ExperienceCulture

Sigiriya at first light, before the iron stairs are crowded. The Dambulla caves with the lights kept low. A monks' morning at the Temple of the Tooth, the perehera hour at the lake. Anuradhapura's bodhi tree, the older capital at Polonnaruwa, the fort streets of Galle when the residents reclaim them at six.

The smaller sites repay the detour. Mihintale, where Buddhism arrived. The Aluvihara caves at Matale, where the Tripitaka was first written down. Embekke's wood-carving temple in the Kandyan hills. The Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil and the Dutch fort at Jaffna for the Hindu and Tamil north — an island that is Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian within an hour's drive.

And the calendar matters. The Esala Perahera processes through Kandy in July or August with elephants in full regalia and a hundred dancers. Vesak fills the country with paper lanterns in May. Sinhala and Tamil New Year empties the cities in April. Kataragama runs its fire-walk in July. Mask-carvers still work in Ambalangoda, low-country drummers still play the Kandyan rhythms, batik artisans still hand-wax the cottons in Mahawewa.

Our guides are licensed by us — by twenty years of return visits and by the patience to walk a site slowly.