Beautiful things to see during a Sri Lankan holiday

Any visitor to Sri Lanka is bound to be rewarded in his or her quest to discover beauty.

Sri Lanka has one of the highest concentrations of palaces, temples, stupas, royal baths, tanks and reservoirs in Asia. Each one of these treasures bear testimony to the multiple interactions between religiosity, architectural prowess, craftsmanship and hard labour.

Each visit to any of the monuments in Sri Lanka is an encounter with the minds that conceived artistic dreams, the hands that crafted beauties and pilgrims that still visit these sacred grounds.

The visitor is enthralled by the religious fervour that characterises the prayer gatherings, the sounds of high-pitched celestial music, the quietness of still water in the ponds, the believers draped in white garments, the rustle of the sacred Bodhi tree leaves and the chatter of ever-present monkeys.

Whether you set foot inside in the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, admire the frescoes on the rock face at Sigiriya, gaze at the subtle yet impressive statues of Polunnaruwa, partake in an offering at the Hindu temple in Nallur, marvel at the collection of the statues at the Colombo National Museum, you are bound to be struck with awe at the humility of workmen who never cared to sign their names, the astuteness of early-day urban planners and the unstinted support offered by the kings that ruled Sri Lanka.

A journey to Sri Lanka is a rendez-vous with its history.