Discovering Ceylon
Each visit to Asia makes my heart grow even fonder – I am now downright in love with Sri Lanka. I have left the east coast and have travelled inland to the city of Kandy. The drive meandered through rice paddies, stately palm trees, jolly green giant Mara trees, and prehistoric Banyon trees drop their roots from the sky. The lush jungle is reminiscent of Hawaii meets Bali. Elephants meander through the plains like dogs prowl the streets of Crested Butte. Giant granite buttresses protrude from the florescent green landscape and made us yearn to hop out and do some climbing. Eventually we left the plains and climbed steeply into the mountains.
Again we had a driver who aspires to be Mario Andretti, hurtling yet another Toyota mini van with more miles than one would ever wish to see on a vehicle, along the tiny mountain bike paths they affectionately call “roads”. It actually gives me a new outlook on India, making it appear quite organized and modern, which is quite a frightening thought. One could write a book on how blinkers are used in each country around the world – in Sri Lanka the passenger blinker of the vehicle in front of you indicates that it is clear to pass ahead on blind corners. Vehicles use the driver side blinker to indicate danger or to let people know that the road is too narrow to fit your car ahead. Most roads in rural areas will only accommodate one car, which make for some exciting driving especially on the steep mountain switch backs.
Women are now everywhere, out in the streets and markets, as we have left the Muslim areas of the East. I had forgotten how much I missed their presence, vitality, color and smiles. Often times when I see hundreds of them together, there is a sweatshop nearby, and I cringe at the thought of America’s obsession with inexpensive clothing. An average good wage in this country is about 150 rupees a day, or about $1.50 US. I had the awful feeling that most women make far less.
Religion is quite interesting here, although predominately a Buddhist country, most folks practice quite a mix of several religions at once. I spent long hours talking with Sabrina Dharma Rubesinghe, a 76 year old woman running her son’s home as a guest house. Baptized Christian, she abides by Buddha’s words, knows the bible by heart and is now reading the Koran. She is finding the Muslim religion and teachings more thorough and detailed than other religions, bringing her closer to god and nirvana. Most people I have met here have similar stories.
My investigation into the essence of this country has driven me to find out more about its major economic crops – gemstones, tea, and spices. First stop was a gem factory, where workers mine and then grind stones into gems. For some reason I had always thought that stones were carefully fractured like arrowheads into gems, but the process involves intricate grinding one facet at a time. The transformation is a slow process with fractional turning every few seconds, changing grinding wheels every few minutes from course to fine, finishing with a copper polish grind. Any one wishing to get engaged should come here – you can watch your stone being mined, ground, and then pick your setting and pick it up the next day. Red saphires (rubys), blue and white sapphires, all colours of topaz, aquamarine, moonstones, and emeralds are significant exports. Precious stones are 8.5 density or harder, while semi precious are 6-8.5.
Next stop was a spice plantation. I could have written a book on what I learned, but here are some highlights: tumeric is a root that stimulates collagen growth, good health and kills bacteria; hibiscus promotes healthy lungs, aids digestion, good sleeping, and less snoring; the exquisite vanilla orchid must be hand pollinated, is full of natural cyanide which is removed by steaming; cinnamon is made from four layers of bark and is helpful for osteoporosis, arthritis, and a natural antioxidant; chocolate fixes dark moods and minds, also had cyanide in the small seed which is removed, the fruit is graded by color – pink is the highest, brown second, and black the lowest quality. The shape of the fruit pod is thought to be the inspiration for the coke bottle. The pepper plant is a winding jack in the beanstalk type vine, often growing up other trees for many meters. The green pepper fruit ripens to red, is black when dried in the sun, and white with its skin removed. Ginger root stimulates the immune system while coriander and ginger make a great antibiotic tonic, vocal chord stimulator and increases hormones for barren women. Nutmeg fruit, when broken open, had a lady bug like seed. The red part of the skin produces mace, while the actual seed is ground into nutmeg.
I also stopped to investigate bananas – there are six types here. Lemon, sugar, colukutu, emblem, amamalu, and my favourite, the red banana which is so rich that it almost tastes like banana ice cream.
My main mission was to explore some of the ancient cities. Sigiriya is known as the 8th wonder of the world, built in the 5th century AD. Built onto one of the huge granite protrusions - its work rivals Egypt, Mexico and Peru for intricacy and mathematics. One can climb up to the top and explore the ancient swimming pools and thrones – where the king would sit and watch his harem of 500 women! Dambulla is a series of football field sized caves filled with Buddhist carvings, paintings, and statues dating back to 100BC. There is a 80meter long reclining Buddha, whose foot was the size of a small house. I made just a miniscule dent in all the ancient works to see, but was most impressed, and can’t wait to come back with my archaeologist mother.
Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is also famous for its tea plantations, (think English Breakfast) so I visited a factory to learn more. It takes 5 kilos of fresh leaves to make one kilo of tea in 24 hours, and this operation processes 10,000 kilos a day. Camilaya Sinenses is the plant, and the leaves are hand picked and then dryed, crushed 3 times, oxidized, and then fired at 100C for 21 minutes. Static electricity separates the stalks from the leaves, which are then used for fertilizer. Tea is then graded as the following: Orange Pekoe and Flower Pekow – light flavour to be served without milk or sugar; Broken Orange Pekoe – med flavour to be served with sugar; BOPF, or Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings – strong flavour to be used with sugar and milk. Silver Tips, or White tea, is not crushed, since only new unfurled leaves are hand picked and not fired. Green Tea is the same as black tea, but not fermented.
Ok, this story is getting long, so I’ll wrap up. I finished by doing the corny elephant thang. I couldn’t resist getting some photos for my nieces and nephews! I rolled up my pants at the elephant clinic and washed Mala the elephant in the river. She even sprayed me with her trunk to help out. Did you know that elephants are really hairy? Course black stuff that is quite long. The mahout, or handler, would stand by to help out and give commands while I went for a short ride with only a blank on top and no rope. I then fed her some papaya as a thank you. My way to the airport from there would take me on a picturesque train journey to the classic Sri Lankan bus with over 100 people. Now I’m in Frankfurt Germany, on my way to Austria to test and design women skis for Head!
Again we had a driver who aspires to be Mario Andretti, hurtling yet another Toyota mini van with more miles than one would ever wish to see on a vehicle, along the tiny mountain bike paths they affectionately call “roads”. It actually gives me a new outlook on India, making it appear quite organized and modern, which is quite a frightening thought. One could write a book on how blinkers are used in each country around the world – in Sri Lanka the passenger blinker of the vehicle in front of you indicates that it is clear to pass ahead on blind corners. Vehicles use the driver side blinker to indicate danger or to let people know that the road is too narrow to fit your car ahead. Most roads in rural areas will only accommodate one car, which make for some exciting driving especially on the steep mountain switch backs.
Women are now everywhere, out in the streets and markets, as we have left the Muslim areas of the East. I had forgotten how much I missed their presence, vitality, color and smiles. Often times when I see hundreds of them together, there is a sweatshop nearby, and I cringe at the thought of America’s obsession with inexpensive clothing. An average good wage in this country is about 150 rupees a day, or about $1.50 US. I had the awful feeling that most women make far less.
Religion is quite interesting here, although predominately a Buddhist country, most folks practice quite a mix of several religions at once. I spent long hours talking with Sabrina Dharma Rubesinghe, a 76 year old woman running her son’s home as a guest house. Baptized Christian, she abides by Buddha’s words, knows the bible by heart and is now reading the Koran. She is finding the Muslim religion and teachings more thorough and detailed than other religions, bringing her closer to god and nirvana. Most people I have met here have similar stories.
My investigation into the essence of this country has driven me to find out more about its major economic crops – gemstones, tea, and spices. First stop was a gem factory, where workers mine and then grind stones into gems. For some reason I had always thought that stones were carefully fractured like arrowheads into gems, but the process involves intricate grinding one facet at a time. The transformation is a slow process with fractional turning every few seconds, changing grinding wheels every few minutes from course to fine, finishing with a copper polish grind. Any one wishing to get engaged should come here – you can watch your stone being mined, ground, and then pick your setting and pick it up the next day. Red saphires (rubys), blue and white sapphires, all colours of topaz, aquamarine, moonstones, and emeralds are significant exports. Precious stones are 8.5 density or harder, while semi precious are 6-8.5.
Next stop was a spice plantation. I could have written a book on what I learned, but here are some highlights: tumeric is a root that stimulates collagen growth, good health and kills bacteria; hibiscus promotes healthy lungs, aids digestion, good sleeping, and less snoring; the exquisite vanilla orchid must be hand pollinated, is full of natural cyanide which is removed by steaming; cinnamon is made from four layers of bark and is helpful for osteoporosis, arthritis, and a natural antioxidant; chocolate fixes dark moods and minds, also had cyanide in the small seed which is removed, the fruit is graded by color – pink is the highest, brown second, and black the lowest quality. The shape of the fruit pod is thought to be the inspiration for the coke bottle. The pepper plant is a winding jack in the beanstalk type vine, often growing up other trees for many meters. The green pepper fruit ripens to red, is black when dried in the sun, and white with its skin removed. Ginger root stimulates the immune system while coriander and ginger make a great antibiotic tonic, vocal chord stimulator and increases hormones for barren women. Nutmeg fruit, when broken open, had a lady bug like seed. The red part of the skin produces mace, while the actual seed is ground into nutmeg.
I also stopped to investigate bananas – there are six types here. Lemon, sugar, colukutu, emblem, amamalu, and my favourite, the red banana which is so rich that it almost tastes like banana ice cream.
My main mission was to explore some of the ancient cities. Sigiriya is known as the 8th wonder of the world, built in the 5th century AD. Built onto one of the huge granite protrusions - its work rivals Egypt, Mexico and Peru for intricacy and mathematics. One can climb up to the top and explore the ancient swimming pools and thrones – where the king would sit and watch his harem of 500 women! Dambulla is a series of football field sized caves filled with Buddhist carvings, paintings, and statues dating back to 100BC. There is a 80meter long reclining Buddha, whose foot was the size of a small house. I made just a miniscule dent in all the ancient works to see, but was most impressed, and can’t wait to come back with my archaeologist mother.
Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is also famous for its tea plantations, (think English Breakfast) so I visited a factory to learn more. It takes 5 kilos of fresh leaves to make one kilo of tea in 24 hours, and this operation processes 10,000 kilos a day. Camilaya Sinenses is the plant, and the leaves are hand picked and then dryed, crushed 3 times, oxidized, and then fired at 100C for 21 minutes. Static electricity separates the stalks from the leaves, which are then used for fertilizer. Tea is then graded as the following: Orange Pekoe and Flower Pekow – light flavour to be served without milk or sugar; Broken Orange Pekoe – med flavour to be served with sugar; BOPF, or Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings – strong flavour to be used with sugar and milk. Silver Tips, or White tea, is not crushed, since only new unfurled leaves are hand picked and not fired. Green Tea is the same as black tea, but not fermented.
Ok, this story is getting long, so I’ll wrap up. I finished by doing the corny elephant thang. I couldn’t resist getting some photos for my nieces and nephews! I rolled up my pants at the elephant clinic and washed Mala the elephant in the river. She even sprayed me with her trunk to help out. Did you know that elephants are really hairy? Course black stuff that is quite long. The mahout, or handler, would stand by to help out and give commands while I went for a short ride with only a blank on top and no rope. I then fed her some papaya as a thank you. My way to the airport from there would take me on a picturesque train journey to the classic Sri Lankan bus with over 100 people. Now I’m in Frankfurt Germany, on my way to Austria to test and design women skis for Head!
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