Sri Lanka

An island that kept its threads

Sri Lanka holds one of the oldest living Buddhist traditions on earth, and beside it a forest-monk lineage that has kept to the trees for two thousand years. Around the temples are guilds of woodcarvers and a coastal craft of wax-and-dye cloth. In the hill towns, families still keep the old herbal medicine.

The island carries all of this lightly and in working order, well away from the resort coast it is better known for.

The island worth the journey

Kandy keeps the hill temples and the carving studios. Anuradhapura and the ancient cities hold the great stupas and bo trees. Sigiriya rises from the plain in rock and fresco. The tea hills climb cool and green inland, and Galle keeps its old walled town beside the sea.