A few days ago I have got an opportunity to visit Mannar Island & its surrounding. The journey was organized by the Abimansala-Anuradhapura with the view of entertaining its residential war heroes as a part of their rehabilitation program. The journey had helped me to recollect some of old memories that I had of that area by being a member of the offensive “Edibala” carried out to liberate Vavuniya – Mannar road in 1997. Though I had been to Murukkan, a junction that comes just before the Mannar , I had never been to Mannar town when I was sighted, so this journey was a novel experience to me. The Mannar town is situated North West of Sri Lanka and it is   nearly 150 Km away from Anuradhapura via Madawachiya.

On our way to Mannar we first visited Madhu church, the Shrine devoted for Lady of Madhu. The site is considered as the holiest Catholic shrine in the island and it was built about 400 years ago.

Thereafter we visited The Doric Bungalow which is situated in Arippu East (Silawathura). The bungalow was used by Sri   Lanka’s first British Governor, Sir Frederick North (1798-1805) for the supervision of pearl fishery. The bungalow has now been declared as a protected archaeological monument. It was constructed in the Greek Architectural Tradition with bricks and mortar. However, it has now decayed and eroded.

After that we visited giant tank (Yoda weva). It is one of the largest tanks in Sri Lanka and was built by King Dhathusena (459-477 ) by damming the Malwathu- Oya.

Thereafter we step in to Mannar and proceeded towards Paysale where the lunch was arranged. It was a beautiful little peninsula, very dry with lots of white sand and palm trees, wild donkeys, and little lanes and few fishing boats.

The town of Mannar, reached via a 3km-long causeway from the mainland, is a noteworthy place to visit. This was one of hard hit area by the war due to its geological location. The peninsula is jutting out into the Palk Strait, and it is only about 30km from there to India.

Western end of the MannarIsland is Talaimannar; long ago, ferries to Rameswaram, India, departed from a nearby pier.  The Madawachiya –Thalaimannar railway track is now being renovated as it was completely destroyed by Tamil terrorists.

Offshore is Adam’s Bridge – a chain of reefs, sandbanks and islets that nearly connects Sri Lanka to Rameswaram. In the Ramayana these were the stepping stones that the monkey king Hanuman used in his bid to help rescue Rama’s wife Sita from Rawana,the demon king of Lanka. Along the coast, an abandoned lighthouse marks the start of Adam’s Bridge. The navy now occupies this area and runs boat trips to the first of the Bridge’s sandbars.

On our way back, we were taken to a big, exotic biobab tree, 1.2km northeast of town. The tree is believed to have been planted in 1477 by Arab traders; it’s shaped like a giant ball, with a 19.5m circumference and 7.5 m height.

In the other direction, about 13km from Mannar on the mainland, is Thiruketheeswaram Kovil. Thirukketeeswaram is one of the pancha

ishwaram, the five historical Sri Lankan Shiva temples established to protect the island from natural disasters.

It was a hot day, the sun was blazing down, but all in all we had a very pleasant day -outing. All arrangements at Mannar were made by  Lt. Col Suranga Peris (So-1 54 Div) with the instruction given by Maj. Gen Mythri  Dias (GOC- 54 Division).