Seeing Ceylon

“Seeing Ceylonis” is the result of more than forty years of travel across the highways and byways of Ceylon, accompanied by the use of theodolite and tape. It primarily comprises legends and traditions passed down orally from one generation to another. These narratives elude detailed observational analysis but are regarded as true by a simple and conservative populace.

The field of surveying is among the least understood professions by the general public. However, it offers abundant opportunities for studying nature in its various forms, exploring and investigating remnants of ancient civilizations, and gathering folklore, legends, and the unpretentious thoughts of individuals who seek solace away from modern civilization.

These stories, collected in the course of my circuits, call to memory treks through forests—where the canopy of tree-tops shuts out sunlight, and the strange odours of herbs and leaves and rotting wood pervade everything; the sun-scorched plains—where soggy and sodden with sweat one traverses open chenas while heat-waves dance in the dazzling sunshine; up craggy mountains — where in a biting wind as a  cold as charity, one patiently waits the lifting of mist to make an observation. They call to mind many elderly “story-tellers” (many of them perhaps now dead), who can always be found among the forest dwellers, the village rustic and the temple recluse—provided one is prepared to lend a sympathetic ear to what they have to tell.