Destinations » Kithulgala

Kitulgala is located southwest of enchanting Kandy & north of famous mountain “Adam’s Peak“. The location of David Lean’s classic in 1957, Oscar-winning film ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai‘, Kitulgala is the Sri Lanka’s favourite village for White water rafting. To make it easier for you, there is a paved pathway to the exact main location of the film. For the birders, Kitulgala is irresistible too: 38 species of birds are found here. For the shutterbugs the limitless green & green rainforest serves endless landscapes
Kitulgala is a small peaceful village set about halfway of the scenic main road descending gently from the hill country (Central highlands) to wet lowlands. The village is well known for its Kitul Pani (Kitul palm honey) production too. It’s a beautiful setting; the scenery is particularly dramatic hereabouts, with sheer-sided, thick rainforest-covered hills plunging down to the wild waters of River Kelani.

Scene creation of the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British World War II film by David Lean based on the novel The Bridge over the River Kwai by French writer
 French writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting. It stars William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa. The scene creation of the film was done in Sri Lanka and many of them were at Kitulgala area including the bridge explosion.
In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.

Agriculture

The agriculture around Kitulgala is typical of the hilly wet zone. The Solitary Fishtail Palm, Caryota urens, which is called Kitul in Sri Lanka, gives rise to the town's name. Its sap is concentrated into a delicious syrup, not dissimilar to maple syrup, and crystallized as jaggery. It is also fermented to make palm wine. The pith is used to make sago, and the fibres to make rope.


Bananas of both red and yellow varieties are grown. The yellow bananas are only some 8 cm long, but are sweeter and tastier than the commercial strains available in the West. Rubber trees are also grown on the higher areas.
Many birders stay at Kitulgala. This area has most of the rainforest bird species that are found at the World Biosphere Reserve at Sinharaja, although in lower numbers. However, the secondary forest and cultivation at Kitulgala is more open than the pristine woodlands of Sinharaja, and elusive
 endemic species like Sri Lanka Spurfowl, Green-billed Coucal and Spot-winged Thrush may be easier to see.

Features

Large numbers of people make the excursion from Colombo at weekends to enjoy the beautiful scenery, play in the river, and have an excellent rice and curry lunch at the local restaurants.
The Kelani river is wide at Kitulgala, but it is shallow apart from a deep channel near the opposite bank, so in the drier months it provides a safe and attractive place to swim, wash and play.
The river can be crossed by walking out across the shallows and crossing the deep channel in a dugout canoe, which is stabilised with an outrigger.


with an outrigger.
Sri Lanka's most recently discovered bird, the Serendib Scops Owl was originally heard calling by Deepal Warakagoda in these forests.
The hills above the rubber plantations also have Mountain Hawk Eagle, Crested Treeswift and Layard's Parakeet.

Kitulgala

Kitulgala is a small town in the west of Sri Lanka. It is in the wet zone rain forest, which gets two monsoons each year, and is one of the wettest places in the country. Nevertheless, it comes alive in the first three months of the year, especially in February, the driest month. The Academy Award-winning The Bridge on the River Kwai was filmed on the Kelani River near Kitulgala, although nothing remains now except the concrete foundations for the bridge (and, supposedly, the submerged train cars that plunged into the river in the climactic scene). Kitulgala is also a base for white-water rafting, which starts a few kilometres upstream....