sri-lanka-13-full-pdf-ebook.pdf

Jaffna & the

n

o

rth

Jaffna & the

n

o

rth

g

eT

TIN

g

Arou

N

D

Jaffna & the

n

o

rth

Jaffna Pen

In

S

u

la

good condition. scooters cost rs 1500 per day
(excluding petrol); a car with driver around rs
6000 per day. Most guesthouses and hotels can
arrange bike and car hire.

8 Getting Around

Jaffna is not a large city and the central area is
easily explored on foot or by bicycle (rs 250 per
day from guesthouses).
f ew travellers bother with city buses (rs 8) but
you can take bus 769 for the Chundukuli district
or bus 750 for the nallur via Point Pedro Rd. Bus-
es are much safer – in terms of both groping and
theft – and less crowded than minibuses.
Three-wheelers are very common and cost rs
150 to 250 for most trips. At night, locals recom-
mend calling one (or having someone call one for
you) for security reasons. recommended drivers
include Baskar (%077 921 8122) and Suman
(%077 079 0317).

Jaffna Peninsula

% 021
Once you get beyond Jaffna’s already rustic
outer boroughs, you’re plunged into fields
of palmyra palms, technicolor temples, holy
springs and miles of coastline. Few of the
sights are individually outstanding, but to-
gether they make an interesting day trip or
two, especially if you hire your own transport.
There’s a distinctly eerie vibe to much of
the peninsula, which was fought over for
decades during the war. You’ll pass shelled
buildings and long-abandoned houses left
roofless, with nature reclaiming the terrain
as trees, roots and shoots overwhelm the ru-
ins. Unexploded ordnance has been cleared
from most parts, but some undoubtedly re-
mains and you’ll pass (marked) minefields
on many roads. Never stray from roads and
tracks, and avoid deserted beaches too.

To the North Coast &

Keerimalai Spring

Though a lot of the surrounding area is a mil-
itary zone and off limits, the road to Keerima-
lai spring is open. Kankesanturai (KKS), its
endpoint, however, is still restricted. For bus
details see popposite.
From Jaffna, it’s a straight road north to the
small town of Chunnakam, from where there’s
a 3km squiggle of lanes leading west to the
beautiful and mysterious Kantarodai Ruins
(h8.30am-5pm). Two dozen or so dagobas, 1m
to 2m in height, in a palm-fringed field, their
origins are the subject of fierce controversy:
part of the raging ‘who was here first?’ histor-

ical debate. Originally flat-topped and low to

the ground, the stone structures were built

upon by Sri Lanka’s Department of Archae-

ology in 1978 – some say to restore the orig-

inal dagoba shape that the ancient Buddhist

community here had created; others say to

impose a Buddhist history on an ancient cul-

ture that had its own set of traditions (maybe

for burials). It’s hardly a mind-blowing vista,

especially as it’s all behind a wire fence, but

the structures are quite otherworldly-looking.

Beside the KKS road at the 13 Km marker

and close to the ‘new’ village of Tellippalai,

the vast Thurkkai Amman Kovil (h5.30am-

7pm, closed 1-3pm some days) is set behind a fair-

ly deep, stepped pool. The temple celebrates

the goddess Durga and draws relatively large

crowds, of women especially, on Tuesdays

and Fridays, when devotees pray for a good

spouse. Puja is at 8am, 11am, noon and 4pm,

and the priests are welcoming. The temple

also runs an orphanage for 150 kids.

East of here lies the vast Palali KKS

Military Camp, one of Sri Lanka’s largest

and perhaps most controversial High Securi-

ty Zones. This zone is also the site of Jaffna’s

Palali Airport. Between 1983 and 1993, the

entire population (more than 25,000 fam-

ilies) was evicted from 58.5 sq km of prime

agricultural land. Everything within the zone

was either destroyed or converted for mil-

itary use. Since the war, the SLA has been

returning small tracts of lands back to their

owners, though some local families have been

reluctant to move back.

There’s no access to KKS and the Keerima-

lai spring via the main highway, so you’ll have

to loop around via some country lanes to the

west and then back east again. The route is

well signposted. Located right at the main

turnoff on the highway, Maviddapuram

Kanthaswamy Kovil survived bombings

and looting in the war and is now flourish-

ing again. The priests here are very friendly

and will probably do a puja for you if you like

(otherwise, it’s at 11.30am).

Just before the spring is the 6th-century-

BC Naguleswaram Shiva Kovil, one of the

pancha ishwaram, five temples dedicated to

Lord Shiva in Sri Lanka. Before the civil war,

this was a thriving Hindu pilgrimage site with

several temples and six madham (rest homes

for pilgrims) and samadhi shrines for holy

men. Only traces of the original buildings

survived, and the temple was bombed by the

army in 1990.

But since 2011 there’s been a lot of recon-

struction with support from the All Ceylon