How the c was built amidst a storm of protest

I had the pleasure and privilege to be invited to the launch of a book on the Kandalama hotel project. To those in the hotel industry and many other Lankans, Kandalama Hotel is well known for many reasons. Initially it was best known for the protests it generated when it was to be built. I don’t think any hotel ever built here created such a storm as the building of this hotel did.

These protests were religious, cultural and environment-related. You name it, a whole gamut of issues were thrown up. I have never known the building of any hotel to create such hysteria. The Buddhist clergy led the way supported by prayerful nuns. I remember reading a headline at that time announcing that a thousand more protesters were expected from Galle and elsewhere.

We couldn’t understand the hysteria that gripped rational men and women. There has never been any hotel project that did not create some kind of environmental damage; but nowhere else was such a monumental protest raised to high heaven.

My husband and I were not hoteliers but we were mentally caught up in the storm as our son was involved in the project.

Sometimes these protests were on non-issues. One particularly outrageous one was that a hotel in the vicinity of the Dambulla Maha Vihare was tantamount to diluting Buddhism! Another alleged that Sinhala Buddhist youth will be denied a rightful share of the jobs created, an absolutely ridiculous suggestion. All new hotels generate employment for everybody, not a particular section of the community.

Then someone came up with a brilliant idea suggesting that only young people only from the Dambulla area be recruited for the hotel. Literally those who came to scoff remained to applaud! I think time has shown this hotel to be one of the most successful achievements of our contemporary tourism industry.

All the arguments of diluting national culture and denying employment to area youth fell by the wayside. The hotel management triumphed by grooming smart young men and women trained as budding hoteliers to serve the industry locally and globally.

The story of Kandalama can be told and retold for years to come as an example of man’s ability to overcome with grit and guts the failings of other men by creating something of inestimable value.

Padmini Nanayakkara,Colombo-3.