Culture & Living Traditions
Jaffna
Northern Province
The Tamil capital of the north, with its own food, its own architecture and a peninsula of islands, springs and kovils.
- How long
- 3 days is usually enough
- Best months
- December, January, February, March, April
Jaffna is not a side trip from the rest of Sri Lanka. It is a different place, with its own food, its own Tamil architecture and a pace that has nothing to do with the south.
Nallur Kandaswamy is the heart of it, and evening puja is the hour to be there. The Dutch fort is one of the largest in Asia and slowly being rebuilt. The public library, burned in 1981 and restored since, means more to this city than any monument.
The peninsula rewards the days most itineraries will not give it. Nainativu is a short boat crossing from Kurikadduwan, where Nagapooshani Amman — one of the Shakti Peethams — and the Buddhist Nagadeepa Viharaya stand a few hundred metres apart. At Keerimalai, freshwater springs rise within a few metres of the sea and have been bathed in for two thousand years. Point Pedro is the northernmost point of the island, where the road simply stops.
Three nights is the minimum that does it justice.
