In and around Kandy

Ever since I discovered the Garrison Cemetery about 10 years ago, I have been dropping by and taking friends there on every visit to Kandy. While the adjoining Temple of the Tooth is swarming with visitors, the Garrison Cemetery remains an oasis of tranquility. Perhaps the main attraction is the caretaker Charles Carmichael, who knows the background of most graves and will provide a guided tour by request. His commentary is in impeccable English. He will show and describe the grave where five children belonging to one family are buried, the grave of the foolish Englishman who was determined ti walk from Trincomalee to Kandy (and reached Kandy only to die, having contracted malaria on the way), and that of the five soldiers who died in the morning and were buried by noon because they had contracted cholera. Every grave speaks of the hardships suffered by the pioneering Englishmen and women in attempting to administer a country that was thoroughly alien to them. Most burials are from the 1980s and the last burial took place in 1950, of a descendant of someone buried here earlier. All the gravestones made of marble were shipped from England.

Charles has a background similar to mine. His grandfather was a Scottish planter (mine was English) and his grandmother was Tamil (of "fair skin"), he says. My grandmother was Sinhalese. Charles works at the cemetery seven days a week.   I worry about him because, on each visit, he looks even more frailer. 

Here's the BBC on Garrison Cemetery: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14984188

Miho at the Kandy Lake.





My cousin Heather and her friend Gabriel were visiting from Brisbane.





The Samaranayake family, engrossed in Charles' commentary.


This was the perahera season in Kandy, during which a long procession consisting of elaborately decorated elephants (they could number up to 100 on some nights), along with dancers and other performers parade the streets of Kandy for seven nights and a day. Heather and Gabriel paid Rs. 7,000/ each  for a ringside seat at the Queen's Hotel to watch the procession. But the 4 hour spectacle left them rather disillusioned, mainly because of the crowds and the kerosene fumes from the torch bearers. 


Elephants are brought from all over Sri Lanka to Kandy to take part in the perahera. Because tuskers are rare in Sri Lanka, they are now imported from India. One such tusker is seen below. 

For a fee, the mahouts would escort children as they crept under the belly of the elephant. This is supposed to bring luck. The two samaranayake chikdren, Dinal and Himashi, took the plunge.