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| Sunday, 21 March 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Rural life meets star class luxury : A village that stands apart by Carol Aloysius You are probably familiar with Leonard Woolf's 'Village in the Jungle'. But ever heard of a village in a hotel? Choosing this unlikely venue to set up a mini Eco village picturesquely named' Pahana Landa', the Confifi Group's Club Palm Garden Hotel at Beruwela has added a new dimension, to the hotel industry, besides making it so much more eco-friendly.
Opened in traditional style , this is one village that will always stand apart from the countless little villages scattered around this country, if only because of its size and its unique setting. This writer joined a group of journalists who visited the village last week for its opening. Riding in traditional style on decorated bullock carts we followed Confifi chairman M. T. A. Furkan to the entrance which stands cheek by jowl with the hotel's badminton court. The main road to the village is called 'Perawatte', so named after the pera (gauva) trees that line it. A bevy of girls dressed in redde and hette were enjoying themselves on a swing tied to the branch of a cotton tree in the middle of a compound filled with fruit trees. Insid it stood a mud thatched roofed hut and a mini paddy field named 'Palle Kumbura' that ran alongside the entrance to the compound. The house itself, the 'Pihilgedera' as it was called, was modelled on an ancient traditional village hut with a high roof that provided a natural cooling system because of its high roof. A string bed, and a little kitchen with clay kitchen utensils completed the quaint setting of a 'Pihilgedera' used by farmers to rest after a hard day's work.
An elevated place '(Pela)' used by farmers to protect their crops stood in the middle of the compound flanked by fruit trees. A young girl washing clothes at the near by well, and another young woman bathing under the 'pihilla' recalled to mind the romanticised images of rural Sri Lanka. 'Pahana Landa' combines two main concepts. It is totally self sufficient and totally environmentally friendly. A walk along this road can lead you to unexpected encounters, as the road meanders through a number of by-lanes that take you to delightful places found mostly in rural Sri Lanka. The 'Puralla Osu Uyana,' is a flourishing medicinal garden that boasts of over a hundred medicinal plants, fruits and spices used for health and beauty purposes. They ranged from the tiniest (udupiyala) to the largest (kaluvara, thekka and burutha) along with herbs that can be used for cooking as well as medicinal purposes such as rampe, sera, karapincha. Adjoining it is the 'Parithyaga Pela Thawana' also known as the plant nursery which has been specially grown to donate plants to visitors. In keeping with an age old custom at the end of our visit, each of us was given a token gift of a 'Kohomba' plant from this nursery. Travelling through Puralla Osu Uyana to the nearby 'Para pokuna' is an adventure in itself as this is where sea fish and lake fish are separated in village ponds. Following the neatly built stile surrounding the main compound, we came across one of the most innovative creations of the village-a bio waste recycling plant 'Pirihena Mandapaya' which we were told also recycles waste from the main hotel. Making maximum use of natural resources, this plant diverts human waste and unclean water into a large opening called 'Pehediya karanaya' where water is purified to generate oxygen for the sea water fish. "No waste is thrown away. We even make use of the human waste. It is cleaned and dried in a tank to use as manure for plants" says Jinasena who oversees the nursery. As proof, he points out to a flourishing bed of spinach and tells me "These plants are nourished entirely by human waste". At the end of the stile we reach the tree top house where farmers keep a look out for wild animals. Below, a group of schoolchildren are playing typical village games; chuck gudu and hopscotch. This is the playground of the village school, an open compound with benches lined under trees and a blackboard hung on a tree. On the wall are inscribed letters of the Sinhala alphabet with a difference. "We have included many letters from the ancient scripts. So what you see is a mixture of Pali, Sanskrit and even Tamil letters along with the Sinhala alphabet. We hope to encourage children from the nearby area to visit this place and learn this ancient alphabet which is not taught to them in school", says Mr. Refhan Razeen, Assistant Manager of Club Palm Gardens. Another ingenious innovation in this eco friendly village is its 'Peraneru Asuruma' a small mud building at the end of the garden which serves as a separation area for solid and paper waste. Here all the glass, plastic and waste paper as well as metal waste is separated by a simple method of putting them in separate bins with a tag. Thereafter they are sold in bulk for recycling. "Our ultimate objective is to have a garbage free environment. This will include a Biogas unit and laboratory which will be set up in schools to use excess amounts of compost as manure. In addition we want to introduce a garbage bin in every unit of a school building", Razeen says. That is not all. The hotel plans to expand and upgrade its Eco village further in the second phase of the project to include a paper recycling plant and rooming facilities with the village. "We want to make this village an integral part of the hotel by encouraging hotel guests not only to visit it but actually live in it to get a hands-on experience of village life in Sri Lanka. We already have takers who wish to spend a night in the thatched hut. We also plan to serve guests with traditional village style meals here ". Bringing the village to the doorstep of a sophisticated luxury hotel is by no means an easy task. The secret of the success behind this unusual venture, Mr. Furkan pointed out, was the willing co-operation given him by his staff including the gardeners who played a major role. Handing out token gifts to three of them Jinasena, Srilal and Bandupala he said that theirs was a true labour of love. Jinasena who has been the hotel's chief gardener for over 23 years voiced the sentiments of his colleagues when he told this writer, "The village was conceived and built by the hotel staff. We did not get any outside help. No carpenters were involved because every building you see is earth friendly and built out of mud. It is a nature lover's paradise, a place for one to relax and enjoy God's bounty in peace". By creating it, there is no doubt that Confifi Palm Gardens has taken a step further towards promoting the environmentally friendly concept for the hotel industry. Hopefully 'Pahana Landa' will serve as a model for other hotels in this country. |
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