AYURVEDIC TREATMENT IN ULPOTHA, SRILANKA

Yoga and Ayurveda Holidays in a Traditional Village in Sri Lanka:
Ulpotha has been a pilgrimage site for thousands of years and remains an oasis of tranquility in the heart of Sri Lanka. It is a beautiful private hide-away open to guests for part of the year; a place of total peace, where you can experience the warm, generous and gentle hospitality which Sri Lankans love to offer.
Ulpotha is a traditional working village cradled on the one side by low mountains and a lotus ringed lake, and on the other by tiny emerald green paddy fields. Our focus, at present, is on the restoration of an ageless agricultural way of life including bio-diverse organic farming and reforestation of the land and its immediate surroundings.
Guests are welcome to Ulpotha and those who come will find a natural sanctuary of exceptional beauty where the main activity is simply relaxing in its remarkable atmosphere of peace and calm. However, for those more purposeful in nature, Ayurveda therapies and Yoga classes are available. The Ayurveda is administered by Dr Srilal Mudunkothge, an acclaimed practitioner of this ancient, holistic medical art, while the Yoga classes are led by some of the world's leading Yoga teachers.

Ayurveda in Ulpotha, Sri Lanka

Ulpotha has recently introduced an exciting program of Ayurveda treatments since it possesses the ideal climate and environment for the practise of this deeply traditional art. Until recently, Ulpotha had offered non-specific and general native treatments such as steam and infused water baths. The main reason for the absence of Ayurveda in Ulpotha was that the founders wanted to wait until the right person crossed their path to carry out what is a very specialised therapeutic practise. Ayurveda does not rely purely on knowledge, but includes the spiritual and the intangible in a holistic approach to good health and healing.
The primary aim of ayurveda is to balance the body’s energies and thus restore one’s health and vitality. Ulpotha is a particularly suitable place in which to undergo ayurvedic treatment, as the food and the environment complement the therapies and serve to underscore the holistic approach of AYURVEDA itself.
The Ayurveda programmes begin with detoxification therapies, which consist of preparatory and specialized elimination treatments. Preparatory treatments are called oleation and fomentation therapies and consist of oil applications, massage, steam and medicinal bath therapies. Specialised elimination therapies on the other hand consist of emesis, purgation and inhalation treatments among others. All of these are used to bring the body’s energies into balance, though not all of them will be necessary in all cases.
Once a balance is achieved, nourishing therapies are administered to maintain that balance. These rejuvenation treatments consist of traditional ayurvedic remedies using organic ingredients.

If a treatment is short in length, say one week or ten days, then you only have enough time for preparatory treatments that would support inhalation as an elimination therapy. If you have two weeks, then you can also undergo purgation. For emesis, enemas and blood-letting you need at least three weeks and ideally four weeks. However, the consultation is critical to determine which of the elimination therapies are required. If someone is particularly weak, then they will be subject to much more of the preparatory treatments and very little of the elimination therapies regardless of how long a program they have chosen. In other words, while you need to be on a long program to get into say emesis or enemas, it's not necessarily the case that you will definitely be subject to them if you choose a three or four week program if the consultation determines otherwise.
For the one week and ten day programs, guests will receive treatments every day. Each day will consist of roughly two hours of treatments. The two week program will have one or two rest days, the three week will have two or three rest days and the four week will have three or four rest days.
If we take an example of a one week program, the first day will consist of a full head and face and body massage (superficial tissue, or relaxing massage) followed by a herbal bath. Guests will also be given appropriate remedies to take, starting the first day for each day of their treatment - these remedies are meant to facilitate the treatments being received. The second day will consist of intensive, deep tissue body massage (no head and face) followed by a sauna or steam bath. The third day will consist of a relaxing body massage followed by shirodara oil application. The fourth day will consist of an inhalation therapyaccompanied by a head and face massage and a face steam. The fifth day will be a sarvangadara oil treatment (from a layman's terms, this is a shirodara but one for the whole body) followed by a steam bath. The sixth day will be a full body massage carried out using poultices made of a special milk rice made using medicinal decoctions followed by a warm water bath. The seventh day is a herbal facial treatment consisting of cleansing scrub, face steam, massage and herbal pack.
Treatments will be scheduled either in the morning or in the afternoon. Guests will have the rest of each day to hang out and do other things, including the optional yoga classes. Guests having treatment will be able to attend at least one yoga class a day. Sometimes they may prefer to just relax after treatments which is fine. The doctor says the more relaxing the yoga the better, which means astanga yoga would be better avoided.

Costs
At present there are five different programme periods on offer at Ulpotha: One week, ten day, two week, three week, and four week treatments, costing £200, £300, £400, £600 and £800 respectively. On your arrival in Ulpotha you will be introduced to Dr. Srilal, who can book you in for a consultation. Depending on your suitability for treatment and availability, he will administer the programme length of your choice and/or needs.

A FORTNIGHT IN ULPOTHA - by MOYRA BREMNER
'Paradise' is the word guests most often use to describe this unique, mountain-ringed haven in the heart of Sri Lanka. It's a secluded hideaway where you live in elegant simplicity, close to nature, in adobe houses nestling among flowers and trees, swim in a lake half-smothered in tiny water lilies, and eat delicious food lounging on cushions like an emperor.
For me, the atmosphere was the highlight. It takes about 18-24 guests and seems to attract original and interesting people, of all ages and both solo and married, in the arts, media and professions. Some are paying guests, others friends of the owners. As everyone mixes and is treated like a friend, it feels like a very well run, and delightfully informal, house party where generosity comes naturally and one is cherished, not waited on. So it's a place with a lot of highs and very few lows.
Having been a place of pilgrimage for centuries the land itself has a profound, almost spiritual, tranquillity. It seems to invite you to let go and luxuriate in its gentle beauty - and in just being yourself, without the trappings and labels of modern life.

Moveable Feasts
As a foodie one of the great joys of Ulpotha was its food. The main meals are eaten in a white, Sri Lankan manor house where jewel colours set off the carefully placed antique furniture and works of art. It was featured in 'The World of Interiors' and the elegant simplicity and use of colour make it look almost like a film set.
The dining room is an 'ambalama' - a large room, open to the breeze, its roof supported by pillars. You eat lounging, like a Roman emperor, on the wide, brilliantly cushioned, wall-bench which runs round three sides. Trays of mouth watering curries - perhaps green mango curry with coconut milk, garlic curry, or a stunning aubergine (egg plant) curry - are laid out with salads, sambals, appetisers, and side dishes, on a huge cream banana leaf mat which fills the floor. So you just help yourself, as often as you like.
After the curries there are luscious tropical fruits and buffalo milk yoghurt with kitul syrup - which is rather like maple syrup. There are also fruit juices made from some delicious wild fruit which you may taste nowhere else.
Breakfast is at the other end of the drive, in the kade - the little open-plan house which is Ulpotha's main chat room. You can breakfast from 7-12 on the best bananas I've ever eaten, tea, freshly baked Sri Lankan snacks and a tasty local soup -- oddly called porridge. In fact, in the kade, you can lounge around nibbling delicious Sri Lankan snacks all day long. For fresh nibbles appear in the afternoon and there's always someone there to slice the top off a king coconut, with a machete, and give you a glass of its water.
The other great chat room is the open-plan guest kitchen in the main house where you can make yourself coffee or English-style tea, at any time - and some guests spent hours round its table.
The one thing that isn't abundant is alcohol. Whenever there's a party there's more than enough - at no charge. Apart from that, it isn't usually provided. But nobody seems to miss it although, as there's no bar, some people do bring their own, or buy local beer or arrak.

A Room With A View
Ulpotha is a garden and a farm and in one but, with everything done the traditional way, there are no chemicals and no machinery. The bedrooms are little adobe houses in separate clearings among the lush mingling of tropical trees and shrubs, which produce the farm's fruit nuts. The sandy paths are shaded by coconut palms and fringed with brilliant hibisicus and the vegetable plots are bright with sunflowers and marigolds. So it feels rather like living in the Garden of Eden.
Each house is a double room with a difference. The furnishings are simple and thoughtful. Mosquito nets cover the beds. A curvaceous terracotta pot, topped with a coconut cup, provides pure spring water to drink. here are ample cupboards, piles of softly coloured floor cushions invite lounging beside a low table and every day there's a fresh bowl of floating flowers. The soft natural tones set off the brilliant 'wallpaper of the natural world. True to Sri Lankan tradition the immaculate and sweetly scented loos and showers are in separate buildings. For, the only wall is behind the beds, and privacy is provided by bamboo blinds and the low sweep of the palm-leaf roof.
My room looked out across brilliant green paddy fields. and at night I fell asleep to a frog lullaby. There's nothing quite like drowsing off to the sound of the velvety tropical night and waking in a comfortable bed to see to bullocks grazing gently in the distance and flowers and butterflies almost close enough to touch.

Delicious Indolence
It is, above all, a place to relax and find peace and the only rule seems to be that there aren't any rules - unless you count an unwritten rule to treat everything and everyone with gentle respect and tolerance. Yet, there is a rhythm to the days. There are usually daily yoga classes in a big, breezy, open-sided, building with a palm leaf roof, or in the dappled shade beneath the trailing aerial roots of a huge banyan tree. Ulpotha attracts some world-class yoga instructors. So some guests go there for the yoga - and coil themselves into amazing positions. However, teachers set their own schedules, teaching one or two classes a day, according to what people want. Some also lead dawn or sunset walks in the surrounding hills.
I enjoyed the yoga and heard the walks were glorious. But they are both optional and, having overslept a few classes, discovered nobody is an outsider for missing them, for Ulpotha's main activities are swimming, walking, reading, snoozing and paddling about in boats. This is a place to unwind, be gentle with yourself, live close to nature and simply be, not a place where you have to exercise and strive.

Perfect Peace
One of the lovely things about Ulpotha was that it's equally easy to find both companionship and solitude. When you want to be alone there are the inviting hammocks slung around the grounds, two tree houses, or a secluded little ambalama overlooking the lake. . Best of all there's a romantic little house on stilts in the far side of the lake where privacy is guaranteed - there's only one canoe to take you there. All these hideaways have urns of pure spring water, oil lamps, mattresses and bedding. So they're perfect for a siesta or even a night of total solitude. This makes Ulpotha a great place for creative people to think - or even work. When I was there one Hollywood writer hid away in the lake house for days, emerging only for meals - blissed out and saying it was 'every child's dream'.
Sri Lankan's are good at sleeping wherever they are. So, in keeping with this tradition, guests are encouraged to spend the occasional night in one of hideaways, so they can experience waking to sunrise on the lake - or simply a new freedom.

Eastern Indulgence
One of the special features of Ulpotha is that, . if you want to be pampered massages, ayurvedic herbal or hot oil treatments are free. The health centre offers an interesting combination of east and west, modern and traditional for, though the herbal treatments are Sri Lankan the massage is by Europeans.
Ulpotha sits in the oldest continually inhabited area of Sri Lanka, which is a treasure house of traditional remedies. So its soothing steam baths and hot oil treatments use the ancient ayurvedic herbal remedies still found in local village medicine and made from herbs that are grown at Ulpotha or gathered in the surrounding woods. unfortunately I visited Ulpotha too soon to experience Ulpotha's latest innovation. I hear it's an appointment with, Mr Chandrasekara - one of the region's most respected ayurvedic experts. That must be fascinating. For the ayurvedic tradition sees a unity in mind and body and reads' them in a totally different way from Western medicine.

The Birds And The Bees
Although indolence is Ulpotha's keynote it's also a nature lover's and walker's dream. The energetic find endless hills to climb and woods to walk, and a garden designer among the guests seemed entranced by the plants. For wildlife, as for people, the area is a place of safety so, just walking to breakfast, I watched a monitor lizard sunbathing while exotic birds landed only feet away.
However, the restless spirits not interested in wildlife borrowed Ulpotha's bikes and cycled the deeply rutted path to the nearest village to buy a few - very few - bare necessities and phone their loved ones from the public phone. For one of few problems at Ulpotha is a complete lack of phones, and surrounding mountains which make most mobiles fail.

A Touch Of Magic
The most magical evening of my stay was when we all sat in the darkness, watching buffalo thresh the new rice crop in the cool of the night. I felt like a time traveller as they slowly circled, treading it under their hooves, as they had for thousands of years, lit only by flickering candle light.
Ulpotha keeps alive the traditional rituals of seed time and harvest, and I watched, next morning, as rice was ritually cooked and spread on flower-decorated banana leaves, in thanks for this God-given harvest, before being shared round the village in celebration.
Such things are part of the fabric of Ulpotha's life, not a show put on for tourists. Here tradition is lived, celebration and gratitude seem to come naturally, and the practical and the spiritual are deeply interwoven. So respect for nature, and everything that lives, is a daily act of reverence - and you can feel it in the whole atmosphere of the place and the thoughtfulness with which you are looked after.

Pleasures And Pastimes
Party nights are nights to remember. The owners seem to sense when everyone is in the mood for dancing and suddenly say, 'How about a party tonight?' By nightfall, bottles of arrak have been mustered and rugs and cushions laid out on the flat rocks by the lake, or under the enormous banyan tree. Dancing in the moonlight is to the music of a remarkably talented village band, or CD's powered by a car battery.
Some of the great sights of Sri Lanka are within reach, among them Dambulla and a Buddhist monastery with some of the oldest archaeological remains in the country. So, at least once a week, there's a spur of the moment picnic or a visit to a historic site. These outings are free, apart from the admission fee to wherever you visit. But whether you pile into the minibus and jolt off - over the less than wonderful roads - or stay and savour the even greater quiet when others have gone, is entirely up to you.
I arrived at Ulpotha intending to see all the magnificent sights within reach. But the place soon worked its magic and the 'shoulds' fell away, leaving only a desire to relish the peace around me. So don't be surprised if you find that your desire to sight see melts away, like mist in sunlight. After all, there's always next time. Some of my fellow guests were on their third visit and it's a place that's hard to visit only once - if you've a taste for magic.
Ulpotha is unique. It neither teaches nor preaches yet, for some, just staying there is life changing

Booking a holiday at Ulpotha is really easy. Once we have confirmed your dates via email or phone below, we will send you an email with the price and a link to pay online via credit card or Paypal.
Email: info@ulpotha.com (Preferred)
Tel: +44 (0)208 123 3603
Please be patient when calling the above number as the connection is routed through to us in Sri lanka at no extra charge to yourself. Sri Lanka is 5 1/2 hours ahead of GMT.
Skype username: ulpothavillage
For emergencies or to leave a message in Ulpotha Tel: +94 (0)375 627 888

For Rasa Yoga Center students you can contact:
Daniela Schmidt
Email: shanti@rasa-yogarivegauche.com
Tel: +33 1 43 54 14 59.