UNESCO recognition boosts Sri Lanka’s traditional kithul palm tapping, a heritage craft facing labour shortages and adulteration but offering export potential
AMBEGODA: When Sarath Ananda left his job as a mechanic in Kuwait, he returned to his Sri Lankan village to embrace a family tradition. He became a fifth-generation tapper of the kithul palm, a craft now globally recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The prestigious honour has cast an international spotlight on a fragile rural industry. It battles labour shortages, rampant product adulteration, and dwindling sap supplies.
At dawn and dusk, the 63-year-old climbs towering Caryota urens trees to collect the sweet, milky sap. This sap is boiled into a caramel-coloured treacle, a syrup prized for enhancing desserts.
When boiled longer, it reduces into jaggery, a mineral-rich palm sugar. It has a lower glycaemic index than common white cane sugar.
The yield from his own five trees falls far short of demand for his homemade brand. He collects about 200 litres daily.
So Ananda has built a network of 55 tappers who supply him daily. This enables exports to Australia, Britain, New Zealand and the Middle East.
“I returned home after working in Kuwait for 10 years. Then I took up the family vocation,” he told AFP at his village home in Ambegoda. The village is about 100 kilometres south of the capital Colombo.
He worries the art of tapping will fade away with the new generation. “My son is studying engineering,” he said. “I don’t think he will want to climb trees.”
His wife, Padma Nandani Thibbotuwa, 61, handles the boiling and stirring process. “The big problem we face is adulterated products — some people add sugar,” she said. “This is because pure kithul is very expensive.”
If not boiled immediately, the sap ferments into a potent alcoholic drink called kithul toddy. Most producing households divide labour similarly, with husbands collecting and wives processing.
The UNESCO inscription has boosted recognition for this rural industry. It was historically regarded as a lowly occupation in caste-conscious Sri Lankan society.
“As a living heritage, kithul tapping is integral to communal harmony, shaping cultural identity and values,” UNESCO said upon conferring the honour in December. It reflects a deep spiritual connection with nature.
The palms grow wild and need no fertiliser. Attempts at commercial cultivation have repeatedly failed, however.
The state-run Kithul Development Board is now training 1,300 tappers to preserve the centuries-old craft. “Kithul is not unique to Sri Lanka — it is found across South and Southeast Asia,” KDB chairwoman M. U. Gayani told AFP.
“But the method of tapping the flowers is practised only by us, which is why UNESCO recognised it.” She said annual export earnings from kithul products total a modest USD 1 million, largely due to supply shortages.
Gayani estimates the island has roughly half a million kithul palms. Fewer than half are actively tapped, a sign of both the industry’s struggles and its latent potential.
