Sleepy Dambulla Of The Nineteen Sixties

GAM UDAWA METAMORPHOSED THE AREA

by H. M. Nissanka Warakaulla

It was the year 1962 and I was getting ready to sit my final year examination of the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, in April. The University authorities had distributed a circular among us final year students asking those who’d like a teaching appointment after graduation to indicate their preferences of districts for postings. I indicated Kandy as my first preference and Matale as the second. I finished my last paper on April 26. Soon after finishing the examination, I received a letter from the Department of Education appointing me as an Assistant Teacher at the Dambulla Maha Vidyalaya from May 2. That was how undergraduates were treated then – teaching appointments even before the final results!

On the afternoon of May 1, I boarded a long distance bus from Kandy which was going through Dambulla. At that time with not much traffic on the roads and the drivers were very careful; the bus reached my destination covering 45 miles in 90 minutes and stopped at the small bus stand close to the Dambulla temple. I got off the bus and had to find my way to the school. As I was a stranger in town (if it could be called that then), I had to ask for directions and arrived at the school located between the Kandy and the Kurunegala Roads. Later, I used to carry a torch in case I arrived after dusk and the trek to the school, though short, was dangerous as there were serpents on the road.

The school then had only one building with another old building divided into two separate sections. One section there was used as the teachers’ quarters and the other as the quarters of the Overseer of the then Public Works Department. The teachers’ quarters had accommodation only for four. Fortunately, I had a bed, mattress, pillow and a mosquito net. I parked myself in that gloomy place as there was no alternative. Just before dark, one of the resident teachers would light the petromax lamp which was our only source of light at that time.

Having arrived at the school and sorted out the accommodation, the next thing was to organize my meals. Fortunately the other teachers had arranged a woman to supply us and I too joined the club. This Buth Amma used to bring our meals always on time. We did not bother to find out her real name and always called her the name associated with her work. Of course, at that stage I could not be finicky about how clean the food was as it was Hobson’s choice! There was no decent place in Dambulla town at that time for even a good cup of tea prepared hygenically, except at the dingy looking rest house.

Dambulla was famous for its cave temple, then in its original state without the hideous additions that have recently been built. From where the temple is situated, up to the Mirsgoniyawa junction, there were just three permanent buildings – the school (then a Maha Vidyalaya), the police station and the government hospital plus of course the rest house on the Kandy Road and a small building on the Kurunegala road serving as the circuit court about once in two months.

As Dambulla was bordering the dry zone, it was dry and hot especially in the afternoons most of the year. During this dry period no cultivation was possible. The farmers in most of the areas had to depend entirely on the North East monsoon and the convectional afternoon thunder showers in April and October to cultivate their paddy lands as well as vegetables, fruit and the chenas. Those with fields close to the Kandalama tank used to get irrigation water from there. When the harvesting is done, the fruit and vegetables were sold at unbelievably low prices. You could buy a pile of produce for a mere five rupees. Kandalama then was a village with a few inhabitants and remained so until the hotel designed by Geoffrey Bawa was built.

We bathed drawing brackish water from a well. The water in the Dambulla area was brackish and we had to make do with it. As a result I developed a kidney problem which was overcome with antibiotics prescribed by a reputed doctor in Kandy.

During my time in Dambulla, a group of us went to help clean the roadway leading to the Somawathi Chaitya on a shramadana basis. At that time there was no macadamized road to the chaitya which was located in a thick jungle. It was just a cart track with footprints and dung of wild elephants everywhere. We cleared the shrubs on this cart track. The chaitya was discoloured and had not been whitewashed for a long time as there was no temple near it then.

There was no laundry in Dambulla to get our clothes and linen done so that I had to take the washing home and bring back clean clothes when returning to school on Monday morning.

Dambulla developed to what it is today due to the Gam Udawa held there. By then I had left Dambulla getting a transfer to a school in Ankumbura. Thanks to Gam Udawa the sleepy hamlet gradually developed into a busy township. Now there are street lights and water on tap as well as access to electricity to light up homes. Then came the first five star hotel in Kandalama overlooking the picturesque tank and merging into the vegetation around it. A number of other hotels sprang up later. In addition the cricket stadium too was constructed just outside town limits. Dambulla developed into the main distribution centre in the country for vegetables and the town became a very busy hub with a heavy flow of traffic.

The Maha Vidalaya where I was teaching has been upgraded to a Madhya Maha Vidyalaya with a number of new buildings. The school which had about 60 students and a staff of about 10 teachers then had now developed to cater to a student population of about 600 with a staff of about 25. However, I must say that even with the few facilities we had at that time, a few students gained admission to the universities and some even joined the Sri Lanka Administrative Service. Though the facilities available at Dambulla then was nowhere compared to what we enjoyed on the Peradeniya campus, I gained a lot of satisfaction doing the work I did there.