Tsunami-hit Sri Lankans thank the Pagan gods for cinnamon
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tsunami-hit Sri Lankans thank the Pagan gods for cinnamon*
23 Dec 2007 04:16:03 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Simon Gardner
HIKKADUWA, Sri Lanka, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Dancing to traditional drums
behind an elephant draped in purple, Sri Lankan cinnamon growers are
offering part of their crop to pagan gods in thanks at a steady recovery
from the 2004 tsunami.
When the giant tsunami waves battered the island's coastline, razing
beachside homes and businesses and killing thousands, the water pushed
as much as three km (two miles) inland in some areas. The sea salt
killed vegetation and ravaged the local cinnamon industry.
"The tsunami took everything away. My wife, my daughter ... goats, cows
and my cinnamon," said wizened Anthony Silva, carrying two large bundles
of finely rolled cinnamon bark as he made his way with hundreds of
fellow growers and their relatives to a temple to make an offering to
local Sinhalese god Devol.
"Things are better now, but I still think about the tsunami," he said,
raising a forearm to show a coarse tattoo of his wife and daughter's
names. He has not shaved since the tsunami swept them away and now wears
a long white beard.
Saturday's ceremony in the beach resort of Hikkaduwa marks another
milestone in this community's recovery from a disaster which battered
two-thirds of the island's shoreline, killing some 35,000 people in Sri
Lanka and a total 230,000 around the rim of the Indian Ocean.
In the southern district of Galle, hundreds of acres planted with
cinnamon trees were badly damaged. Most of the plants were killed.
ROAD TO RECOVERY
"Due to the tsunami, about 75 percent of the cinnamon growers' land was
damaged," said Saman Ranasinghe, chairman of the Galle District Cinnamon
Growers' Association. "We had to put new soil and start growing from the
very beginning."
"The crop was greatly reduced after the tsunami. Our growers had to go
and do odd jobs. But now our production is steadily returning to
normal," he added, as groups of young men and women wearing colourful
costumes and headdresses passed by dancing energetically, some of the
men somersaulting in the air.
Once a mainstay of the economy, spices like cinnamon have been overtaken
by tea and textiles.
But Sri Lanka is still a leading global cinnamon exporter, exporting
12,500 tonnes in 2006 worth around 7.25 billion rupees ($67 million),
much of it to Mexico and the United States, according to Department of
Export Agriculture officials.
The Spanish Red Cross and the state agriculture department gave growers
here new cinnamon plants and funds and helped regenerate the land.
But three years on from the worst natural disaster in memory, eerie
reminders of the devastation lie everywhere.
Bare concrete foundations and crumbled ruins of homes still litter the
side of Sri Lanka's southern coastal road, nature reclaiming them as
creepers and vegetation steadily encroach. Some residents have rebuilt
right by the beach, prime targets for any repeat tsunami.
Tourists are back on the south coast, with arrivals boosted by cricket
fans visiting to watch England play Sri Lanka. But the recovery is
lagging in the conflict-ravaged east, and has come to a standstill in
the far north as the state and Tamil Tiger rebels fight an
ever-deepening quarter-century-long civil war.
"This warms our heart," said Kingsley Prabad, who produces cinnamon oil
from his 1-½ acre small holding, as he prayed at a shrine decked with
rolled cinnamon. "I am praying for a good harvest and a successful life."
"I am also praying that we never see anything like the tsunami again."
(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)