Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Sri Lanka: Hantane

Hantane is the peak south of Kandy; for generations it's been in plantations--first coffee; after the 1880s, tea; now, a mix of tea and abandoned grasslands.Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 1


We're climbing above Kandy.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 2

And looking south to Hantane.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 3

Many of the slopes are covered by tea.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 4

Many formerly in tea are now abandoned.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 5

A closeup of this grassland.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 6

Tea invites erosion; here, the ravines have been paved to reduce it.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 7

Well cared for, these tea gardens still suffer erosion.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 8

One outcome: scattered bushes among the bedrock outcrops.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 9

Heavy pruning.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 10

Firewood for the local market.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 11

Old plantation roads are everywhere.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 12

This one's still in heavy use.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 13

The roads were built to serve the plantations and the tea factories, like this one, now an excellent industry museum.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 14

The roof, walls, and framing are English steel; the floor and windows, surprisingly, are English pine.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 15

Not quite so spiffy, but still in operation, a few miles farther south.  The women are lined up to have their pickings weighed.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 16

Closeup.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 17

Coming home after hours.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 18

Traffic jam.  What's the problem?

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 19

Flat tire.  No jack.  No problem.  A dozen guys will lift.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 20

The van is propped up temporarily.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 21

Next door: plantation worksheds.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 22

Lines for the plantation workers, mostly Tamils imported from India when the British found that the local Sinhalese population, whom the British had displaced, declined to work the plantations.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 23

Front stoops.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 24

At the upper end of the scale: a swimming pool for a bungalow.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 25

Another bungalow.

Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 26
Sri Lanka: Hantane picture 27

Find out more interesting photos of Hanthane at below links:

Sri Lanka: Tea Country ( Up Country )

Sri Lanka: Tea Country Photos, Captioned Pictures, Travel Gallery Images

Sri Lanka : Tea Country

For more than a century--beginning with the destruction (by a fungal disease) of the coffee industry and ending with the expansion of the textile industry--tea was Sri Lanka 's great export.  It still dominates the central highlands of the country socially, economically, and physically.


http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=1&picturesize=masters
It was for tea that a railway was built from Peradeniya south into the high mountains.  Here: the rail yard at Hatton, 38 miles south of Peradeniya, 4,000 feet above sea level, and the first main town served by the railway as it ventured south.  The railway reached this point in 1884.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=2&picturesize=masters
An abandoned railroad shop, built for the ages.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=3&picturesize=masters
Main street , Hatton.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=4&picturesize=masters
A touch of style?!!
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=5&picturesize=masters
A few miles farther along the line, old road an sign post still gives directions at Talawakele; very few signs of this vintage survive. Today, it is by word of mouth !
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=6&picturesize=masters
Churches sprouted to serve the planters and their families: here, Lindula church.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=7&picturesize=masters
Lindula churchyard.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=8&picturesize=masters
"Here lies Annie, the beloved wife of Cecil Palliser.  Born at Drontheim , Norway , 23rd April 1865, Died 15th September, 1895."
 
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=9&picturesize=masters
A member of the third and generally the last planting generation: Charlotte Evelyn (1894-1944), daughter of Christine and Edwin Wiggin of Melrose Estate.  Edwin was the son of Arthur Wiggin (1840-1903) who pioneered here and recollected as follows: "When I came up here (Dimbula) and bought in with my brother, it was a rough life we led in all its forms--food, work, hours, &c.  Some of us lived in thatched wigwams--'conical buildings'--some in apologies for bungalows--and O! the discomfort of it all; imagine the cigarette youth of to-day eating and drinking a 6 o'clock meal composed of bitter beer, beefsteak (O! so tough), spring onions--and we could grow these--and 'rice rotis'--when the bread ran out... For all this we lived a life of enjoyment and good fellowship, unknown in these days.... Whisky we knew not, brandy was a medicine, and tea and coffee a treat."
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=10&picturesize=masters
In 1885 the railroad reached Nanu Oya, 5,300 feet above sea level and 20 miles past Hatton.  In 1904, a narrow-gauge railway was built from this point to Nuwara Eliya, only six miles but a thousand feet above Nanu Oya. 
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=11&picturesize=masters
Haputale station, 25 miles past Nanu Oya.  Midway between the two, the line reaches what apparently is the highest elevation of any broad-gauge railroad in the world--6,226 feet at Summit .  For much, much more about the railway, see David Hyatt's Railways of Sri Lanka (2000).
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=12&picturesize=masters
The very simple Haputale church.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=13&picturesize=masters
Like most expat communities, the planters stuck together.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=14&picturesize=masters
Another example.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=15&picturesize=masters
The climate continues to be a major asset of these highlands, and it's advertised here in atavistic English by boosters of  Bandarawela, 7 miles beyond Haputale and 83 beyond Peradeniya.  The railway arrived in 1894.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=16&picturesize=masters
Reverse side.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=17&picturesize=masters
The Bandarawela Hotel, opened when the railway reached town.  (Another 30 years passed before the railroad was pushed another 20 miles to its final terminus at Badulla.) The view here is of the hotel's dining room and main entrance.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=18&picturesize=masters
The hotel--in this case, the wing in which guests stay--has no air conditioning and at 4,000 feet doesn't need it.. 
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=19&picturesize=masters
The Bandarawela church.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=20&picturesize=masters
Bandarawela is not caught in a time warp, however: here, a new shopping center has just opened.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=21&picturesize=masters
Just a few miles before Haputale and about ten before Bandarawela, the railroad passes the tea station of Glenanore, elevation approximately 5,000 feet.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=22&picturesize=masters
Nearby, the plantation manager's bungalow.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=23&picturesize=masters
Farther uphill, the approach road to the ultimate planter's bungalow.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=24&picturesize=masters
It's Adisham, built in the 1920s for Sir Thomas Villiers, who had come to Ceylon in 1887.  In the mid-1890s, he managed the Dumont Coffee Company, Brazil 's largest coffee plantation.  He returned to Ceylon and by 1922 was chairman of the Ceylon Estates Proprietor's Association.  He was knighted in 1933 and late in life wrote Mercantile Lore in Ceylon, a study of the companies who had built the plantation economy.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=25&picturesize=masters
The garage.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=26&picturesize=masters
A fireplace, useful at this elevation.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=27&picturesize=masters
Bookcases.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=28&picturesize=masters
Over the mantle, a portrait of Villiers.  (The house is now a monastery but partially opens for tourists on weekends.)
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=29&picturesize=masters
The view from Adisham.  The railway lies below, out of sight.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=30&picturesize=masters
Adisham is very close to the southern edge of the highlands, and against this escarpment morning breezes bring heavy fogs.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=31&picturesize=masters
It's a daily occurence.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=32&picturesize=masters
Fog drifts north over the crest.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=33&picturesize=masters
A view from the south of part of the escarpment.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=34&picturesize=masters
Adisham also lies just west of the town of Haputale , and on the other side of Haputale is Dambetenne, one of the main estates purchased by Thomas Lipton, when he bought into the industry about 1900.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=35&picturesize=masters
A view of the Dambatenne community. It lies at the edge of the escarpment dropping off to the coastal plain.  The morning fogbank has not yet arrived.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=36&picturesize=masters
The factory is in the style developed by the Ceylon Commercial Company: sheetmetal roof and siding, steel frame, pine floors.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=37&picturesize=masters
Tick tock, tick tock.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=38&picturesize=masters
The seasonality of yield is nicely shown.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=39&picturesize=masters
So is the rising yield, which has doubled over the decade.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=40&picturesize=masters
Exhortation.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=41&picturesize=masters
Dambetenne tea.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=42&picturesize=masters
Another perspective, showing the rough ground covered by the plants.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=43&picturesize=masters
Careful management.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=44&picturesize=masters
Elaborate drainage works to minimize erosion.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=45&picturesize=masters
Worker's housing.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=46&picturesize=masters
A unusual tombstone in the midst of the planting: "In memory of Cadervale Hoke. Died 7-1-17.  Erected by G.T. Davidson, Esq., Manager, Dambatenne Group."
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=47&picturesize=masters
The workers are all Hindu Tamils, which is why this Hindu temple stands across from the tea factory.
http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm?countryid=376&chapterid=982&picid=48&picturesize=masters
A nearby bungalow.