Sri Lanka Travel Podcast with Tharushi Perera

society, culture, places, travel, documentary, education · EN-US

This podcast follows travelling through Sri Lanka as a process of living somewhere long enough to read its landscapes. The island's character comes from its monsoon rhythms: the southwest wet zone lush through June to October, the northern and eastern coasts drying under the northeast monsoon from December to March. The range she covers runs from the legislative capital at Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte to the northern peninsula, where Tamil culture has its own rhythm, and from the mountain towns of the south-central interior to the old capitals of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. She also follows the limestone shoals of Adam's Bridge off the northwest coast, a chain that once connected the island to India. The show unfolds in seasons, returning to places as the rain shifts and the landscape changes. A road that feels empty during the southwest monsoon becomes busy again under the northeast winds; a temple compound in Anuradhapura is seen first in dry dust, then after a storm.