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Sri Lanka boasts a rich and diverse culture, with many rituals and customs dating back to over 2000 years. The country’s cultural heritage is intertwined with its majority religion, Buddhism, while also containing many facets of its colonial past and multi-religious character.
Sri Lanka, crowned as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, is an island filled with natural beauty. The undulating terrain provides spectacular views of the iridescent ocean and the teeming land, affording unique vantage points such as Kandy and Nuwara Eliya in the hill country. One will fall in love over and over again while lying on a white sandy beach or while cuddling with a hot cup of tea in the central highlands of Sri Lanka. This is why this tropical paradise is highly sought after as a honeymoon destination for lovers from across the world.
Sri Lanka is filled with romantic landscapes, governed by rising mountains, lush forests, ocean like tanks, gushing waterfalls and golden beaches. The central highlands are filled with pictures of stirring mountains carpeted with lush green tea gardens, roaring waterfalls mingling with the clouds and landscapes shimmering in sunlight and disappearing under the rising mist.
Sri Lanka has been a centre of spiritual and physical healing for 2,000 years with its healing recipes inscribed in ancient Ola manuscripts. Ayurvedic programmes consist of a range of herbal treatments and different types of baths and massages, together with cleansing and revitalization techniques such as yoga, meditation and special diets.
Introduced to the country in the 19th century by British colonials, Ceylon tea is the best tea in the world. In 1965 Ceylon became, for the first time, the world’s largest exporter of tea. The country specializes in serving freshly brewed tea and many varieties of tea beverages to tea lovers the world over. Tea is an integral part of Sri Lanka’s rich culture and goes hand in hand with its famed hospitality with every household offering a freshly brewed cuppa to guests without exception.
The cultivation of many types of rice, spices, vegetables and fruit, coupled with the island’s trading past and colonial heritage, ensures that Sri Lanka enjoys a varied and select cuisine. As a staple, rice is consumed with an assortment of colourful curries. Sri Lankan curries are known for their fiery hot spicy flavours. Coconut milk is a distinct feature of Sri Lankan cuisine. Different regions of the country specialize in different types of dishes.