Travel + Leisure Asia India has published “In Sri Lanka, Kithul Tappers Still Climb 40-Foot Palms To Keep A 2,000-Year-Old Craft Alive,” a long-form report on kithul madeema — the twice-daily climb up the indigenous fishtail palm to draw the milk-white sap that becomes kithul treacle and hakuru jaggery. The craft was added to UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage last December, even as the number of working tappers continues to fall.
For travellers who want to see the practice first-hand rather than only taste its results, the article points to a small number of places across the island where kithul can be encountered at source. In Kandy, Aarunya Nature Resort is listed among them, offering tapping demonstrations that follow the sap from stalk to pot.
It is a natural extension of what the resort already does within its own spice and tea gardens: giving guests a direct, unhurried encounter with the landscape and the knowledge held by the people who work it. The piece is a reminder that Sri Lanka’s culinary heritage is carried by hands as much as recipes — and that the clearest way to protect it is to buy from, and learn from, the makers themselves.
Read the full article here: Travel + Leisure Asia
