Sri Lanka Essence

Essence

Despite its fame as a resplendent island and a leading tourist destination, the secret of Sri Lanka’s attraction lies with its people. The spice addicted, cricket crazy and tea drinking people of Sri Lanka are famed for big smiles and a bigger heart. With a culture enriched with three thousand years of knowledge, Buddhism and many a colonial traditions, the Sri Lankan society is a potpourri of religions and races different yet similar in many a ways. The Sri Lankans all love their food spicy and their tea light; an unavoidable for a country, which produces the world’s best spices and tea. Introduced to the country in the 19th century by colonial British Ceylon tea is the best tea in the world while Sri Lanka has also been known for its high quality spices since time immemorial. In Sri Lanka, cricket is the ultimate passion which draws all the Sri Lankans together irrespective of caste, race and creed. Other than tea and cricket, gems especially blue sapphires is synonymous with Sri Lanka. Country’s gem industry has a long, colourful history. Known also as ‘Rathnadeepa’ or the land of gems Sri Lanka had been producing brilliant blue Sapphire and red rubies among many other. Along with gems, Sri Lanka had been exporting fine crafted ivory to many royal courts of Europe. Many dainty treasures carved by local artists in ivory are found in the museum in Europe standing witness to the local skills, which is still found after being handed over father to son.

Spices

Sri Lanka’s spices have been its main attraction for thousands of years. The Romans, Arabs and the western world traded with Sri Lanka in the bygone years. Today it remains one of the foremost exporters of quality spice across the world.The island’s dominance in the spice world is reflected in the fact that both cinnamon and cardamom are native to Sri Lanka and the country is also a major supplier of pepper, cloves, nutmeg and mace. Sri Lanka supplies almost 90 percent of the world’s cinnamon - between 7,500 to10,000 tonnes annually. A number of therapeutic spice gardens are found on the routes into Kandy from Colombo, and many offer multi-lingual garden tours. Here you can view and sample not just spices but a range of produce from vanilla and cocoa pods, curry leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and sandalwood, red bananas, sea coconut and king coconut, coffee beans, aloe vera, and much more, ‘in the wild

Tea

Tea production is one of the main sources of foreign exchange for Sri Lanka (formerly called Ceylon), and accounts for 2% of GDP, generating roughly $700 million annually to the economy of Sri Lanka. It employs, directly or indirectly over 1 million people, and in 1995 directly employed 215,338 on tea plantations and estates. Sri Lanka is the world's fourth largest producer of tea. In 1995, it was the world's leading exporter of tea, (rather than producer) with 23% of the total world export, but it has since been surpassed by Kenya. The humidity, cool temperatures, and rainfall in the country's central highlands provide a climate that favors the production of high quality tea. The industry was introduced to the country in 1847 by James Taylor, the British planter who arrived in 1852

Traditional Craftsmanship

Sri Lanka’s age-old culture is one seeped in traditional arts and craft. In modern day Sri Lanka, these traditions live on. Batik – Adapted from the Indonesian classic art, Batik gained elitist status in medieval Sri Lank, featuring prominently in the Kandyan Court in the form of banners, wall hangings and the ceremonial dress of the nobility. Today most batiks artists are located in the Western province, Colombo in particular. Some young and enterprising designers have taken the art-form to high fashion featuring their exclusive creations in the global fashion ramps. Handloom Weaving – Historically, hand-loom weaving has its roots in the Kandyan region, principally in the production of robes for the Buddhist monks. Today, the art is practices mainly in the central province and with the encouragement of the Government, modern accessories like curtains, furnishing materials, linens and dress fabrics are produced to the highest international standards.

Batik

Over the past century the Indonesian art of batik making has become firmly established in Sri Lanka. The Batik industry in Sri Lanka is a small scale industry which can employ individual design talent and creativity. Its economic benefit is profit from dealing with foreign customers. It is now the most visible of the island's crafts with galleries and factories, large and small, having sprung up in many tourist areas. Rows of small stalls selling batiks can be found all along Hikkaduwa's Galle Road strip. Mahawewa, on the other hand, is famous for its batik factories.

Handloom

Sri Lanka's Handloom Textile Industry is centuries old. The industry has helped showcase the undying creativity of generations of Sri Lankans taking them to the international arena. A range of designs and colours, individual and innovative designs, craftsmanship, colour combination and patterns are handed down from generation to generation.

Pottery

Pottery in Sri Lanka Pottery is one of the oldest handicrafts in Sri Lanka. The primarily utilitarian character of Sri Lankan pottery has been continuing to exist since the very beginning of Aryan Sinhalese civilization of Sri Lanka. The simplicity of ornamentation and charm of the elegance of pottery have held fast in the island for more than a couple of millenniums and a half in Sri Lanka. Low fired cooking pots, cooking pans, jugs, bowls, goblets, tiles, vases, are the most widely used kitchen utensils of Sri Lanka. In addition to the kitchen pots and pans, intricately designed products such as terracotta figures and carved vases too are popular in Sri Lanka. Ornaments such as figurines and delightful animals with distinctly Sinhalese characteristics are also produced at the pottery workshops in the countryside

Lace making 

began in the South-western coastal areas, especially around Galle. Lace making was practiced by the Dutch ladies during the Dutch colonial era too. Subsequently Sinhalese ladies caught on Lace making and established a handicraft in south western coastal belt of Sri Lanka. 

During the 19th century, when Galle sea-port was in its heyday, lace products of the South-western coastal belt arose to outstanding heights in popularity. Today lace making is continued mainly by the Sinhalese ladies who inherited the handicraft from their ancestors. Along Galle, Weligama coastal areas the ladies are seen engaged in lace making-crochet and tatting-in the verandahs of their houses.

Gems

What do the Queen of Sheba, the famous Caliph of Baghdad, Haroun al-Raschid, the Duchess of Windsor, Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana all have in common?  They are just some of the famous names fortunate enough to have owned exquisite gemstones mined in Sri Lanka. 

Fortunately for lovers of some of the world’s finest gems, the soil of Sri Lanka produces a seemingly endless supply of these precious stones.  And just as reassuringly, Sri Lanka also has skilled jewellers who produce jewellery that meets the standards of the world’s top jewellery houses.

Sri Lanka is renowned for producing the finest and largest blue sapphires in the world, and also has the biggest variety of gems in the world, with 40 out of the 85 gemstones in existence found on the island. With the greatest concentration of gems on earth, Sri Lanka is ranked amongst the top 5 gem producing nations. Much of the country’s surface contains gemstone minerals ranging from Blue and Yellow Sapphires, Star Rubies and Star Sapphires, Pathparaja, Topaz, Amethyst, Garnet, Aquamarine, Moonstone, Alexandrites and Cat’s Eyes to name a few.

Cricket

A grand national passion, cricket is played on every available pitch across the length and breadth of Sri Lanka. Visitors are often amazed at how both the young and old, irrespective of gender are obsessed with this national pre-occupation. This small island nation boasts of 9 international-class  cricket grounds, 2 of which lie in the shadows of stunning World Heritage Sites.