Travel
to Sri Lanka and make your dream Holiday come true!
Holiday in Sri Lanka is ideal if you're looking
forward to have fun, enjoy the sunshine and frolic
in white sandy beaches. If you want to do bird
watching, see wildlife paying a visit to Ceylon will
be a holiday you'll never forget. If you want to try
out eco tourism, Sri Lanka is a marvelous place to
spend your vacation. Sri Lanka is one place where
you could be in harmony with nature like in no other
place. By spending your holiday in Sri Lanka you'll
get so much of entertainment.
A Holiday in Sri Lanka means that you'll have loads
of fun, experience a unique culture
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Just 10 kms away from
Nuwara Eliya City, it is the place where flora from far
and wide are seen at home. The site has a mythical
connotation with many believing that it was once the
pleasure garden of the demon king Ravana of the epic
Ramayana epic and the very place where the beautiful
Sitha was hidden. It was only in 1860 that the present
botanical garden was founded by the British botanist Dr.
G.H.K. Thwaites. The exotic plants found in Hakgala
include conifers and cedars from Australia, Bermuda and
Japan, and cypresses from the Himalayas, China and as
far flung places as Persia, Mexico and California. A
special variety of pine was introduced from New
Calendonia and there are specimens of this genus from
the Canary Island as well. Another interesting tree that
adorns this garden is an English oak, planted around
1890, in memory of the famous "hearts of oak" of
Britain's naval power. In addition, there are , for the
tourists’ delight, the rose garden and the fernery. The
garden will surely send a visitor into reverie.
Hakgala is one of the
places one visits as an essential part of a pleasant
journey in the famous hill resort of Nuwara Eliya. The
site is legendary. It was once the pleasure garden of
Ravana of the Ramayana epic and according to many, it
was one of the places where the beautiful Sitha was
hidden by the demon king. The present botanic gardens
were founded in 1860 by the eminent British botanist Dr.
G.H.K. Thwaites who was superintendent of the more
famous gardens at Peradeniya, near Kandy.
It was the site initially for experiments with cinchona
whose bark yielded quinine, esteemed as a tonic and
febrifuge. Quinine at that time was widely used as a
specific for malaria. This was perhaps the reason for
the popularity of and tonic in these parts - quinine
being the principle ingredient of tonic water.
The cool, equable climate of the hakgala area, whose
mean temperature is around 60 degrees Fahrenheit,
encouraged the introduction of suitable temperate zone
plants, both ornamental and useful. These included
conifers and cedars from Australia, Bermuda and Japan,
and cypresses from the Himalayas, china and as far a
field as Persia, Mexico and California. New Caledonia
gave Hakgala a special variety of pines and there are
specimens of this genus from the canary Island as well.
An English oak, introduced around 1890, commemorates the
"hearts of oak" of Britain's vaunted sea power, and
there is a good-looking specimen of the camphor tree,
whose habitat is usually in regions above 12,000m.
If you have left your heart in an English garden, you
will surely find it again in Hakgala's Rose garden.
where the sights and scents of these glorious blooms can
be experienced in their infinite variety. From there it
is a quiet stroll from the sublime to the exotic
sophistication of the orchid House. A special attraction
here is the verity of montane orchids, many of them
endemic to Sri Lanka.
It would be in the worst possible taste to describe the
Fernery as a collection of "vascular cryptograms" But
that is how the dictionary describes the plant whose
delicate fronds conjure up visions of misty grottoes,
lichen-covered stones and meandering streams. The
Fernery at Hakgala is a shady harbour of many quiet
walks, in the shad of the Hakgala Rock, shaped like the
jawbone of an elephant, from which the place gets its
name. Sri Lanka's ferns are well represented here, as
are those of Australia and New Zealand.
Hakgala is a temperate hill-country garden where also
the languid low-country lotus and water lily floats in
their serene loveliness. Pinks and blues emerging from a
flat- floating background of lush leaves, recall the
calm of yellow-robed monks, white-clad, devotees and
flickering oil lamps.
In time, the highlands bracing breezes dispel the
languor of lotus land and even cause a shiver as a
temperature lowers. The Hakgala Botanical Gardens is one
of the lovely contrasts of Sri Lanka, a home to plants
and trees from around the world, making them seem to be
part of the scenic beauty.
History
Botanic garden at Hakgala is the second largest gardens
in Sri Lanka situated in salubrious environment near the
capital city of the hill country. It provides charm and
cold atmosphere with picturesque beauty by its own
landscape and many blooms seen in various sections in
garden. It enhances natural beauty by small water steams
run across the garden and wooden bridges built over
them. The main reason caused to establish the garden at
Hakgala was cultivation and promotion of Cinchona, a
tree of commerce in Sri Lanka. The garden was
established in 1861 with the auspices of Mr G.H.W.
Thawaites then director of Royal Botanic Gardens at
Peradeniya and M.R. W. MacNichholl was the pioneer
curator of the gardens. Later, the garden was used for
experimentation of tea cultivation in up country and
then garden was developed to a botanical direction since
Mr William Nock was appointed as a curator in 1884. Many
sub tropical and some temperate plants were introduced
and planted in the gardens.
It was recorded in the legend of Sri Lanka, Many
thousands years ago, a famous king of Ceylon Ravana
whose name is remembered in connection with the epic
love story with Sita, a beautiful queen of India, made a
pleasure gardens in the region where the Hakgala gerden
spreads today. The king Ravana brought queen Sita, a
famous female character descried in eastern here and
kept hidden in the area vicinity to the botanic.
Seeds of several kinds of Cinchona meinding C. Micrantha,
C. Nitida were received Through Sir clements markham
from south Amarica. These were followed later by seeds
of Cinchona Succirubra seeds of other speaen including
Cinchona officinalis were planted in 1868 gerdens
Hakgala. The area was named as Sita Eliya in Queen Sita
and a Hindu temple was built near she was hidden.
t
How to get to Hakgala:
The nearest railway station is at Nanu Oya, from where
there are buses or taxis on the Nuwara Eliya to Badulla
road to Hakgala.
