Elephant complex : travels in Sri Lanka
/ John Gimlette
- New York : Alfred A. Knopf , 2016
- 399 p. : illus. ; 25 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index
Colombo Jumbo -- All Quiet Among the Reservoir Giants -- The Cinnamon Forts -- A State of Perpetual Vacation -- The Garden in the Sky -- Kandy -- Land of Hope and Tea -- The Wild East -- Trinco, Trinco, Little Star -- Multi-barrel Love Enforcer -- The Jaffna Peninsula -- The Shoes on the Shore -- Green As Ever.
An eye-opening journey through Sri Lanka that, in the author's inimitable mixture of history, observation, and interpretation, reveals the island nation to us as never before. John Gimlette takes us from Sri Lanka's exuberant capital city of Colombo to the dry interior where more than 5,300 wild elephants congregate around its ancient reservoirs; from the Portuguese-built forts of cinnamon country to the tsunami-ravaged south-east; from the tea plantations of the highlands and the Shangri-la-ish city of Kandy to the desiccated Jaffna Peninsula in the north. He examines Sri Lanka's colonial history (Portuguese, British, Dutch and Arab); the centuries-old strife between Sinhalese and Tamils; and the most recent civil war, which lasted from 1983 to 2009. He describes his encounters with world-class cricketers, terrorists, a former president, ancient tribesmen, British expats, survivors of the civil war massacres, and with the island's amazing flora and fauna, including the world's greatest concentration of leopards. He discovers a place of both extravagant beauty and profound devastation, a place capable of being both heavenly and hellish at the same time, and succeeds in bringing it to vibrant, fascinating life on the page.