S/V Mojombo: Gary: Sri Lanka

A signature Sri Lankan animal – the hooded cobra. They really hiss too! Sri Lanka has something like 87 snake species, and many are highly venemous. The nation suffers more deaths from snake bite, per capita, than any other. And yes this photo was taken with our camera.

We always make an effort to understand something of the countries we visit, even if it is a very superficial appreciation. National characters, if indeed they exist at all, are neccesarily complex. And never more so than with Sri Lanka – the most amazingly complex country we’ve ever visited.

A trivial but perhaps insightful example of us getting acquainted with Sri Lanka grew out of three simple tasks I needed to do while in the Port of Galle, viz:

take our old 4hp Mercury to an outboard mechanic for repairs
take an even older hand cranked Singer to a sewing machine mechanic for repairs
take some plastic jerry cans out to the local servo for refilling with diesel fuel.

The Port of Galle from Mojombo’s deck.
It’s a busy working port.

The port is under the control of various arms of the Sri Lankan bureaucracy including (but certainly not limited to) the navy, police, customs, harbour master and port security service. Visiting yachts require an agent to negotiate its minefield like complexity.

To undertake my three tasks our agent first prepared a letter (shown below), which he circulated for approval with four separate government departments in the port. The outboard, sewing machine and jerries, along with the letter, then had to be thoroughly scrutinized and discussed by all parties while departing and later returning to the port. To expedite matters eight copies of the letter were handed out to the various officials, including the two sequential boom gates, manned by seperate departments at the port entrance.

The letter, signed by four government departments, authorizing me to take an old outboard, sewing machine and plastic containers out of the Port of Galle.

The goods aboard our agents vehicle, returning to the port with me
in the cab clutching spare a copy of the letter. Our agent has
stepped out the cab to negotiate with boom gate staff.

This whole process could however have been easily short cut had I chosen a different path. Payment of a small bribe or two to the right officials would have truncated the process to minutes instead of days. It’s mind boggling wondering how a country can function when saddled with such a heavy, lazy, complex, inept and corrupt civil service. But deeper insights yet were available.

One of the reasons for the Galle bureaucracy’s preoccupation with port security (and its fatness and laziness) is that it is only a few short years since the country emerged from a long and bloody civil war – when it really needed lots of tight security at its ports. This war was fought between the dominant Sinhalese and a group of militant Tamils in the north, very roughly characterized as follows:

Sinhalese make up 74% of the nation’s population, consider themselves ‘native’ Sri Lankans, are primarily Budhists, speak Sinhala, and first arrived from northern India about 500BC.
Tamils make up 18% of the population, are Hindus, speak the Tamil language, and arrived from southern India right through from prehistoric times to the English tea plantation era, when large numbers were brought in as field labourers.

While officially the war started in 1983 and ended in 2009, it is a conflict that has its roots buried in literally thousands of years of history, migration and conflict with its closest neighbour, India. Each side in the war claims underdog status and dreadful atrocities litter both camps. Many consider it will be close to a miracle if a lasting peace emerges. The pot was well stirred during the colonial era, which drew to a close in 1948, leaving among other things the legacy of a huge tea industry, the world’s largest (and best known!), and by far the country’s biggest export earner – but equally an industry dominated by issues of equity, caste and ethnicity.

The tea plantations back then were large land holdings spreading across the country’s best, most fertile soils. They were largely owned and managed by companies and individuals from England. They, along with the large rubber and coconut plantations had been created through the massive displacement of Sinhalese rural peasants – leaving a miasma of simmering discontent. To address the issue during the 1970s the government nationalized the big estates, redistributing the land from some while managing others as government cooperatives. This wonderful socialist experiment predictably failed, and much of the industry has subsequently been returned to private ownership following the collapse of tea yields, quality and market share (and hence export earnings).

Morning mist hangs over a highland tea plantation

Top left: Tamil tea pluckers hard at work. Bottom right: the pucker sahib ‘Hill Club’ in Nuwara Eliya, where the colonial ‘planters’ spent many a pleasant evening.

The socialist leanings of the country - Sri Lanka is officially known as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka - also does much to further account for the enormous, unproductive civil service. Being pathetically paid (the service is too large to be otherwise), civil servants frequently feel forced to resort to corruption, and are often just following the example of their political masters. The seeds of this corruption have sewn themselves deep into Sri Lankan society creating a citizenry that often seems tightly focused on whatever advantages they can accrue to themselves and their direct dependents, especially when dealing with foreign tourists.

But if these impressions sound overly negative they sell the country way short. Sri Lanka is an amazing place.

People of Sri Lanka

It is fertile, lush, and green. The lowlands are steamy hot, the highlands refreshingly cool and mist shrouded. In places it is overflowing with wildlife. It is one of the few places left on the planet where you can still see a leopard in the wild – we did. Wild elephants roam its national parks, blue whales swim just off-shore. It’s a bird watchers paradise.

Wild elephants roaming in one of the nations excellent, seemingly well managed national parks

The amazing biodiversity of Sri Lanka

Steeped in ancient culture, the remains of magnificent ancient cities, some dating back well before the birth of Christ are on display at several UNESCO listed World Heritage Sites. Intact colonial architecture litters the country.

Spectacular Sigiriya – the Lion Rock. A 5th century fortress palace blending astonishing works of architecture, landscape architecture, engineering and art. A World Heritage Site.

Galle Fort: A largely intact colonial cityscape left by the Dutch and English – another World Heritage Site.

The country is awash with a colourful parade of humanity practicing a wide range of traditional pursuits, many little changed for hundreds of years: rice farmers, oxen drivers, smithies, tailors, fishermen, gem miners, and gem cutters and polishers.