Arugam Bay

The bay's history runs far deeper than its surfing reputation. The dunes behind Pottuvil hold the Muhudu Maha Viharaya, a Buddhist temple whose stone figures and ruined stupas belong to the early centuries of the island's history, and the country inland has the monastic ruins of Kudumbigala and the moonstone and pillars of Magul Maha Viharaya at Lahugala. This was the eastern edge of Ruhuna, a frontier of forest, reservoirs and elephants between the ancient kingdoms and the sea, and the coast here traded with ships working between India and the south.

For most of the modern era Arugam Bay was a fishing settlement of a few hundred people on a sandy spit, with the larger Muslim town of Pottuvil behind it. Surfers found the right-hand point break in the second half of the 20th century, and a handful of simple guesthouses grew up along the beach road. The civil war kept numbers low for decades: Ampara district saw fighting and displacement, roads were unreliable and travel to the east coast was often impossible.

On 26 December 2004 the tsunami destroyed almost the whole village. Many people in the Pottuvil area were killed, the beach road was flattened and the fishing fleet was wrecked. Rebuilding, with aid from many countries, took years, and it changed the place: new guesthouses, a rebuilt bridge and better roads followed. Since the end of the war in 2009 visitor numbers have grown steadily, interrupted by the 2019 Easter attacks, the pandemic and the economic crisis of 2022, and the village now lives by a short, intense season from May to September.

Arugam Bay has two lives that run side by side. One is the beach road in season: board racks, early starts, sunburn and reggae, an international crowd of surfers, yoga teachers and long-stay travellers, many of whom return year after year. The other is the settled life of the bay and Pottuvil — mostly Muslim, with Tamil and Sinhalese villages nearby — where the mosque sets the hours of the day, the boats go out at dawn and the surf economy is a source of work rather than a way of life.

That mix asks for some care from visitors. Modesty matters away from the sand: covered shoulders and knees in the village and in Pottuvil, swimwear kept to the beach, and discretion with alcohol, which is not part of local custom even though it is sold on the strip. Ramadan changes the rhythm of the whole area, and the Eid festivals are family occasions. Shoes come off at the mosque and at the Buddhist temples inland, where the monastic sites are places of pilgrimage rather than attractions.

Surfing itself has become a local tradition, with Sri Lankan surfers from the village and from Pottuvil among the best on the island, and competitions held at the main point during the season. Women's surfing has grown too: the girls' surf club registered here in 2018 was the first in Sri Lanka. Out of season the village returns to fishing, farming and repairs, and the beach road goes quiet enough for the monkeys and the buffalo to take it back.

Only a few thousand people live at Arugam Bay itself, while Pottuvil, the town on the other side of the lagoon, is considerably larger and provides the schools, banks, market and bus stand. The wider Ampara district is one of the most agricultural in Sri Lanka, and the country behind the coast is a landscape of paddy fields, tanks, scrub and elephant corridors.

The village economy rests on three things: fishing from the lagoon and the sea, farming inland, and the visitors who arrive with the swell. In season the beach road employs cooks, drivers, board repairers, guides and builders; out of season much of that work vanishes and families fall back on the boats and the fields, or on work elsewhere in the country and in the Gulf. Jeep drivers run safaris to Kumana and Lahugala, and boatmen take visitors into the mangroves of the lagoon.

The day begins before dawn, with the fishing boats and the first surfers out at the same hour, and slows through the hot middle of the day. Water supply, the state of the roads, coastal erosion and conflict between elephants and farmers are constant local concerns, and the seasonal nature of tourism leaves incomes uneven. The economic crisis of 2022, with fuel shortages that stranded drivers and visitors alike, is still remembered as a difficult year.

Eating at Arugam Bay means seafood and curry. Boats land seer fish, tuna, squid, prawns and crab from the lagoon, and the kitchens along the beach road grill them over charcoal or cook them into curries thick with coconut milk, roasted chilli and curry leaves. Devilled preparations — fish, prawn or cuttlefish stir-fried with onion, tomato and green chilli — are a staple, and lagoon crab appears in the spicy eastern style.

The everyday meal in the village is rice and curry: a plate of rice ringed by fish curry, dhal, a green leaf, a dry vegetable such as jackfruit or pumpkin, and pol sambol, grated coconut pounded with chilli, lime and dried fish. Breakfast is string hoppers or hoppers, bowl-shaped pancakes of fermented rice flour and coconut milk, often with an egg set in the middle, or roti with sambol. In the evening kottu roti is chopped on steel plates with a steady clatter, and short eats — pastries, cutlets and fried rolls — are sold from glass cases.

Being a mainly Muslim area, Pottuvil and the village also do biryani, mutton curry and richly spiced rice dishes, and watalappam, a set custard of jaggery, coconut milk, eggs and spices, at festival times. The beach cafés add the food the surf crowd expects — fruit bowls, pancakes, coffee and rice-and-vegetable plates. King coconut, thambili, is drunk straight from the shell, and strong sweet tea is served all day.