Gavin Thomas - The Rough Guide to Sri Lanka

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Countryside near Hunas Falls

Street sign, Galle

Sri Lanka has seduced travellers for centuries. Marco Polo described it as the finest island of its size in the world, while successive waves of Indian, Arab and European traders and adventurers flocked to its palm-fringed shores, attracted by reports of rare spices, precious stones and magnificent elephants. Poised just above the equator amidst the balmy waters of the Indian Ocean, the islands legendary reputation for natural beauty and plenty has inspired an almost magical regard even in those who have never visited the place. Romantically inclined geographers, poring over maps of the island, have compared its outline to a teardrop falling from the tip of India or to the shape of a pearl (the less impressionable Dutch likened it to a leg of ham), while even the name given to the island by early Arab traders Serendib became, through the English word serendipity, a synonym for the making of happy accidents by chance.

Marco Polos bold claim still rings true. Sri Lanka packs an extraordinary variety of attractions within its modest physical dimensions, and few islands of comparable size can boast a natural environment of such beauty and diversity. Lapped by the Indian Ocean, the coast is fringed with idyllic and often refreshingly undeveloped beaches, while the interior boasts a compelling variety of landscapes ranging from wildlife-rich lowland jungles, home to extensive populations of elephants, leopards and rare endemic bird species, to the misty heights of the hill country, swathed in immaculately manicured tea plantations. Nor does the island lack in man-made attractions. Sri Lanka boasts over two thousand years of recorded history, and the remarkable achievements of the early Sinhalese civilization can still be seen in the sequence of ruined cities and great religious monuments that litter the northern plains.

Sea Street, the Pettah, Colombo

The glories of this early Buddhist civilization continue to provide a benchmark of national identity for the islands Sinhalese population, while Sri Lankas historic role as the worlds oldest stronghold of Theravada Buddhism lends it a unique cultural unity and character which permeate life at every level. Theres more to Sri Lanka than just Buddhists, however. The islands geographical position at one of the most important staging posts of Indian Ocean trade laid it open to a uniquely wide range of influences, as generations of Arab, Malay, Portuguese, Dutch and British settlers subtly transformed its culture, architecture and cuisine, while the long-established Tamil population in the north has established a vibrant Hindu culture which owes more to India than to the Sinhalese south.

It is, however, this very diversity which has continually threatened to tear the country apart. For much of the past three decades the island has been the scene of one of Asias most pernicious civil wars, as Sri Lankan government forces and the LTTE, or Tamil Tigers, have battled it out in the islands north and east. As of early 2009, government forces had succeeded in wresting back control of northern Sri Lanka from the LTTE for the first time in a generation, though whether this spectacular military success signals a new era of long-overdue peace, or simply a change in the nature of the conflict, remains to be seen. Away from these areas, though, life goes on as normal. The tourist industry continues to develop apace, and, with much of the damage caused by the 2004 tsunami now repaired and hostilities in the north apparently coming to an end, most Sri Lankans are once again looking to the future with guarded optimism.

Hunas Falls

Sri Lanka packs an extraordinary variety of attractions within its modest physical dimensions