| Welcome to Weligama |
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There are several remarkable bays in Sri Lanka, most especially China Bay at Trincomalee
in the north east. A close runner-up is Weligama Bay down south, a spectacular crescent of
golden sand punctuating the coastline.
Weligama has much to offer the visitor apart from
sea and sun, however. Here you will find extraordinary fishermen, a mysterious statue, and
a captivating |
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offshore island. Weligama, with its spectacular sweep of sandy bay, is a fishing centre 145 km from Colombo
renowned for several artistic traditions such as lacework (especially mats and table-cloths)
and architectural fretwork (see the few old buildings in the centre of town).
When heading into Weligama from the west the main road forks.
The inland branch runs
through the centre of the town, over the railway track, and then past a small fenced-off
area with several boulders, the largest of which has been carved with a 4-metre high figure
known as the Kusta Rajah or ‘ Leper King.’ Both hands are raised; the right hand in
Buddhist vitarka mudra or instructional gesture. In addition the elaborate hair of the
figure is decorated with medallions depicting samadhi or meditating Buddhas.
In 1949, the American novelist Paul Bowles, whose distinguished work The Sheltering Sky was
published the same year, caught a tantalizing glimpse of the island as he passed through
Weligama by train. He ended up acquiring this, the ultimate writer’s pad, in 1951, and from
then until 1956 lived there half the year. Apart from writing fiction such as The Spider’s
House in Weligama, he also wrote of his experiences of living on the island.
The following extract gives a taste of his love for Weligama: “ I make my regular
early-morning tour of the garden, usually coming to rest on a stone bench that commands a
fine view of Weligama Bay. The sun, although scarcely risen above the headlands to the east,
already is giving off an intimate, powerful heat, and the distant flotilla of fishing
boats slip past the white line of the reefs into the open sea, their furled sails like the
dorsal fins of giant sharks.” |
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