~Sensational Sri Lanka~

Bringing you the tantalizing prospect of September on

the Island of Serendipity

WITIA Educational 13-21 September 2014 Vol. 1 ©Beverley Auerbach, March 2014

ucky YOU if you decide to sign up for WITIA’s 2014 Educational! You will get to experience, on a very

personal level, one of the most fascinating, culturally rich, visually stunning and under-visited

destinations in the world. Pearl-shaped Sri Lanka, a jewel of an island suspended below the gleaming

golden chain of the Indian subcontinent, is a treasure for the senses. And you get to make this discovery not

on your own, not with disinterested others, but in the company of like-minded WITIA colleagues and peers

from around the world, learning with them through shared experiences, insightful comments and pertinent

questions. The answers and back story come from insiders, local tourism professionals joined by our tour

leader and host, WITIA Foundation member Varini DeSilva of Ceylon Express International, a native Sri

Lankan who will be at our side to explain, decipher and animate everything we are seeing.

This is the first of several planned issues of this journal, Sensational Sri Lanka. Its purpose is to give you

valuable background information on the destination, and frankly, to tempt you to come with us. And here is

the first piece of advice: register for this trip and secure your spot with a deposit before 02 May 2014 and you

will have a USD $100 per person discount off the regular price. Put that hundred dollars into your shopping

fund – Sri Lanka is a wonderful place to treasure-hunt! Go to www.witia.org under EVENTS for full details –

or read all the way through to the end of this issue.

“The facts, just the facts, ma’am” ~ Sri Lanka (pronounced Sree Lanka) is an island

southeast of India at latitude 7.5653° N and longitude 80.4303° E (in case you leave your GPS at home). This

puts it less than 8 degrees north of the Equator. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar in

the Laccadive Sea, and the Palk Strait, a strategic location near major Indian Ocean sea lanes. With a

coastline of 1,340 kilometers /833 miles, it has a total land area of 65,610 km2 /25,330 mi2. This makes it

almost as big as Ireland.

Topography ~ If you flew low over the island, you’d see that it is mainly low and flat along its

coastline, rising to rolling plains and then mountains in the south-central interior. Intermediate hills are

cloaked with tea plantations. Mt. Pidurutalagala is the high point at 2524 meters /8280 feet, but the lower

Adam’s Peak (Sri Pada - 2243 meters/7360 feet), is the more spectacular, famous (and pronounceable!)

mountain on the island. Hundreds of streams and rivers carry abundant rainfall from the wet highlands

down through tea estates, orchards and gardens to the coastal rice paddies. The Mahaweli Ganga, Sri

Lanka’s major river, rises near Adam’s Peak and empties into the deep sea harbor of Trincomalee on the

northeast coast.

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Seaside ~ Mangrove-fringed lagoons and marshes, many of them protected nature reserves, line a

coastline interspersed with enticingly white sand beaches. The most scenic of these are to be found on the

southwest, south and east coasts – we’ll be staying at one: Bentota. The water is warm and inviting, tempting

even the most determined sun bathers. And while we’re talking about the coast, here’s one more fascinating

feature – there is a land link to India. Called Adam’s Bridge, no doubt by Western colonizers since its South

Asian name is Rama’s Bridge, this natural causeway is now only hinted at by a chain of limestone shoals

peaking above the waves. According to temple records, it was destroyed by a cyclone in 1480. Sea level rise

due to climate change should cover even these vestiges in the next 30 years.

Flora ~ The southwest shelters Sri Lanka’s remaining rain forest, typically a tall canopy of teak, ebony and

silkwood trees presiding over dense undergrowth. Other common trees are the banyan, bodhi, flame, rain,

Ceylon ironwood and neem trees, almost all of which are sources of natural remedies. Imported eucalypts

provide shade on tea plantations, and mangos, tamarinds, wood apples and bananas are common fruit trees.

Introduced species include papayas, guavas and jackfruit.

Fauna ~ Sri Lanka is more than elephants – but in terms of tourism and the local psyche, it’s hard to

surpass them. Elephant ownership was once a royal prerogative, and it was considered a terrible offense to

kill one. They are much represented in Sri Lankan art and design, the superstars of colorful festivals, and are

even venerated. The most esteemed is the Maligawa tusker that carries the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha

in the Kandy Esala Perahera. Beyond elephants, Sri Lanka hosts quite a retinue of wild animals for a small

island, including leopards, sloth bears, wild Asiatic water buffalo and offshore – enormous blue whales.

Cities and provinces ~ Sri Lanka has nine provinces that serve as governing bodies of the

country. The capital of Sri Lanka is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, which is sometimes simply called Kotte (pronounced CO-tay). Kotte is a suburb beyond the city center of Sri Lanka’s largest city, Colombo. (See – and you thought the capital was Colombo.) Colombo has a population (2012, estimated) of about 753,000. Other major cities include Dehiwala, Moratuwa, Negombo and Kandy, often called the cultural capital of the island.

Population ~ In 2012, the island’s population was pegged at 20.33 million. Remembering it is about

the size of Ireland, it supports a population that is 4.5 times greater! Put another way, with a density of 310 people per square kilometer, it’s as if the entire population of Australia was living on Tasmania. (Australia in 2012 had a population of 22.68 million.) The Sinhalese, comprising about 75% of the population, live in the densely populated southwest and central parts of the island. Sri Lankan Tamils tend to live in the northeast, forming the largest subgroup at 11 %. Moors descended from Arab traders are the third largest group at about 9%, concentrated in urban areas in the south as well as in central and eastern provinces. Indian Tamils, a distinct ethnic group brought by the British in the 19th century to work the tea and rubber plantations, still live largely in ‘tea country’. The remaining percentages are Malays descended from Southeast Asian settlers and ‘Burghers’ (!), a hold-over term for descendants of European colonizers from Portugal, Holland and Great Britain.

Faith ~ Four religions mix openly in Sri Lanka – Theravada Buddhism, practiced by about 70% of the

population, Hinduism by about 13%, Islam by about 9 % and Christianity the rest. There is some crossover of beliefs and practices. For example, Muslims and Christians may visit the same pilgrimage sites, and Hindus and Buddhists find that each of their religions influences the other.

Climate ~ Sri Lanka is tropical with amazingly consistent temperatures day in and day out, leading

visitors to think that the thermometer is broken. There are two distinct monsoon seasons, the northeast monsoon (December to March), and the southwest monsoon (June to October). There is also an inter-monsoonal period in October and November when rain can occur in many parts of the island. Therefore regardless of when you go, it’s wise to prepare for heat with a likelihood of rain. The weather doesn’t follow strict rules except that rainfall can be emphatic – streets can flood in what seems like only a few minutes - and rainfall will be sporadic, letting up and clearing the air. Colombo and the low-lying coastal regions have an average temperature of 27°C/ 81°F. At Kandy (altitude 500m), the average temperature is 20°C/ 68°F, while Nuwara Eliya (at 1889m) has a temperate 16°C/61°F average. The sea stays at around 28°C/82°F all year.

A rose by any other name… Siam, Burma, Zaire, and Ceylon – all countries that abandoned

their names, and all for the same reason. These were the names imparted by colonizers, not the names used

by the natives. In the case of Sri Lanka, it was always Lanka for the Sinhalese and Ilankai for the Tamils. The

country was called Lanka as far back as The Ramayana, the great Hindu epic that was written more than

2400 years ago. But the Greeks and Romans apparently did not read the Ramayana and called the country

Taprobane. Arab traders called it Serendib, meaning “island of jewels” in Arabic, from which we get the

English word ‘serendipity’ - happy and unexpected discoveries! (Surely you’ll agree on your first visit!) The

Portuguese, no doubt tongue-tied in face of so many multi-syllabic words, did the best they could with

Sinhala-dvipa (island of the Sinhalese), but it came out Ceilão. The Dutch ran with that, but pronounced it

Ceylan, and the British, no doubt looking for a catchy name for tea exports, tweaked it to Ceylon. In 1972, as

a boon to publishers of atlases, the now independent Ceylonese chose to call their country Sri Lanka, ‘Sri’

being the Hindu honorific, and ‘Lanka’ the down-home, age-old name.

Coming with us? ~ Go to www.witia.org under the EVENTS tab for all information, including day

by day itinerary, inclusions, pricing details, terms and conditions, and pre and post tour options to India and

the Maldives. The cost for the 8 day/7 night Educational, land only, is USD $1675 for WITIA members, USD

$1775 for guests and/or industry non-members, if registered and deposited by 01 May 2014. Single

supplement is USD $495. Add 3% for credit card payments. For bookings on 02 May and thereafter, WITIA

member cost is USD $1775, non-member/guest cost is USD $1875. WITIA membership for bona fide

tourism professionals is AUD $65. The Educational is hosted and booked through Ceylon Express

International. Pre and post tours are offered by either Royal India Holidays or Ceylon Express International.

About WITIA - Founded in 2006, Women in Tourism International Alliance Ltd (WITIA) is a women-centric networking

association, global in scope, for people employed in travel, tourism, hospitality and related industries. WITIA facilitates peer-

to-peer business collaboration, nurtures and mentors members, promotes cultural understanding and fosters protection of our

planet. At present WITIA is represented in 30 countries and communicates by monthly electronic newsletters to a database of

over 3000 tourism professionals worldwide.

* Grateful thanks to WITIA Foundation member Sandy Chaves, retired President of Perfect Spot Tours and artist

extraordinaire who provided the original sketches displayed in this journal! **Be an Educational sponsor and get your name

listed in every subsequent issue of Sensational Sri Lanka! Contact sponsorship@witia.org for more information.