Random Thoughts...: Siripa Karuna

Sri Pada is an important place of worship in Sri Lanka, and I believe that most devout Buddhists try to make the climb at least once a year. As a non-Buddhists, the chance never really presented itself until a few weeks ago. In my opinion, hiking to the peak of Sri Pada is one of those things that you should do at least once in your life time.

This hike was organized by some co-workers at office, and eventually about 40 people joined the group. My close friends were surprised that I too had decided to join because, let’s just say that I’m not a big fan of physical activity. I knew it was going to be challenging, and that was one of the main reasons for me to take it on.

We started off from Erathna, in Kuruwita around 12.30 in the afternoon. There are three main routes you can take, and the Erathna trail is considered as the longest, with a total length of 12km. The elevation gain is about 1850m. The climb is gradual with intermittent steep climbs. Most of the way, at least upto Haramitithenna, is natural footpath through the forest. However, there are concrete steps and handrails for the hardest sections. Lamps are erected all the way, but some have blown out. A torch is recommended.

The Hatton Nallathanni trail is the shortest, with a length of 5km, but it is also the steepest, and about 80% of the hike consists of climbing steps. It is also very crowded and not very scenic. We made our decent through that route. Even in the morning, there was a line of people stretching about quarter of the way down still waiting to reach the top. Some said they had spent nearly 3 hours in the line.

We reached Haramitithenna around 1AM, nearly 13 hours since we started. Haramitithenna is the last main rest point before reaching the peak. This is also where the Rathnapura-Palabadala trail joins up with the Erathna trail. We rested for couple of hours there and started the final ascent around 3.30AM so we can time it to watch the sunrise. There were a lot of people, so they weren’t letting people stay at the peak for a long time. Even at the time we went, it was pretty much packed, and we couldn’t even get a good view point facing east. We had to make do with watching the peripheral light of the rising sun.

Yes, it was very tiring, and there were times when I thought oh why’d I sign up for this. Then you see seventy, eighty year old grandmothers pass you by without even breaking sweat, and you feel ashamed for yourself. That kind of kept me going.

The only thing kind of disappointing to me was the behavior of some people. At the peak, there is an upper level “maluwa” where the footprint of the Lord Buddha can be worshipped. Because there were a lot of people, a queue had formed to go up. But some people just blatantly ignore the queue and cut in as they please. Due to that, there was a big rush, with a lot of pushing and shoving to get to the top. I can’t understand why some people act like this. I mean if you can spend 10 to 15 hours climbing to the top, why can’t you wait 20-30 minutes to reach the finish line. Have a little patience will you. I have noticed this a lot. Some people have a very hard time understanding the concept of queuing. The worst part is that they don’t even understand that it is wrong and very rude.