doing work without attachment to its results” Krushna to Arjuna: The Mahabarata

“Energy can neither be created nor destroyed” I just happened to overhear a colleague from mine saying while I was passing his desk. ‘So, you had a fine Physics teacher, eh!” I butted in. I was pleased that my colleague could still remember his Physics lessons at college. Since The Fundamental theory of Physics, that preceded Newton’s three famous Laws of Physics, has withstood all the tests to date, I could safely say that my father too was not destroyed even in his death. After all, all of us are made of the same stuff: energy.

But then again, it is not acceptable my father is no longer with us: he has left us for a rebirth, according to the Buddhism, that is. As every action follows a reaction, as laid out in Newton’s third Law, the merits & demerits, virtues & vices of my father would warrant another birth in another form of a living being somewhere in the cosmos. Once again that is according to Buddhism. One can end the almost eternal cycle of birth & rebirth, suffering of living only if one could break free from all desires, free from all vices, animosity & pride, anger & enmity, jealousy & greed & reach the summit of all virtue & yield into the power of impermanence as Buddha & few of his disciples preached & reached: Arhath, the state of eternal enlightenment. Attempts to fit in the round peg of science into the square hole of religion would be a task beyond ordinary human perceptions. But then Buddhism is not an ordinary religion. It is an atheist religion that conforms to the scientific foundation; action & reaction, cause & effect, reason & result. As Tenzin Gyatso, his holiness the Dalai Lama proclaimed in his latest book “The Universe in a Single Atom” that if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science & abandon those claims.” Dalai Lama doesn’t sound like a dogmatic religious leader, but rather like a sophisticated scientist in the tradition of Darwin: If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory (of evolution) would absolutely break down. Scientist Richard Dawkins, one of the most prominent proponent of atheism, would be pleased to hear those words of Tenzin Gytso, since he argues that God should be no less explicable than any other natural phenomenon. But then neither the creationist nor atheists ought be at the loggerheads, at each other’s throat since science & theology can coexist, side by side. I suppose the world is big enough. Perhaps not. Perhaps, The world is not enough (with apologies to Bond) for the battle. Rushdie (may all gods, big & small protect him!) argues that such a truce would have a chance of working only if it were reciprocal-if the world’s religions agreed to value the atheist position & and concede its ethical basis, if they respected the discoveries & achievements of modern science, even when these discoveries challenge religious sanctities, & if they agreed that art at its best reveals life’s multiple meanings at least as clearly as so-called “revealed’ texts. No such reciprocal arrangement exists, however, nor is there the slightest chance that such an accommodation could ever be reached. Rushdie could be wrong in terms of such a chance, since non other than Pope John Paul the second himself declared (in French) 'Aujourd'hui, pres d'un demisiecle après la parution de l'encyclique, de nouvelles connaisances condesuisent a reconnaitre dans la théorie de l'evolution plus qu'*une* hypothese.'('Today, almost half a century after the publication of the Encyclical [Humani generis, 1950], new knowledge has led to the recognition of more than a (a, as Vatican newspaper L’Osservatroe Romano translated-French “une” means a or one) hypothesis in the theory of evolution. The Pope appears to think there’s evidence to support evolution, hence it is “more than a hypothesis.”

When Tenzin, the Sherpa hero, returned home from conquering the Mount Everest, his mother queried whether he witnessed Buddha at the zenith. Unwilling to hurt the feelings of his mother Tenzin had replied in affirmative. In the days (sixties) of heroes Hillary & Tenzin, the philistines in Nepal believed Buddha lived on the highest peak of the world, while the Buddha, having got rid of all desires, having attained the ultimate enlightenment, had seized to exist. No, not simply in the sixties, even in the eighties, the philistines could believe their religions in their own lights. Isn’t your mother secretly proud you are a poet? “She wouldn’t have even a sense of what being a poet is” For someone like Linus’s mother, living within an achieved civilization, poetry was something that had already been written, provided, a kind of scripture; it couldn’t be added. Among the Believers, V. S. Naipaul (1981). No, not only in the 20^th century by the philistines. In the 21^st century with western educated university students too: 9/11, the 11^th September 2001, New York, U. S. A.

Where exactly is my father now? The precise answer will not be found since such knowledge is beyond the comprehension of living beings, not within the reach of living beings. Again, that is according to Buddhism. Perhaps a person who had become a Rahath would be able to answer. Perhaps even he wouldn’t know. My father is now reborn another living being in somewhere in this cosmos. According to Buddhism, there are other living being in the cosmos. He could be in our planet called earth, or somewhere in our galaxy called Milky Way 600 quadrillion miles across, or somewhere in our contemplated universe with 100 billion other galaxies, or somewhere across our universe, across our thin membrane of space-time (brane), one of many, (in the new frontier called “brane new world” -Stephen Hawkins) all of which may warp, wiggle, connect & collide with one another in as many as 10 dimensions. We can’t see anything outside our brane, as were the people in the well of Plato’s analogy with respect of limited human perceptions & knowledge, because light can’t escape or enter the brane. We can’t hear anything outside, because a sound travel through matter, & matter is stuck to our brane. We can’t use radioactivity to sense what’s beyond, or even break through with nuclear bombs, because nuclear forces are also firmly nailed to our brane. There could be a big blue elephant sitting not a millimeter away in another dimensions, but we wouldn’t know it’s because everything (except gravity) we use to” see” is stuck to our brane. That is the latest mind-boggling theory of multiverse, the universe of all universes, the celestial mother of all mothers. Socrates liked to tease his interlocutors by saying that the only thing he knew was that he knew nothing. The magnificence of Greek thought! “All the knowledge, the human race has gained so far is akin to a drop of sea water from the great oceans,” my father would say since then electric vacuum valve era to today’s micro technology age. I believe he had heard of the incoming Nano technology era. The limited perceptions of the human race confine us to our frail nature & pathetic three-dimensional organs. Einstein made extra dimensions an integral part of Physics when he used fourth dimension, time, in his theory of Relativity in 1905. Ten years later, he showed that this interwoven fabric of space-time could warp under the influence of massive objects-“causing” the force we know as gravity.

Then there is a logical & simple answer too. As a friend of mine who I have never met in person remarked (funny, isn’t it the friends, never met! Still a friend, in view of the exchange of ideas & touch of empathy between us, one from a poverty stricken country, that is me & a person from an affluent country, that is him of course) emailed, “He will only remain in your memory and heart but there they remain forever and so your father continues to live through his children.” Very true. Like hell, Moritz, by providence, my father will continue to live, in some sense, by way of his children & grand children. Amen.

My father is survived by my mother, 5 children, 7 grand daughters & 1 grand son. By providence, his grandchildren could become fair, upright, educated & productive citizens. That is something to pray for. But then again, in Buddhism you have no God to pray for. You are the saviour of your own life. Karma, the fate takes over almost everything almost eternally. Can you override your Karma? Has Buddhism given an answer in a single word? Is our destiny determined? Or is it not? Will science ever provide an answer? To the hell with destiny! So, what can you do? You may only strive, strive, strive till you stumble & fall. The again you rise up & strive, strive, strive for the betterment of your sons & daughters till the death. That was what exactly my father too did.

“Oh! My second daughter has sent me a nice SMS,” remarked a friend of mine, a Sri Lankan Muslim Gem trader opening his mobile phone alerted by the incoming message beep. “ Dada I am not angry at you even though you scolded my yesterday. If I do, Allah would punish me. You are the Best Dada in the world” No doubt, to all the children their Dada Boy & Mummy Girl are the best Daddy & Mummy in the world. Even the children of Hitler (if he had any), Himmler, Hess, Eichmann, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, The Pol Pot the Second would have no hesitation to nominate their respective mass murderous fathers to the International Best Dada Boy Championship at Rose Gardens, White House. Really really? Scottish philosopher David Hume in his essay titled “An Enquiry Concerning the Principals of Morals” theorised that universal traits like benevolence towards one’s own children, kindness towards one’s own children & love for one’s own children are “natural” virtues, while socially necessary traits like courage, honesty, justice, & loyalty are ”artificial’ virtues.

By providence, my father was of both natural virtues & artificial virtues that Hume referred to. My father, had not only been a loving & beloved better half of the union of my parents, but also a fair, upright & straightforward man, decent citizen. His word was true, his deal was square & his deed was fair. In his scale of values, the Platonic triad of the truth, the good, & the beautiful took precedence over the Machiavellian triad of money, fame & power. He didn’t have any idea on how to go about collecting commission against the local purchase of electronic spare parts that he used to purchase during the long years of World Meteorological Organisation Aid to the Dept. of Meteorology, Sri Lanka. As then director of the dept. himself once implied, my father could have collected enough of commission to build a house. He didn’t. He was once taken aback with my shoplifting, in one of my fits of kleptomaniac attacks, of a ladies handbag; he would have a smirk on his lips over my exploitation of loopholes of the American & British book clubs.

He didn’t try to achieve his goals by hook or crook; he didn’t imagine he should beg, bribe or rob to build a house or to tour Las Vegas. His way had always been fair way even in castaway situations following a perfect storm. He never marooned & drifted in wasted time or sunk in rudderless despair. He worked all the time. A genuine workhorse. But he had much more than horse sense: a streak of intellect, a good sense of fair play & sound technical mind. My mother, another tireless workhorse played second fiddle. But playing second fiddle to such a man was no easy task. But then my mother has been tough cookie too. She would, in those pre-micro processor years, pre-transistor days, in the era of vacuum electric valves, painstakingly wind electric transformers on a manual hand drill fixed horizontally on a workbench, cut Aluminium laminations of E & L shapes with a metal cutting scissors with a piece of cloth wound round her fingers; cook & clean & do all house about work for seven persons, make delicious coconut honey sweets & sweetmeat for us; wash clothes of seven by her own hands since those days were the days sans washing machines. On top of all these things she would make cartons out of printed labelled cardboard for the Ayurvedic medicine products of my grandfather. For some long years my father even ran a mini poultry farm in a garage. They produced soap using caustic soda & Coconut oil as base. My father borrowed books on handicraft (donated by Asia Foundation, U.S.A. rumoured to be a front organisation of CIA) from the library of Dept. of Meteorology & turned out ornaments for sale. What didn’t they have their hands in?

Thanks to the two work horses, we lived like the rich with December school holidays in the cool, scenic, beautiful, fresh hill country: green mountains, green valleys with green green grass & green trees, green ravines & green slopes, all green & again green, greens of all shades & tones, vast green tea plantations, seamless green paddy fields, green bushes & green woods. And numerous flowers of vivid petals & hues. Pick a Rose for Daisy. Roses aplenty, Daisies all over, fresh air, all flowers & smiles, loose jackets & tight hats. Carrot, Cabbage & beet, Potato & tomato & all sorts of vegetables, Avocado pears, promegenate, in abundance. Water, water, everywhere, cascading water, flowing water, streaming water. Allah …aaaaaaaaa….!!!!!!!!!, the Beer refinery. Water that produce fine local beer. Beer galore. The Real McCoy. Have your poison. The salt content is just right for the climate. Imported Heineken & Carlsberg are no match. And, oh! yes, the bakeries, the smell of fine oven-fresh, oven-hot bread in the streets, in misty yet bright morning. Uncle Baker, is such fine bread is all thanks to water? No kid, you know, it’s all in the hands. You are kidding. No kidding, kid, with the hand of god at play. “I saw deep blue & immense, the entire high mountain system of Ceylon piled up in mighty walls, & in its midst the ancient & holy pyramid of Adam’s Peak. Beside it at an infinite depth & distance lay the flat blue, in between a thousand mountains, broad valleys, narrow ravines, rivers & waterfalls, in countless folds, the whole mountainous island on which the ancient legend placed paradise.” Herman Hesse at the vantage point, the most beautiful city of the Hill Country of Sri Lanka, Nuwara Eliya

Once my eldest sister, a widow, was about to behave like an adamant fool with respect of the upbringing of her daughters I sent her a letter reminding her of our roots, what my father & mother have been doing for us, what my maternal grandfather & grandmother have done for us. They letter made my sister weep; my parents proud. My sister mended her moronic ways; my parents were to learn I haven’t forgotten the sweat of their brow, labour of their hands. I believe, my father was pleased with the contribution, I have made for his grand children: particularly of my gifting a house to my first niece; financing her higher education; quick moves with respect of the education of his preteen grandson, the son of my brother.

Since no straight arrow was ever fashioned out of the crooked timber of humanity, (with apologies to the good guys), my father wasn’t the perfect straight arrow either: he too had his deficiency. In spite of round the clock good work he wasn’t a great communicator. My eldest three nieces were on & off disturbed. I used to butt in. “How old are you?” “I am sixteen” “See, you are sweet sixteen, but Grandfather is under the impression you too are in sagacious seventies as he is.”hee heee.. hee hee he heeeeeeee.. heee “He is only protecting you. So take it easy.“ “We are okay, we aren’t angry at him”

My father was one of the few good men, I knew of. If there was ever a blemish on him, it was being the unintended hand of indirect murder in a death of a burglar at a home of one of his best friends: he was the man, who in a moment of lost sense of caution, powered the rear door of the house with a network of electricity above the level of voltage necessary to ward off a burglar. “Everyone, it seems, losses his sense under the influence of destiny” : Mahabarata. The methodical, systematic highly skilled technical hand was to regret his hand in the death of the burglar. But then that was predicted by a gypsy women endowed with superior knowledge of palmistry, who traced the lines of his right palm, while my father & I, then a pre teen were seated at the steps of the front door of our home. I always had good memory of my childhood in connection with my father, a reasonably well read man, since he always seemed to have something to say on any matter on any occasion. His words always etched in my memory. But at that moment of foretelling of indirect murder, he was at a loss of words. The big blemish was to take place. Destiny, Fate, Karma. Or is it hand of God to have a blemish on him, the God seems to have his own divine ways, or rather his fancy & wicked sense of humour. We are just playthings to him, as flies in the hands of wanton boys.

My father, Baminhennadige Donald Benedict Peiris, son of Baminhennadige(= descendants of Hennagige family with the head of the family married to a Bamini-Indian Brahmin lady) Francis Sebastian Peiris of Koralawella, Moratuwa & Dona Lillian Peiris, passed away on 23^rd June 2005 at the age of 75. My mother decided against treatment for brain cancer when it was diagnosed in May 2005. At his age he wouldn’t stand for Radiotherapy or chemotherapy. My father who didn’t have any idea what had hit him cried on the phone saying he couldn’t speak. On 19^th May 2005, when I returned home & rushed in asking “How is father?”, he stepped out to the yard & embraced me crying. His short memory was in short supply & cohesion of ideas had faded.

My father, well-qualified Electronic Technician was employed in the Dept of Meteorology, Colombo. In those days, such were the values held by the citizens, even the highly-qualified technical professionals such as my father didn’t call themselves engineers in deference to those who had obtained a 5 year full time Bachelor of Engineering degree from a state university or a university in Great Britain