Give Jaffna three days. One for the town, which is Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, the Dutch fort and the library that was burned in 1981 and rebuilt. One for the islands, taking the Kurikadduwan ferries to Nainativu and Delft. One for the peninsula: Keerimalai springs, Casuarina Beach, the dunes at Manalkadu and the stupas at Kantharodai. Book nothing in advance except the train.
Sri Lanka's northern capital reads as a different country from the south: Tamil and Hindu where the rest of the island is Sinhalese and Buddhist, flat, hot and hemmed by lagoons. Thirty years of war closed it. The train has run again since 2014.
The gold-ochre gopuram over Nallur is the defining building of the north, rebuilt on this site in 1734 after the Portuguese destroyed the original. Come for the evening puja, when the brass lamps are lit and the drums start. Men enter bare-chested, everyone barefoot.
Portuguese in 1618, rebuilt by the Dutch into a pentagon that was among the largest forts in Asia, then shelled to rubble in the war. Restoration has put the ramparts and the Dutch church footprint back. Walk the walls for the lagoon and the whole town.
Burned by a mob in 1981 with around 97,000 volumes inside, an act that hardened the war and is still the rawest wound in the north. The white Indo-Saracenic building was rebuilt and reopened in 2003. It is a monument, and it is also a working library.
An hour by ferry from Kurikadduwan: a flat coral island of dry-stone walls, a small Dutch fort, a baobab planted by Arab traders and several hundred semi-wild horses left behind by the Portuguese. Sailings are few and passenger numbers capped.
Twenty minutes off Kurikadduwan, a small island carrying two pilgrimages at once: the Nagapooshani Amman kovil in blue and gold, and the Nagadeepa Purana Vihara, one of the oldest Buddhist sites on the island. Boats run through the day.
A walled freshwater pool that fills beside the sea, fed by a spring credited with healing and used for ancestral rites. The Naguleswaram kovil stands above it, one of the five great Shiva sites on the island. Bathing is segregated, men in the open pool.
Karainagar's white-sand bay, named for the trees behind it, and the calmest water on the peninsula: it stays waist-deep a long way out. The causeway means it is the one beach that works as a half day from town rather than a full one.
The northernmost point of Sri Lanka, a lighthouse and a working fishing coast. South of it the Manalkadu dunes have swallowed a Portuguese-era church, its gable still standing clear of the sand. The drive crosses the palmyra flatlands.
Dozens of squat stone stupas packed into one field at Kandarodai, the clearest Buddhist remains on a Hindu peninsula and among the oldest excavated sites in the north. Twenty minutes here reframes everything else you look at in Jaffna.
Where the peninsula sells itself: palmyra jaggery and odiyal flour, dried fish by the sack, curry powder ground to the Jaffna formula, and Karuthakolomban mangoes when they are in. Buy the curry powder. It is the one thing you cannot get at home.
The Tamil harvest festival. Rice boiled over in the courtyard, kolam drawn at the door.
The night vigil for Shiva. Naguleswaram at Keerimalai fills and stays open through it.
Tamil new year. Family visits, temple offerings, and the town quiet in the middle of the day.
Sixteen days on Nainativu, with a chariot procession. The Kurikadduwan boats run packed.
Ancestral rites at Keerimalai. Pilgrims bathe in the pool beside the sea from first light.
Twenty-five days at Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, ending with the chariot and the water cutting.
Oil lamps along the walls, new clothes, and sweets pressed on anyone who visits.
The festival of lamps. Rows of them on temple walls and doorsteps across the peninsula.
The former Palaly air base, 16 km north at Kankesanthurai, reopened to civil traffic in 2019. Regional flights to Chennai; check the schedule before planning around it.
The Yal Devi runs the length of the island to Jaffna and on to Kankesanthurai. Roughly seven hours from Colombo Fort. Book a reserved seat, since it is the one thing here that sells out.
The A9 highway is the overland route, about 400 km from Colombo. Government and private intercity coaches run it. Local buses leave Jaffna Central for the peninsula and the Kurikadduwan jetty.
Tuk-tuks cover the town and are the sane way to do the peninsula, hired by the half day. PickMe works in Jaffna. Agree the price before setting off if the meter is not running.
Lagoon crab in a dark roasted gravy, hot with the local curry powder.
The northern seafood broth, thickened with palmyra flour. Eaten with the hands.
Crisp, folded over spiced potato, with sambar and coconut chutney.
String hoppers under a thin coconut milk gravy, with sambol on the side.
Slow-cooked with the Jaffna blend of roasted chilli, fennel and coriander.
Palmyra tuber, boiled or dried. Sweet, fibrous and sold on the street.
The peninsula's own mango, dense and honeyed, in season mid-year.
Rose syrup, basil seed and ice cream, layered in a glass. Rio does the classic.
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