It is interesting to note that foot prints akin to Lord Hanuman’s are found by this river and some are of small size and some are of large size, which tells us of the immense powers of Hanuman in transforming himself into any size. The Sita Amman Temple is housed with statues of Lord Rama, Sitadevi, Luxshmana, and Hanuman by the side of the Sita Eliya stream. One of the top Ramayana Trails is the Sita Amman Temple in Nuwara Eliya, and Indian tourists never fail to visit. The World Tourism Organization predicted in 2014 that cultural tourism would be one of the five key tourism market segments in the future, and Sri Lanka and India have agreed to work together to promote the Ramayana Heritage. Kalaiselvan, former Director General of the SLTDA, has repeatedly stated that “the 52 sites identified in relation to the Ramayana are not imaginary, but have existed since time immemorial.” Subash Chawla, an authority on the International Ramayana. Suriya Gunasekara, an authority on Sri Lankan pre-history, and Dr. The Sri Lankan government said they want to understand how Ravana could employ advanced technologies thousands of years ago to build an aircraft that was used to abduct Sita based on the Ramayana. He said the SLTDA has identified and promoted only 32 sites that are located in the fabulous natural beauty of the county and is hoping to promote the rest of the attractions in the coming years.Įven the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka last year said there are enough facts to prove Ravana was the first to use aircraft and wanted researchers and scientists to come forward with documents and knowledge proving it. However, according to Jeewana Fernando, who is in charge of the Ramayana Trail at the SLTDA, they are gearing up to promote the Ramayana Trail post pandemic and have already earmarked to promote many of the 52 sites that are located in the country.
Many Ramayana movies and television episodes still entertain the audience in India as well as in Sri Lanka, amongst the Hindus mainly.Īccording to SLTDA, at least 250, 000 Indian tourists annually visit one of the 52 sites of the Ramayana Trail in Sri Lanka.ĭue to the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian tourist arrivals have dropped drastically. The concept of Ramayana heritage sites in Sri Lanka was born in 2008, and the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) created the “Ramayana Trail in Lanka” to promote its “Spiritual Tourism,” having cricketers Arjuna Ranatunga and Arvinda Desilva as brand ambassadors.īetween then and now, there has been commendable progress seen in promoting the Ramayana segment, but there is nothing much done about it and the time has come, post pandemic, Sri Lanka has earmarked to promote the Ramayana Trail to the next level. The Ramayana Heritage has drawn a large number of Indian visitors to Sri Lanka.It started with a few arrivals and increased when the adaptation of the Ramayana aired on Indian television in many episodes that ran for many years. Prior to this year’s meeting in Colombo in June 2016, the JWG meeting was held in the wake of a successful visit by the Foreign Secretary of India to Sri Lanka in October. Both delegations underscored the importance of tourism cooperation between the two countries, which flows from an inter-governmental bilateral MoU signed in January 2004.
The High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, Gopal Baglay, attended the JWG meeting and shared his views on the deep cultural and people-to-people ties between the two countries.
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