Jaffna

The island's second culture. Present for two thousand years. Visible to tourists for barely a decade.

Jaffna was effectively inaccessible to most travellers until 2009. The city at the northern tip --- Tamil in culture, Hindu in religious life, connected to South India by language and lineage --- is unlike any other part of Sri Lanka. The food is different. The architecture is different. The temples are different. Jaffna has decided, for the most part, not to change for tourists. That is the point of going.

Experiences at this stop

• Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil --- the great temple

The most important Hindu temple in Sri Lanka, dedicated to Lord Murugan, continuously worshipped for over a thousand years. The dawn and evening pujas --- drums, bells, incense, oil lamps --- are the correct experience. Remove shoes at the outer gate.

• Jaffna cuisine --- the Tamil kitchen

Categorically different from Sinhalese cooking. The use of palmyra palm products alongside dry zone vegetables and the fish of the northern lagoon produces a culinary tradition with no equivalent elsewhere on the island. Lunch in a family home, not a restaurant.

• Jaffna Fort --- Dutch colonial engineering

Built by the Portuguese in 1618 and expanded by the Dutch --- considered the most strategically important position in Ceylon. The largest Dutch colonial fortification in Asia. Star-shaped design and dry moat largely intact.

• Jaffna islands --- Nainativu and the lagoon ferry

The Jaffna Lagoon contains 41 islands. Nainativu --- reached by a 45-minute ferry --- holds the Nagapooshani Amman Kovil, worshipped for over two thousand years. The ferry journey through the lagoon is as valuable as the temple.