Notes on the Geography of Sri Lanka: Paingamuwa

Paingamuwa is a ribbon of houses along a road south from the University of Peradeniya.  It's also a village fringing the Mahaweli Ganga.  Some of it is paddy; some, mostly farther from the river, is upland planted to other crops. 

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Front yard of a prosperous villager's house.

Tropical fruits, like this mango, are everywhere.

See the jackfruit?  It's green and about the size of an American football.

Yes, the dog's exuberance is a bit mystifying.

Midway up the stairs, an abandoned rice mill sits in the shack.

The old mill.

Down by the river, extensive paddy fields survive.  The owner of the garden in the previous pictures owns five acres here--a principality, by local standards.

Threshing ground in the paddy area; the uplands on both sides of the deniya are also cultivated, though mostly in tree crops.

Here, an owner has decided to try cassava instead of profitless paddy.

The cassava here has been harvested.

Behind the cassava sticks and the paddy fields, you can make out the horizontal line of an irrigation canal.

A gate along the channel.

A shrine that has outlasted its tree.

Path in the upland.

This may looks like an unkempt forest, but most of the trees have edible products that are regularly harvested.

Seasonally flooded land along the river

The flow of the Mahaweli Ganga is limited here by an upstream reservoir.