World Heritage hub
Dambulla, the caves
The resource is the painted temples and the vegetable economy of the dry zone around them. The hub is the clay and the kitchen: pottery, the cooking schools, the market at dawn.
Why a hub
The country funnels its visitors through a handful of small heritage cores, most of them in the Cultural Triangle. That funnel is the problem when the cores are turnstiles. It is the answer when each core becomes a hub: the place where the region's own resource is grown, made, shown and sold, with a making-house at the gate where the visitor watches the work and buys it from the hands that did it. Sri Lanka House in Colombo is the model; these are the regional editions. A hub is also the one place in its region where the rules are visibly kept: clean, priced, and honest, with a complaints line that answers. Every one of the five hundred belongs to at least one hub.
Sri Lanka House in Colombo, the model every hub is a regional edition of
The clusters this hub is built from
2
Sell the making, not the object
The craft cannot be copied and the object can. In Europe people queue to watch glass being blown and then buy the glass.
25 ideas, 21 to 45
6
Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
Dilmah says it earns over 3 times the national average price for tea, because it does its own blending, branding and...
30 ideas, 121 to 150
14
Farm to shelf
The smallholder sells raw to a collector at the gate and the collector sells to a packer who puts his own name on it....
25 ideas, 271 to 29581 ideas that belong here
Every idea in the hub's clusters, plus any idea elsewhere in the list that names this place.
- 21Half-day cooking courses: two curries and riceCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 22Full-day courses: a five-course Sri Lankan menuCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 23Multi-day culinary residenciesCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 24Batik workshops where you take home what you madeCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 25Pottery workshops, your own signature on the baseCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 26Handloom weaving demonstrations and short coursesCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 27Mask carving workshopsCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 28Gem cutting demonstrations with certified purchaseCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 29Jewellery-making classesCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 30Tea blending workshops, and your own blend packed to take awayCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 31Cinnamon peeling demonstrations on working smallholdingsCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 32Coconut processing demonstrationsCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 33Spice blending, with a labelled jar of your own mixCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 34Clay-pot cooking classesCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 35Fresco and mural painting workshops with local artistsCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 36Traditional hair-oil and herbal preparation classesCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 37Wood carving classesCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 38Lacquerware workshopsCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 39Village kitchen lunches, cooked with the familyCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 40Grandmother's Kitchen: one dish, one district, one storyCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 41Brass and bronze casting in the Kandyan tradition, watched from pour to polishCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 42Dumbara mat weaving taught by the families who still do itCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 43Palm-leaf manuscript writing with a stylus, your name on an ola leaf to take homeCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 44Drum-making and a drumming lesson in one afternoonCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 45Toddy tapping at dawn, watched from the ground, with breakfast afterCluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
- 121Organic farm-to-table restaurants using genuinely local produceCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 122Single-origin chocolate using Sri Lankan spicesCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 123Ceylon coffee roasteriesCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 124Herbal tea ranges: cinnamon, lemongrass, gingerCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 125Coconut-based dessert cafés and product linesCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 126King coconut water, bottled and branded for exportCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 127Premium chilli sauces, chutneys and preservesCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 128Fusion pop-ups and supper clubsCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 129Luxury picnic catering at heritage sitesCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 130Spice oils and extracts rather than raw spiceCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 131Value-added cinnamon: ground, capsuled, oil, branded consumer packsCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 132Jaffna crab and cuttlefish curry as a chilled export dish for the Sri Lankan shops abroadCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 133Freeze-dried tropical fruit, mangosteen, rambutan, mango and pineapple, as snacks for European and Gulf supermarketsCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 134Hoppers and string-hopper mixes that work in a foreign kitchenCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 135Kithul treacle and jaggery as a named origin sweetener, the way maple syrup is Canadian, with a range of recipes and ready products that use it in place of white sugar, each tested for its glycaemic index so the label can say what it doesCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 136Ceylon arrack as a premium spirit with a distillery tour, the way whisky is sold in ScotlandCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 137Craft beer and cider from local fruit for the tourist townsCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 138Wood-apple, soursop and passion-fruit juices and sorbets for exportCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 139A fine-dining Sri Lankan restaurant in London or New York aiming for a Michelin star, the flagship that makes the whole cuisine premiumCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 140Curry-leaf, pandan and gotukola as frozen and dried herbs for European retailCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 141A Sri Lankan rice brand: red rice, suwandel and the heritage varieties, in retail packs abroadCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 142Ready meals for Sri Lankans abroad, cooked in Sri Lanka, frozen and shipped in bulkCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 143A cookbook and video series in English that becomes the standard reference, with the products linkedCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 144Vanilla, since it grows here, cured and graded to the Madagascar standardCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 145Pepper as a single-estate product with the estate's name on the jarCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 146Cocoa from the wet zone processed into bean-to-bar chocolate on the islandCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 147Jackfruit as a meat substitute for the vegan markets of Europe, canned and frozenCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 148Sea salt from the Puttalam and Hambantota pans, flaked and brandedCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 149Buffalo curd and treacle sold as a chilled dessert in the Gulf supermarketsCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 150A Sri Lankan food hall in one European city, run as a showcase and a wholesaler at onceCluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
- 196Pilgrimage routes properly interpreted: Anuradhapura, Mihintale, the Sri Maha Bodhi, Kandy, Dambulla, with guides who know the history and not only the routeCluster 9: The offering nobody else can make
- 271A farmers' co-operative dairy in the hill country selling cheese and yoghurt under its own brandCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 272Buffalo-milk mozzarella and ghee for the hotels and for exportCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 273Fruit and vegetable drying: mango, pineapple, papaya, jackfruit and okra as premium snacks and soup mixes for Europe and the GulfCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 274Frozen tropical fruit pulp for the smoothie chains of the worldCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 275Heritage rice varieties grown under contract and sold at ten times the commodity priceCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 276Organic certification services for smallholder groups, shared so the cost is bearableCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 277Mushroom farms supplying the hotels, since most are still importedCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 278Cut flowers and foliage for the Gulf and Europe, from the cool hills, the way Kenya does itCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 279Orchid nurseries for export, which Singapore built from nothingCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 280Seed banks and seed businesses for the heritage vegetables and grainsCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 281Honey from the dry zone, single-origin, tested and brandedCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 282Egg and poultry co-operatives with a cold chain, so the price does not collapse in the seasonCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 283Goat and sheep dairy in the north, where the animals already areCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 284Vegetable box schemes for Colombo households, direct from a named farmCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 285Drip-irrigation installation and maintenance businesses for the dry zoneCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 286Cashew-processing units in Puttalam owned by the growers, not by the tradersCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 287Kithul tapping co-operatives with a shared processing plant and a brandCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 288Tamarind, lime and ginger pastes for the restaurant trade abroadCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 289Agricultural drone services: spraying, mapping and counting, sold per acreCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 290Cold stores at the district level, rented by the palletCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 291A wholesale market app that shows the day's prices, so the farmer stops selling blindCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 292Palmyrah products from the north: toddy, jaggery, fibre, fruit, the whole tree the way the coconut is a whole nutCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 293Farm-machinery hire pools, so that a two-acre farmer can afford a harvester for a dayCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 294Wood-apple, passion fruit, jackfruit and jamun as jellies, jams and fruit leathers in jars, the way Britain sells marmaladeCluster 14: Farm to shelf
- 295Home gardens turned into a supply chain for one hotel, with a contract and a priceCluster 14: Farm to shelf