(At Colombo airport)
India and Sri Lanka share
a deep cultural, diplomatic and religious relation over more than two thousand
years. Ravan ruled over Sri Lanka. He abducted Sita, and kept her in Ashoka Vatika.
Sri Ram with the help of the army of the monkeys defeated Ravan’s army, killed
him and rescued her. Emperor Ashoka, after his victory in the Kalinga War in
261 B.C. had sent his son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta as emissaries to
propagate Buddhism in Singhala in 251 B.C. During British rule, the Britishers
had taken Tamils to Sri Lanka to work in the tea gardens. In Sri Lanka, Singhalis
comprise around 70% and the Tamils are 15-18% of the population.
The Tamils are
concentrated in north and east of Sri Lanka. The Tamils of Tamilnadu have
emotional connection with Sri Lankan Tamils. The Tamils under LTTE (Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Elam) fought for an independent country. They waged war against
the Sri Lankan army, and engaged in guerrilla warfare. India wanted peace in its
neighbouring country. J.R. Jayvardane and Rajeev Gandhi sighed a peace treaty
in 1987. But the LTTE chief Pravakaran violated the treaty conditions and continued
its violent activities. India had to send IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) to
Sri Lanka. The LTTE assassinated Rajeev Gandhi by a suicide bomber in 1991. LTTE
lost support from India and of the foreign countries after assassination of
Rajeev Gandhi. In 2009, when the Sri Lankan army killed Pravakaran and his
family members, and wiped out the LTTE, no country in the world had sympathy for
them.
Thus, India and Sri Lanka
have sweet and bitter cultural and political relation since time immemorial.
2
Goods in the airport are
costly. Our flight was at 8, in the morning. We left home for the airport at 5.
We reached Hyderabad at 9.40. The upper floor of the airport was for
international flights. After security check, we ate our breakfast. One plate of
three idlies cost us Rs. 363. Manoranjan Panigrahi was in our group. He had his
breakfast in the ground floor; that was for domestic flights of the airport. He
ate one plate of three idlies for Rs. 230. The difference of price of Rs. 133
from ground floor to upper floor of the same building, from domestic to
international flights of the airport!
We reached Colombo
airport at 2 PM. Mr. Lesley, our guide in Sri Lanka had waited for us with a
placard in his hand. We headed towards Matale where we are to stay in a hotel.
(Mr Lesley, the Guide)
On the way, we visited
Muneeswaram temple in Chilaw. This is also called Manvari Shiv Lingam. Sri Ram
having killed Ravan rescued Sita Devi. He had installed a Shiv Linga here and
worshipped Lord Shiv to get rid of Brahmicide. Ravan was a great brahmin and by
killing him, Sri Ram had earned Brahmadosa, that he cleared after worshipping
Lord Shiv. The temple here is a simple structure, a building stood on pillars,
not like the temples we see in India.
From Muneeswaram we went
to see Manveri Shiv temple. This temple is a huge structure, pyramidical with
cravings like the temples in South India.
It was 10 in the night
when we reached Matale. I had woken up at 4 in the morning to go to airport at
5, and had been traveling since then. I was tired. I wanted to go to the bed
having my dinner.
In the room, the hotel had
provided two complimentary small bottles of water. The bottle contained half a
litre of water. I drink much water. I asked for two more bottles to the hotel
boy. The boy said, ‘You have to pay for the extra bottles’
‘How much?’
‘Three hundred LKR per
bottle’
That is one hundred
rupees in Indian currency.
In the outside, the same
bottle cost LKR 100. The same bottle cost Rs 10 in Odisha/India. But it was
night, the shops and bazaars might have been closed, and I also did not any
knowledge of the area. I got two bottles for LKR 600. The hotel would
collect the money when I would check out.
We had exchanged Indian
rupees to LKR from one Kaliprasad Mohanty in Bhubaneswar. He had given us LKR
in 5000 notes. All in our group had taken 5000 LKR notes from him. Our tour
package included breakfast, lunch and dinner. But we had to pay, if we wanted
to drink coconut water, buy water bottle or pay to the shoe stands. Difficult
to pay with 5000 currency notes. The shopkeepers don’t change a 5000 note for
one hundred or two hundred LKR.
3
(At Dambulla Cave Temple)
A board at the entry of
Dambulla Cave temple has a notice that says, ‘Cave Temple-Dambulla, May You all
be Protected by Lord Vishnu.’
Dambulla cave temple,
also known as Dambulla Golden Temple is 148 kms from Colombo and 43 kms away
from Matale where we were staying. The length of the cave is 160 metres and
divided into five parts. It contains 154 Buddha images including two large
sleeping Buddha. The roof of the cave has mural painting depicting the
life of Buddha. It is believed, pre-historic Singhalis were residing in the
cave before Buddhism came to Sri Lanka. At the corner of a cave, there is a
small Visnu temple. The Guide said, ‘The king was a Buddhist, but his queens
were Hindus. The king had built the Vishnu temple for the queens to worship.’
There is also a belief, the women don’t worship Buddha lest their sons leave
homes as Goutam did for a life of Sanyasi. Though it is the cave temple for
Buddha, and there is a small Vishnu temple, the notice at the entrance says,
May You All be Protected by Vishnu.
Thiru Koneswaram temple
is situated near to the sea in Trincomalee. Lord Shiv is worshipped here. Both
Sri Ram and Ravan are great devotees of Lord Shiv. Legend says, impressed by
the devotion of Ravan, Lord Shiv instructed saint Agasthya to build the temple.
Laxmi Narayan Perumal
temple is 10 kms from Trincomalee. Laxmi and Narayan are worshipped in this
temple. The male devotee has to put off his upper garments to enter into the
temple as it is practiced in South Indian temples like Laxmipadmanavaya temple
in Thiruanthapuram or in Suchindram in Tamilnadu.
(With Paresh Patnaik in Trincomalee beach)
The roads in Sri Lanka
are not as wide as the road in India, but the roads are clean and the drivers
are disciplined. They hardly overtake, and rarely blow horn. The Tricnomalee
beach is clean, not even a waste paper found anywhere. There is a notice on the
beach, the person found to have thrown waste material shall be punished with
minimum 3000 LKR. The roads have trees, jungles, mountains on both sides. The
houses on the roadside in the rural areas seem to have been owned by people
having good standard of living, at least, better than many Indian villages. Not
a thatched house or jhopdi huts found. The reason maybe, the population of the
country is less compared to India; around three crores. But one does not find
uncleanliness in the cities and populated areas also.
4
I was in the hotel lobby,
waiting for the other tourists of our group. We were to go to Kandy. A gentleman
was sitting beside me. I asked him, ‘Are you a tourist?’
Three groups of IRCTC
tourists had gone to Sri Lanka; besides our group, one from Hyderabad and the
other from Chennai. I thought he might be one of those groups.
‘I am the owner of this
hotel,’ he said.
He learnt I was from
India. ‘Day before yesterday, I had dinner with Indian high commissioner in
this hotel,’ he said, and showed me the picture taken in his mobile phone.
How could the high
commissioner of India have dinner with a businessman? ‘Are you in politics?’ I
asked.
‘Yes, I was the minister,
industry and commerce for ten years,’ he said.
His name was Laxman Perera;
he was a minister in the Rajpaksa ministry.
(With Laxman Perera, former minister, Sri Lanka)
Sri Lanka had economic
crisis in 2023. There were unusual high inflation and shortage of food items. Mahinda
Rajpaksa was the prime minister and Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the president. The
people came to the streets, and the Gen Z movement ousted the Rajpaksa
government. The new government was formed headed by NPP (National People’s
Power). Lesley said, ‘The NPP government is working hard. They have succeeded
in reviving the economy, and sorted out many issues during the last two years.
People are happy with the new government.’
It was a full moon day. On
full moon day, the Buddha temple has rush of visitors. All the full moon days
are public holidays in Sri Lanka. There was large crowd in the Tooth Temple of
Buddha in Kandy. There was long queue for the darshan. According to historical tradition,
the ruler who had control of the Tooth Temple had divine rights to rule over
Sri Lanka. Legend says, an Indian princess, most likely a Kalingan Princess, had
transported the tooth hiding in her hair to Sri Lanka.
(In front of Tooth Temple of Buddha, Kandy)
We watched cultural show
at 5.30 PM in Kandy. Artistes performed different dances for one and half an
hour. The show was spellbinding.
5
On the way to Ramboda, we
visited a tea garden and tea making factory. I had seen tea gardens and tea making factory in
Ooty and Munar. The factory people served us tea. The taste of tea was
different and that tasted good. I purchased a packet of green tea that cost me
Rs.1850 LKR; in Indian currency, it would be Rs 600. I drink green tea; the
price of organic green tea available in Fab India outlets is Rs.240.
(Tea Drinkers)
Ramboda has Bhatka
Hanuman Temple. It is said, Hanuman set foot first here in Sri Lanka and rested
here in his search for Sita Devi. The place is surrounded by mountains and
jungles. One legend says, the army of Sri Ram camped here before final battle
with Ravan.
The image of Hanuman is
tall, about 17 or 18 feet, made up granite stone. The Hanuman here does not
carry a club. The Chinmay Mission of Sri Lanka has built the temple in 2001.
The Mission also runs a hotel, and serves veg food. We had lunch there. The
food was tasty.
(With Manoranjan Panigrahi at Bhakta Hanuman Temple, Ramboda)
Sitamata’s temple is in
Nuwara Eliya. The temple is near to Ashoka Vatika. Ravan desired to keep Sita in his palace, but
Sita refused, and preferred to stay alone in exile and meditate. Ravan made a
natural garden, called Ashoka Vatika.
(In Ashoka Vatika)
The temple is situated on
the down of a mountain; a stream flowing beside it. Sita Devi was taking bathe
in the stream before she sat for meditation. It is believed, Hanuman first met
Sita Devi here and presented her the wedding ring Sri Ram had given him. There
is a deep depression on the stone, said to be the foot prints of Hanuman.
Ashoka Vatika is a large garden;
the walking path is 2.5 kms
Nuawara Eliya is a hill
station. The hotel room did not have A.C. nor fan. The temperature in the
morning in the month of September was 14-degree Celcius.
6
On our return from Nuwara
Eliya to Colombo, we had a schedule to visit one medicinal plant farm. I had
seen such a farm in Keralam. I had no interest. Many of our group were also not
interested. They wanted to save time to spend more time in Colombo. But a few
wanted to see the farm. We had to stop. When others were in the farm, we drank
tender coconut water. One tender coconut cost us 300 LKR, in Indian rupees Rs.
100. But the yellowish tender coconut had water twice of that much in ours
available in Odisha.
Pinnawala Elephant
Orphanage. If a child elephant is separated for some reason from its parent
elephants or from the herd, it is difficult for the child elephant to survive.
Those elephants are collected and put in, and well taken care of in the
orphanage. The Pinnawala orphanage has 60-70 elephants. They took bath twice a
day. On the opposite side of the road, we took our lunch in a restaurant,
situated on the bank of the river Ma Oya. The elephants were taking bath in the
river and enjoying the flowing water. This was a beautiful scene.
Kalaniya Buddha temple is
in Colombo. The Sri Lankan Buddhists believed; Buddha had visited the place in
His eighth year of enlightment, before 500 BC. That was His third and final
visit to Sri Lanka. A large Buddha statue is installed under a large Boddhi (Peepul)
tree. At the time we reached in the afternoon, a priest was chanting mantra and
a group of white dress clad women were in chorus him.
(Buddha Temple in Colombo)
There is an ancient
temple, next to the Boddhi tree. Lesley said, ‘The Portugese had destroyed the original
temple. It was rebuilt in 1929 by the local king.’ Lord Buddha is worshipped.
In front of the Buddha
temple, to the left side, stands a small temple of Bibhisan. In Odisha, if
someone betrays, he is called Bibhisan as Bibhisan had betrayed his brother
Ravan. But in Sri Lanka, Bibhisan is the God of Justice. By siding with Sri
Rama, he was in support of the justice. He saved the people from the oppression
of the demon king Ravan.
7
I have read two novels of
Sri Lankan writers; one, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida of Shehan
Karunatilaka and the other, REEF by Romesh Gunesekere. The Seven Moons of Maali
Almeida is set against the background of the conflict of 1980s and 90s in war
torn Sri Lanka. The troubled Sri Lanka had communal conflagration between
Tamils and Singhals, war between Sri Lankan army and LTTE and LTTE and IPKF.
The writer says, there were two obsessions then in Sri Lanka; war and cricket.
REEF is a novel about a marine biologist and his domestic help and cook, Triton.
Triton has fled from his village and stayed with the researcher, taking care of
the house and cooking for him. He has experimented with new Si Lankan dishes,
and ends up in becoming an owner of a restaurant in London. I remembered a few Sri Lankan dishes from this book.
During my Sri Lankan
visit, I was testing different Sri Lankan cuisines. In Sri Lankan food there is
liberal use of coconut grating, coconut oil, chilli powder and spices. I had
acidity. I woke up at 3 AM, in the night. We were put up in a hotel near the
sea beach in Colombo. The sound of the waves and sea wind were exhilarating. I
opened the door and sat on the balcony. The swimming pool is at the back of the
hotel. The train runs just after the gate of hotel. People
were doing their morning walk on the beach at the break of the dawn.
(On Colombo beach)
I started packing up my
things to go to the airport after breakfast on return journey to our home.
(The Group)
******
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