What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka Podcast

Under its Moriyan kings, Sri Lanka soared to unequalled heights of artistic excellence. New ideas and philosophies had flourished.  So why was it that – overall – their rule had been, in the last analysis, disastrous?  

Few other countries are currently producing as much world-class literature as Sri Lanka. So which novels should you read?

What really makes Sri Lanka tick?  Perhaps these 5 very local cameos might provide a clue.  

When King Kashyapa took up residence in Sigiriya, he triggered a party that, like the ancient world itself, raced to its corporeal end with all the aplomb of the last serving of the lost martini on board the Titanic.  But what made it so extraordinary?

Kandy guards its remarkable story so well that it is all too easy to miss.  Yet squirrelled away behind its traffic jams and shop hoardings, history is not dead; not even sleeping or dazed. It is instead ever on the lookout.

Unlike the classical world, Sri Lanka's ancient wonders are not merely buildings, including as they do a painting, a monastery, a book, technology, a shrine, and a tree.  But why do they also include a lake?

How long is life, and what might you usefully do with the later bits?

Is it possible to reverse-engineer the last 5 decades and make Sundays special again?  Perhaps.

Forget elephants and even leopards.  What are the five great mammals of Sri Lanka that most people overlook to their eternal cost, and what story do they have to tell?

There's more to Sri Lankan cats than their famous leopard.  What happened to its lions, and which beast breaks such wind as to call to mind Jean Patou’s famous perfume, 'Joy'?

Hotels nurture hermiting - as Diane von Furstenberg, Ravi Shankar, or Coco Chanel might tell you.  But which ones should you select when planning your Sri Lankan itinerary?

Sri Lanka may be Sapphire Centre as far as the world is concerned – but where exactly might you now find its greatest stones, and what stories have they to tell?  

Whatever else is happening in the world, here there is a cake for tea, and birdsong from dawn to dusk.  But what else might you find?

It’s often said that to rule, you must be ruthless to excess.  But exactly what were the excesses created by these final Sri Lankan kings as to earn them a place on a list of wicked monarchs?

Spoiled for choice, selecting the naughtiest monarchs of Sri Lanka is an arduous job.  But why does the list begin with its founding father, and a latter queen who made a kitten out of Henry VIII of England?

To have a hoof in Sri Lanka is a privilege given to just a handful of species.  But what are they, and where might you find them?

Die-hard individualists fail to fault the remarkable variation among Sri Lanka’s different species of monkeys and lorises.  So what are their arboreal secrets? 

What might you discover?  There is much to find within the sprawling plantation gardens that disappear off into the jungle around Sri Lanka’s Flame Tree Estate & Hotel.   

What might you find as you amble gently around a home garden, wrapped in green and red, at Sri Lanka’s The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel? 

Enochlophobia may be one of ageing’s more agreeable symptoms – but what do you do about it when the Kandy Perehera is in full swing?  

It rains.  And it rains.  But why are Buddhism and rain quite so beautifully compelling, especially here in Sri Lanka?  

He hooted when least expected and claimed his rightful place in Sri Lanka.  But who was he, and what made him proud?  

Some of Sri Lanka’s most beloved spices came in the ships of the Portuguese, Dutch, and British – but why were they brought here, and how did they throw off the trauma of transplantation to prosper and proliferate? 

Sri Lanka’s secretive off-stage spices are every bit as treasured as its most famous ones.  But what are they, and how are they used?

Few people ever packed light as they headed to Sri Lanka.  But what are the spices that arrived in the carry-on baggage its visiting traders, travellers and superpowers?

Three spices hold the key to every dish in Sri Lanka.  But which ones are they and why does their consequence stretch far beyond the humble kitchen?

Enslavement is a condition that takes time to undo.  So how did it help to make a spice garden in the jungles of Sri Lanka?

Like the cavalry of old, they raced on to rescue a stricken kingdom from itself.  But what did the Lambakanna dynasty really achieve – and why were they overthrown?

In Sri Lanka, the expert is there right next to you - on the train, in the street, everywhere in fact.  But what happens when you seek one in a doctor’s waiting room?

If you are English, do you really need sex?  Can you not encounter la petite mort simply upon waking up?

Is May the moment to forsake madness and put aside all but the best supporting gods?

“To be or not to be,” is the refrain of several Sri Lankan government departments – but how can they – or that -  free you from suffering?  From cravings?  From any need to cling to things?

Is life really what you best hear when you're absolutely still?  And if so, does knowing the names of different trees help at all?

Unlikely though it sounds, there is a Perehera still grander than that of the annual Kandy Perehera – but what has it got to do with Eve and her serpents?

She was the pin-up of her times – but was it about the island’s first queen that caused so much disquiet, even now, and where might you still find her?

If too many cooks spoil the broth, what ingredients best make it all up?  

Sri Lanka’s seven greatest wonders from ancient times include a palace to escape death, a dish, a book, and a fortress.  But what made them so fundamental – to the nation and the world – as to earn their place in history?

A tree – and a trio of stupas are among ancient Sri Lanka’s greatest wonders.  But why are any of these so important – not just to the island, but to the world?

Despite their iconic status, the original seven wonders of the ancient world pale in comparison to the seven wonders of ancient Lanka, the subject of the next three podcasts.    But of them all, why include Panda Wewa, a reservoir now lost in the jungle, not from present-day Chilaw?

Sri Lanka’s gems are as perfect a thing for first nights, Dubai dinners and London cocktail parties as they are for crowns, thrones, diadems - and even my missing tiara.  But should it be enough to merely murmur their magical names, or must you wear them too?