How did Nicholas II & Anton Chekhov end up in Sri Lanka?
This island was an important point of transit for those who traveled to Asia from Europe at the turn of the 20th century. Many famous people passed through it, from Arthur Conan Doyle to Mark Twain, including iconic Russian figures.
‘Colombo – Port of Call’ is a new book published by ‘Penguin Random House’. The author is an Indian writer named Ajay Kamalakaran, one of the greatest interest of whom is Russia and who spent years exploring Anton Chekhov’s eastern trip on his way from Sakhalin, as well as the bilateral connection between Russia and the East (such as Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi spiritual ties).
Ajay Kamalakaran. Colombo – Port of Call.
He lived in Russia for several years and one of his earlier books was devoted to the Sakhalin Island, while another novel was set in Russia.
Kamalakaran’s latest book traces famous people who visited the city of Colombo, “sipped on its fine tea and took in its crimson sunsets”. And what memories they took with them after visiting the island.
“Right from my first trip, I was interested in Colombo’s international connections and historical links with the rest of the world,” Mr. Kamalakaran says. “This book is an attempt to look at Colombo (and Sri Lanka, as a whole) in the heyday of teamships and ocean travel, through the stories of well-known international figures who visited the port.”
Anton Chekhov
Chekhov stopped in Sri Lanka for only 58 hours in 1890, traveling back home from Sakhalin Island where he explored a tsarist penal entrenchment colony. His path went through Hong Kong, Singapore and Colombo ports. And the late brought him the most joy of that long voyage.
Chekhov in Japan
“Absolutely no visitor from yesteryear is more celebrated in Sri Lanka than Russian short story writer and playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. His justifiable labelling of Ceylon [Sri Lanka’s previous name - Ed.] as ‘paradise’ is well remembered and featured in many tourist brochures.”
Hotels Grand Oriental and Galle Face even compete, claiming they received Chekhov. And they both have plaques in Chekhov’s honor. There is even a slight hint in his memoirs that he even had a romantic encounter with 'a black-eyed Indian' somewhere in a coconut forest.
Chekhov (pictured on the right) holding a mongoose
Chekhov also brought several mongooses from Sri Lanka and kept them as pets for a while, before donating them to the Moscow Zoo.
Nicholas II
In 1891, Nicholas (a crown prince back then, not an emperor yet) spent 12 days in Sri Lanka as a part of his big Asian voyage that brought him to Vladivostok, where he took part in a ceremony establishing the Trans-Siberian railroad construction.
Crown Prince Nicholas in Russian Far East
Sri Lanka, then part of the British Empire, accorded all the highest honors to Nicholas. The Russian prince was welcomed with a rich fruit decoration and a portrait of him painted by the Colombo customer officer's wife. Masses of spectators watched Nicholas and the retinue having driven along the streets. They stayed at the Queen’s House, the governor’s official residence.
Nicholas in Japan during his big Asian voyage
"There was a particular excitement about this visit among the population of Colombo, since word got around that the royal visitors could come in a Russian armoured naval cruiser, something the residents of the city had never seen before."
Tsarevich hunts leopard in India
Nicholas traveled the island, visited all its iconic temples and sights and even the tea factory and observed the quite exotic tradition of trapping elephants. The time he spent on the island was considered a diplomatic success.
Nicholas Roerich
This very authentic Russian artist was deeply interested in Buddhism and, in 1923, when he traveled to India, he made a stop in Ceylon. As he stepped off on the island, he was surprised to see that Colombo was a modern port full of Europeans, while Roerich expected to find ancient Buddhist pagodas.
Roerich in India
However, the artist paid a visit to the Kelaniya Temple, Temple of the Tooth, Mount Lavinia and the ancient capital of Anuradhapura. And was amazed by every single place.
This brief stay found its place in art, as, in 1931, Roerich created a painting titled ‘Ashram’.
Nicholas Roerich. Ashram, 1931
“It shows tall bamboo trees, separated from a hill by a greenish body of water and a small boat. Most scholars of Roerich’s works believe the setting of the painting to be the Royal Botanical Garden in Peradeniya,” Mr. Kamalakaran writes in his book.
