September 29, 2024, 6:28 am | Read time: 3 minutes
For a long time, the touristy south of Sri Lanka had nothing in common with the embattled north. Intact nature, pristine beaches, colorful temples, and smiles that are slowly returning are now expected to attract visitors to the Jaffna peninsula.
Children run across the platform laughing; everything seems peaceful. This was not the case for a long time at the legendary Elephant Pass. Civil war raged in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. The Tamil Tigers in the north-east fought against the army in the south with the goal of independence, in vain. Today, the train route from Jaffna to Pallai runs through the once-contested bottleneck of the Elephant Pass between the Jaffna peninsula and the main island. And tourists are now coming too.
The market in Jaffna Town is overflowing with fruit, vegetables, spices, and lobsters. In between, stalls full of cell phones and tablets, as if people had to quickly catch up on what they had been missing for so long.
Only 300 kilometers separate the north from the popular beaches on the west and south coasts of Sri Lanka. Tourist infrastructure is intended to connect Jaffna to the lucrative vacation world. New hotels are being built. The only five-star hotel in Jaffna Town employed a gourmet chef from Germany for a while to train the local chefs. He continues to provide advice. “I wanted to support my fellow countrymen in their new beginnings,” says Singhalese-born Kingsley Paul. He ran the celebrity brasserie Bruegel in Cologne and now manages a hotel of the same chain in Sigiriya.
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Sri Lanka’s north – a natural paradise
Chefs in Sri Lanka’s fertile north need not worry about fresh ingredients. As a natural paradise, the peninsula is unbeatable anyway. Colonies of rare bird species populate the offshore islands. Pink flamingos, colorful storks, and cormorants stalk through the shallow lagoon on both sides of the dam that leads to the offshore Kayts Island. Karaitivu Island is also home to the beautiful Casuarina Beach. During the unrest, aid workers took a break there.
Although the rebel military cemetery has been leveled, the mines in the accessible areas have been removed, and many houses have been rebuilt, the war has left deep scars. For example, in the palatial library from 1933, which has been restored to all its snow-white splendor, but in which more than 100,000 books were burned. The red-and-white-striped Hindu temple Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil – the most important temple in the Northern Province – has remained intact.
Before Kingsley Paul goes to the market at 6 a.m., he enjoys the dawn on the balcony. Early morning mist shrouds the last ruins of the lagoon city of Jaffna. The 108 chants of praise to God, “Om Shri Shivaya Namah Om,” from the temple are heard behind the ringing bells of St. Francis Church. Today, the region can be described as a tropical island paradise.
The original of this article was published in 2017.