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Published: January 13th 2006
My students
Nora, Allegra, Somala, and Laura at the elephant orphanage.Another leap forward in my evolution as a tour guide: when people ask what time breakfast will be served or what time the bus will come, I no longer instinctively look over my shoulder.
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Two years ago my daughter, Laura, and I met in London for a late Christmas celebration. While there I contacted Udaya Medagamma, a professor of ancient Indian languages visiting the University of London from Peradeniya University. I mentioned my plan to bring a group of students to Peradeniya to study culture and biology and he jumped at the chance to participate. On Tuesday he showed up at our bungalow with a troop of Kandyian dancers and musicians. Normally these guys perform at big festivals or in the Cultural Center auditorium in downtown Kandy, but thanks to Udaya's influence (and a little baksheesh) they agreed to give us a private show. They first built a weird altar on our verandah that featured a voodoo doll made out of mud from our front yard. For the next several hours we witnessed devil dances and exorcism rituals. We listened to dueling drums that would rival any modern rock drumming, and watched men in elaborate costumes bathe their
Dueling drums
Kandyian drummers on our verandah. Note weird altar in the background. bodies with flaming torches as they danced.
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The next day we moved to a hotel 90 km north of Peradeniya. After lunch we climbed into two jeeps and went roaring into Mineriya National Park in search of wild elephants. It was raining so furiously hard that the splashes made by drops hitting the road looked like a vast army of tiny marching soldiers. Our jeep's leaky canvas top was apparently meant only to suggest shelter. The jeep plunged into mud puddles, forded swift streams, and fishtailed in the mud. It was fun.
During the drive we saw birds that would make my bird watching friends groan with the unfairness that such exotic species were falling on such uneducated eyes. We saw the branches of a fallen tree move through the high grass and realized the "branches" were actually the antlers of giant elks called sambhur. A herd of white spotted dear crossed our path. We saw a wild pig and a wild dog that no one could identify. At dusk a park ranger flagged us down, climbed onto the back of our jeep and ordered us down a narrow muddy lane where an elephant had just
flame massage
Kandyian dancer playing with fire. been spotted. Without luck I strained my eyes as far as I could to see the beast, then realized the damn thing was standing in the tall grass about six feet away!
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Tonight Professor Premasiri and his wife will be our dinner guests at the Bungalow. He gave a lecture on Buddhist philosophy last week that was so wildly popular that I had to ask him to dinner because we didn’t have enough time after the lecture to get everyone’s questions answered. I have also added last minute lectures on how to play Cricket and how to put on a sari. This afternoon my gemologist is taking everyone shopping for gems after his lecture. (I have had to modify things slightly because seven of the eight students are females. While they’re gem shopping I’m in a dank Internet café writing this entry.)
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Sally Lemee
non-member comment
I'm envious
Hi Jon, have been enjoying your blogs greatly. I'm jealous that you get to see all this wonderful culture -- especially the wild life (and wild life dancers) and this poor slob has to work for the state....ha. . Talk to you when you get back about a possible teaching opportunity. Do you know Postgress? Continue on with good stories. Be safe, Sally