Maybe it's just out of the public eye, you know, a small country in the Indian Ocean. Famous for... what?
I wonder if people know how significant this country has been in the past? A few little nuggets that I've gleaned:
- there's a mountain in the highlands with a rock formation at the top, that looks like large human footprint. Muslims claim that it is the imprint of Adam's foot, when he first arrived in the world. The connotation is that when he was cast out of Paradise, he came to the closest place on earth that resembled it. Buddhists call this Sri Pada, (holy or scared footprint) and of course belonging to Buddha. The Hindus? well being a polyglot land, they get their go at it too. This is supposed to be Shiva's footprint.
Adam's Peak - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Speaking of Buddha, there is a tree in the mid north ancient city of Anuradhapura which is claimed to be grown from a cutting of the original Bo tree under which Siddartha Gautama achieved enlightenment and started his journey to Buddha.
When I saw this tree, it was huge, and its limbs were supported buy iron crutches. this tree was planted in 288 BC. You can buy little metal Bo leaves to where on a chain similar to how Christians wear crosses.
Bodhi Tree - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- keeping on with Buddhism, there is a temple in the central highland city of Kandy (love that name!) called the Temple of the Tooth. It contains a tooth of the Buddha - considered a sacred relic
- There are two very ancient cities, which lie in the centre of the country. Both are hard to pronounce:
Anuradhapura - capital of the country from the 4th century BC until 1017 AD when it fell to the Chola invasion (The Tamils arrive en masse!). there's archealogical evidence of inhabitation at the site going back to 900 BC
and Polannaruwa - founded in 1070 as the capital city after the Chola invaders were repelled
- The country has had many names to outsiders: The Alexander the Great's conquest team called the island Taprobane, Marco Polo referred to it as Saylam, The Arabs & persians called it Serendib, from where we get the word serendipidous; the portuguese parlayed Saylam to Ceylon, which it was called until it received it's independance and reverted to Lanka (sacred Lanka or Sri Lanka)
- There is an escarpment in the high country, on the edge of Horton's Plains called World's End. It is a 4,000 foot drop. this is where Sinbad was taken captive by the Roc. I've stood a the edge of this cliff, and felt the clouds blow up on my face.
there are so many cliffs in the high country, that the locals told me of riders flying off of them on their horses as the ground just disappeared from under their feet.
- Currently this country is a source of precious and semi precious gems & real rubber from trees, the world's best tea (orange pekoe - you haven't tasted tea, until you go to a Sri Lankan tea estate, and smell the leaves drying in the factories) and cinnamon - again the smell of the cinnamon bark drying in people's houses is fantastic.
- Sri Lanka had the world's first female prime minister. Sirimavo Bandaranaike:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirimavo_Bandaranaike
- Arthur C Clarke, author of 2001 A Space Oddessy lived here (he just passed away) where he indulged in his passion for scuba diving:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke
his novel The Fountains of Paradise is about the building of a space elevator is based in a fictional Taprobane which is modeled on Sri lanka:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountains_of_Paradise
- you can pick fruits such as mango, passionfruit, jackfruit to eat (although the jack fruit is a hard one) at the side of the road.
- Michael Ondaatje, a famous author in Canada, is from Sri Lanka. He wrote The English Patient.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ondaatje