German Memories in Asia - Adam's Peak of Sri Lanka

A visiting German team became familiar to me when we were having dinner at the beach-end restaurant at the Aquarius resort as we were sitting at adjoining tables. They were going to Adam's Peak in a few hours just before midnight as they could reach Adam's peak in the early morning hours of sunrise.

Adam's Peak is a beautiful place, which is more divine than mere fun to visit. There were many visitors from around the world who visited Adam's Peak, which is jutting out, sharply skyward from the lush jungles of southwestern Sri Lanka since historical times. This is also called Sri Pada, the 'Holy Footprint'. The mountain has the unique distinction of being sacred to the followers of four of the world's major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.

Long before the development of these religions, however, the aboriginal inhabitants of Sri Lanka, the Veddas worshipped the Mountain. Their name for the peak was "Samanala Peak", Saman being one of the four guardian deities of the island.

For Hindus, the name of the mountain is "Lord Shiva's Holy Foot", because it was the world-creative dance of the God Shiva that left the giant footprint.

According to Buddhist traditions from as early as 300 BC, the real print actually was left by the Lord Buddha during the third and final of his legendary visit to Sri Lanka. When Portuguese Christians came to the island in the 16th century they claimed the impression to be the footprint of St. Thomas who, according to legend, first brought Christianity to Sri Lanka.

And finally, the Arabs recorded it as being the solitary footprint of Adam where he stood for a thousand years in penance on one foot. An Arab tradition tells that when Adam was expelled from heaven, God put him on the peak to make the shock less terrible.

Adam's Peak is more easily seen from the sea than from land. Early Arab seafarers fascinated with the pyramidal peak wrote of it as "the highest mountain in the world". The early tribes also believed it to be of great height and a native legend tells "from Seyllan to Paradise is forty miles, and the sound of the fountains of Paradise is heard here".

Many early world travelers including the Arab traveler and explorer Ibn Batuta and the Venetian Marco Polo visited the mountain, which had attained a legendary status as a mystic pilgrimage destination.

The German team's visit was well timed as the pilgrimage commenced in December and continued until the beginning of the monsoon rains in April. Visitors might experience panic when they travel along certain parts of the path leading up to the mountain, as they are extremely steep.

There is a mythical story prevailing that Alexander the Great had fastened chains in certain sections to make the climb less arduous. But there is no evidence that Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king, made it to this far south in Sri Lanka on his Asia travels, though his empire extended in Asia up to the Indus River in the Indian subcontinent.

The area people still believe the rain - water taken from the footprint has a wonderful healing power. Adam's Peak is also called 'butterfly - mountain' because of the myriads of small butterflies that fly from all over the island to die upon the sacred mountain.

The Mountain has many myths, mysteries and wonders surrounding it from historical times but what struck me was what made the team from Germany to be attracted to that extent.