It sounds like an oxymoron, but it is starting to smell that way. The controversy over destruction of a mosque near the Golden Temple of Dambulla—a Buddhist cave-temple in central Sri Lanka which has been a pilgrimage destination since the third century, and is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site—bears echoes of the 1992 destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India, which ultimately led to the Gujarat genocide. This May 2 report by Sudha Ramachandran for Asia Times (interspersed with our annotation) is pretty chilling:

Sri Lankan monks join rampaging mob

BANGALORE - Sri Lanka's Muslim community is insecure and angry.

A mosque in the central town of Dambulla was attacked with petrol bombs and vandalized around 10 days ago by a mob led by radical Buddhist monks. To add insult to injury, the government has bowed to the mob's demand and ordered the mosque's demolition and relocation.

Sri Lanka, Buddhist destruction of a mosque halted

Melani Manel Perera; Asia News; April 26 2012

For days, monks and lay Buddhists have called for the demolition of a Hindu temple and a mosque built in the sacred area of Dambulla. According to the followers of Buddha, the places of worship were built illegally. Criticism from the Catholic, Muslim and Hindu world: "An insult to all Buddhists in the country." Golden Temple, Unesco World Heritage Site and one of the major Buddhist temples in the world also located in the area.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - The mosque and the Hindu temple of Dambulla that arise in the sacred can not be destroyed the Minister for the Territory, Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, announced today in an attempt to quell the violent protests involving Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus, and likely to create tensions in Sri Lanka. It all started last April 20 when nearly two thousand Buddhists - monks and lay people - attacked the mosque, interrupting the Friday prayer. Throwing rocks and chanting slogans, the protesters claimed that the area of Dambulla is sacred to Buddhism, and can not tolerate religious activities of other faiths.

In an attempt to quell the protests, on April 23 the Sri Lankan Minister of Religious Affairs announced the demolition of the mosque and Hindu temple, in order to make the area "sacred city" within the next six months. The Venerable Nayaka Thero Inaamaluwe Sri Sumangala, the Monk who leads the Golden Temple of Dambulla, welcomed "with satisfaction" the first move by the government. According to the bonze, in fact, for millennia the area belongs to the Buddhists, and Muslims and Hindus constructed their buildings for worship illegally. The Muslims of the area, however, claim that the mosque was built on a regular basis, 50 years before the area was proclaimed a holy place.

Geringer Global Travel Introduces Enchanting Sri Lanka

PR Log; April 24 2012

Westport, CT – Geringer Global Travel has introduced a 13-day itinerary to Sri Lanka, a teardrop-shaped island in the Indian Ocean laden with lush tropical forests, verdant mountains full of tea gardens, coconut fringed beaches, abundant wildlife, and breathtaking landscapes. Whether you’re on an elephant back safari in Habarana, discovering one of Sri Lanka’s vast UNESCO World Heritage Sites, sipping Ceylon tea at a plantation in Nuwara Eliya, or elephant sighting in Yala National Park, guests are sure to discover a handful of unexpected treasures offering insight into Sri Lanka’s Buddhist heritage. Enchanting Sri Lanka starts at $2,225 per person, double and includes four-star accommodations in Anuradhapura, Habarana, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Yala, and Galle. Geringer Global Travel also offers a five-star package starting at $2,935 per person, double.*

The journey begins in Anuradhapura, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and undoubtedly the grandest city of ancient Sri Lanka. During the first two days, guests will visit some of Sri Lanka’s oldest Buddhist shrines in Anuradhapura and Mihintale, a mountain park believed to be the meeting site where Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC. En route to Habarana the next day, guests will climb to one of Sri Lanka’s eight World Heritage Sites, Sigiriya Rock Fortress, and embark on a trekking tour at Hiriwadunna local village after lunch with a local family. On day four guests will head to Polonnaruwa, the medieval capital of Sri Lanka, to visit a wood carving factory followed by an afternoon elephant safari at the Chena Cultivation.

On day five, guests will head to Kandy for an afternoon of sightseeing that includes the Tooth Relic Buddha Temple and a cultural dance show. Along the way, guests will visit: Dambulla Rock Cave Temple, a World Heritage Site; Dambulla market, the largest vegetable and fruit market in Sri Lanka; and the spice gardens and batik factory in Matale. The next day guests will have an unforgettable adventure at the renowned Pinnawela elephant orphanage, an orphanage, nursery and breeding ground known for having the largest herd of captive elephants in the world, followed by a visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya for a first-hand introduction to the trees and plants that produce the special spices of Sri Lanka.

Long lunches and practical jokes in Sigiriya

Travel Life Magazine; March 29 2012

Hello from a luxury hotel in the middle of a jungle and a lake, with monkeys just outside my window. It's been another really fun day here in Sri Lanka for us, beginning with a long drive, a lunch full of (again) philosophical conversations, a visit to the Dambulla caves at twilight, and a complete success of a practical joke.

PERFECT SETTING FOR LUNCH

We'd started from Colombo mid-morning and it had taken us a good 4.5 hours to get to Sigiriya, to have lunch at The Elephant Corridor, perhaps the best boutique hotel in the Sigiriya area. The idea of this pretty comfy design hotel in the middle of nowhere was quite amazing, and the glassed-in restaurant on the second floor provided a very nice view from afar of Sigiriya. The perfect setting for lunch and we had the place to ourselves.

A Chinese lunch and a Pakistani dinner

Travel Life Magazine; March 23 2012

Tonight I went over to the beautiful residence of the Ambassador of Pakistan in South Forbes as he had a party to celebrate Pakistan's National Day. It was a very nice celebration, as well as an opportunity to catch up with some old friends and meet a couple of new ones.

There were a couple of European ambassadors around and the talk somehow led to the recent visit to Manila of H.E. Karel Schwarzenberg, the Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic. He's led a very interesting life that included an amazing childhood and a privileged existence, as well as some difficulties during the dark days of the totalitarian regime in the Czech Republic.

DISTINGUISHED LINEAGE

Sri Lanka: Spice Island

By Lauraine Jacobs; New Zealand Heralds; January 26 2012

The market was jam-packed. A tuk-tuk overloaded with huge bunches of green bananas almost ran over my foot, knocking me off balance. Intense aromas and stenches invaded all our senses. Bicycles and the tiny motorised carts vied with jostling shoppers and merchants for space in the frenetic and frantic Pettah bazaar in the heart of Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital and centre of commerce.

On either side of the narrow alleys, market stalls were filled with piles of coconuts, bananas, jackfruits, okra, shallots, wing beans and string beans, eggplants, papayas, mangoes and - a surprise to me - a wealth of English vegetables, a hangover from colonial days.

Among these immense stacks of fruit and vegetables, sacks of rice, bags of spices, weeping packs of pungent tamarind and boxes of smelly savoury dried fish, our group of seven tourists and guide stood out like aliens.

World Cup The Focus In Leisurely Tri-Series

Daily Times; August 9 2010

COLOMBO: In its dual role as commercial hub of the North Central Province and site of the holy Golden Cave Temple, a UNESCO world heritage monument, Dambulla has long attracted a varied set of visitors. In 2010, the town seems out to add aficionados of the one-day game to that bunch, laying out 14 ODIs for them in fewer than three months, a feast even Sharjah didn’t offer during its salad days as a cricketing venue.

The tickets are cheap, the weather is reasonable, and the pitch isn’t one of those featherbeds which make bowlers despair over their choice of career, but bussed-in school kids made up a chunk of the sparse crowd during the Asia Cup in June, and things aren’t likely to be too different for the upcoming tri-series.

The players involved won’t be bothered by that, though. The teams will be using the tournament to figure out their combinations for next year’s World Cup in the subcontinent. India and Sri Lanka had talked of building up to cricket’s showpiece tournament during the Asia Cup but could not zero in on a settled batting order. The tri-series will be New Zealand’s first one-day tournament in five months, and gives several of their newcomers a chance to test themselves in conditions alien to those at home. For what it’s worth, the tri-series could also cause a major reshuffling in the one-day rankings. Australia are runaway leaders with a 14-point lead, but the next five teams are separated by only seven points. India are second, but that spot could be taken by either New Zealand (now fourth) or Sri Lanka (now sixth) by the end of the tournament.

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