Packing a punch quite out of proportion to its size, Sri Lanka is distinctive and magnificent in the most Byzantine of ways.  But what is it that makes it so special – and how did it all begin?

Who are the gods and ghosts that can still be heard whispering in this little-visited town on Sri Lanka’s eastern seaboard?

The destruction of the 1500-year-old Anuradhapuran kingdom fell due – but was it destroyed by problems of its own making – or by a force so overwhelming that no power could ever hope to withstand?

The Lambakanna king, Sena II, pulled victory from disaster.  Sri Lanka became one of the dominant powers in the Indian Ocean.  So how did it get from there to the doors of desolation in barely 125 years?

How was it that, even as life seemed at its easiest, the plush and kind middle years of later Lambakanna rule almost came to an abrupt halt - courtesy of an Indian invasion?  

King Manavanna was to restore the fortunes of the returning Lankbranaka dynasty, and his succeeding sons were to rule as if the kingdom merited nothing but the best.  But was the Anuradhapuran kingdom really that safe?

As the Lambakanna kings retook their throne for a second innings, how was it that rice, that most ordinary of all crops, was to power the last glorious golden age of the one-island state? 

Enochlophobia may be one of ageing’s more agreeable symptoms – but what do you do about it when the Kandy Perehera is in full swing?    srilankapodcast.com

Given Sri Lanka’s remarkable facility for naturalising anything it takes a fancy to, counting its spices is a sure way to stir debates about everything from guilt and history to life expectancy and truth.  Hear some of this, as we lay out a jungle spice garden all of our own at The Flame Tree Estate in the mountains beyond Kandy.

Sri Lanka was ruled by hundreds of kings and a handful of queens for over 2,000 years.  But which of them were among its six most egregious baddies – and why?