17th August 1997

Haeckel's visit to Ceylon

Paradise lost: a holy remembrance

Haeckel's initial travels induced in him an awareness of the invariable elements that constitute the tapestry of village life and scenery of the south-western part of the island, and how essential it would be to incorporate them in his paintings.

"These elements," he observes, "are mixed with such fascinating irregularity and in such endless variety, they are so gorgeously lighted up and coloured by the tropical sunshine, the neighbouring sea or river gives them such restful freshness, and the forest background with the distant blue mountains beyond lends them so much poetic sentiment, that it is impossible to weary of enjoying them; and the landscape painter may find here as endless a succession of subjects as the genre painter - beautiful subjects, almost unknown to our exhibitions."

It was now time for Haeckel to turn his attention to the scientific object of this visit, the study of the multiform and mostly unknown creatures of the Indian Ocean. He had planned to set up a zoological laboratory at Trincomalee, attracted by its ideal bay and rich marine life. The road to Trincomalee, though, was impassable, and as the steamship service was temporarily suspended, in the end Haeckel had to choose between two more accessible alternatives - the large seaport of Galle and the nearby small fishing village of Weligama. After much hesitation, Haeckel decided in favour of the latter. It was a decision he was not to regret, for he realised afterwards that although he could have carried out his studies more conveniently and efficiently in Galle, he gained infinitely more knowledge by locating himself close to the heart of nature in the seclusion of Weligama.

Haeckel embarked on the journey to Weligama by taking the Royal Mail Coach from Colombo to Galle, a journey that was featured in most travel accounts of the l9th century. Haeckel's was no exception, and he was clearly enchanted by this coastal route, 'where the White or yellowish margin of sand follows the coast often for miles, like a narrow gleaming satin ribbon, bending with its multifarious curves and beautiful open bays, and dividing the deep blue waters of the Indian Ocean from the bright green coconut groves.'

Haeckel stayed for several days at Galle, where he had a first opportunity of acquainting himself with Ceylon's corals. Early in his book he professes to having great admiration for the work of Baron Eugene de Ransonnet, the Viennese painter whose Sketches of the Inhabitants, Animal Life and Vegetation in the Lowlands and High Mountains of Ceylon had been published in 1869. Haeckel remarks that it 'made the more splendid marvels of the Cinnamon Island seem doubly and overpoweringly attractive.' Those who have seen de Ransonnet's folio will know that part is devoted to submarine scenery, sketched with the aid of a diving-bell. 'Ransonnet was in this respect, more fortunate that I," comments Haeckel ruefully.

He then left the bustle of Galle behind and proceeded to idyllic Weligama, with its verdant surroundings, perfectly curved bay, and offshore islet. On arrival Haeckel was accorded an impromptu reception by a large crowd of villagers, led by the headman and other functionaries. This was the beginning of a six-week immersion in the authentic village life of the island, many miles from the nearest European, an experience that had a profound impact on him.

Haeckel took up residence at the charming and seldom-used government rest house, on which spot stands today the more recent and enlarged version familiar to modern visitors. There, with the assistance of the curious but respectful villagers, he set up the zoological laboratory he had transported so many thousands of miles. Soon he established a daily routine - collecting specimens by boat in the morning; dissecting, preserving and cataloguing in the afternoon; and painting, photographing and excursion-making in the early hours of the evening.

Through the many friends he made in the village, Haeckel became familiar with the coastal district. As a result, a number of his Ceylon paintings were inspired by the landscapes, seascapes and vegetation that he found around Weligama and nearby localities such as Mirissa and Matara.

The closest of Haeckel's new found friends was Abhayavira, the second headman of Weligama, 'a remarkably clever and bright Cingalese of about 40 years of age, whose general information and range of interests was far greater than those of most of his countrymen. He was free from the superstition and dread of spirits which are universal among his Buddhist fellow-countrymen, and gazed with open eyes on the marvels of nature, seeking their causes and explanation; thus he had learnt to be an independent free-thinker."

Four people looked after Haeckel at Weligama. There was the rest-house keeper, dubbed Socrates by Haeckel because he was unable to grasp the man's long name. Then there was Gamameda, a young and ill-treated Rodiya boy who was Haeckel's valet and became devoted to his German employer. The cook, Babua, resembled an old baboon: 'It was a whimsical accident that his name should identify him with his prototype.' Lastly there was William the interpreter, ex-soldier and officer's servant, who, Haeckel comments dryly, 'being a true-born Cinghalese, had, of course, a pronounced aversion to work in general, and to hard work in particular.'

Haeckel devotes a sizeable portion of 'A Visit to Ceylon' to his stay at Weligama, and these chapters contain some of his most sensitive and perceptive writing on the character of the inhabitants - whom he refers to as 'these happy children of nature' - as well as their breathtaking green domain.

In fact, Haeckel was often to remark upon how singularly and universally green prevails in the colouring of the island. 'It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that this prevailing green hue produces a monotonous uniformity of colouring. On the contrary, it is possible to weary of admiring it, for, on the one hand, the most wonderful gradations and modifications may be traced through it and, on the other, numbers of vividly and gaudily coloured forms are scattered among them. And just as the gorgeous red, yellow, violet or blue colours of many birds and insects look doubly splendid in the dark green forest of Ceylon, so do the no less brilliant hues of some marine creatures on the coral banks.'

Haeckel's time at Weligama was too short for any connected series of zoological studies, but his observations did confirm that the creatures of the different oceans are not so dissimilar as the terrestrial fauna of the different continents. In addition, he found a considerable number of new and interesting forms of marine life, particularly sponges and corals. So it was that Haeckel left Weligama well-satisfied but sad, 'for as I waved a last farewell to my good brown friends, I almost felt as if I had been expelled from paradise.'

Haeckel had made up his mind to devote the final month of his stay in Ceylon to a visit to the hill country, where the fauna and flora are so different from those of the coastal regions. First, though, he spent a week at Labugama witnessing one of the most extraordinary spectacles that the island presented until recent times - the elephant kraal.

After this he ascended Adam's Peak: 'It was on February 12 1882, the very day on which Charles Darwin was born 73 years ago; it was the last birthday of the great reformator in natural science, for death took him away two months later. Standing in awe before the Holy Sri Pada I made a short speech to my fellow travellers, pointing out the significance of the day. The letter in which I reported these events to my honourable friend, and which I had written under the canopy of Sri Pada, was the last one he received from me. Thus my pilgrimage to Adam's Peak, too, ended with some holy remembrance."

During his visit to Peradeniya, Haeckel had agreed to accompany Dr. Trimen to Nuwara Eliya and Horton Plains in the middle of February. It is evident that Haeckel found the Englishness of Nuwara Eliya a jarring experience, and the climate disagreeable. He thought it was a 'dismal spot', scoffed at its overblown reputation as a sanatarium, and complained about the high price of everything from butter to beer. However, he did enjoy climbing Pidurutalagala on his 48th birthday, and walking through the Hakgala Botanical Gardens with Dr. Trimen.

One essential expedition was to Horton Plains. As Dr. Trimen was engaged in his own botanical work, Haeckel wandered alone through the solitary wilderness. 'I shall never forget the delicious stillness of the days I spent in the sombre woods and sunny savannahs at the World's End', he wrote. Haeckel was struck by 'the fantastical forms of the trees of the primaeval forest, the gnarled and tangled growth of their trunks and the forked boughs, bearded with yard long growths of orange mosses and lichens, and robed with rich green mantles of creepers.'

The final leg of Haeckel's journey was by bullock cart from Belihuloya to Ratnapura, from where both he and Dr. Trimen took the perennially-delightful passage by boat down the Kalu Ganga to Kalutara. (In those days coffee was shipped in large quantities from the Ratnapura district to Kalutara). Haeckel was enchanted by the succession of views which passed before his eyes. 'On the shore itself abrupt rocks and grotesque groups of stones, overhanging boughs and trees torn up by the roots, supply a varied and delightful foreground to the landscape,' he writes. 'The distance is filled up by the sublime outline of the mountains, swathed in blue mist and appearing much higher than they really are'.

Haeckel's six-month leave of absence from the University was now almost over, and all that remained for him to do was to make ready for his departure. As he records in A Visit to Ceylon: 'I felt acutely the overwhelming sense of quitting forever a spot on earth that had grown dear to me.'

Haeckel returned to Jena, a man enriched by the manifold discoveries he made in Ceylon. After his death in 1919, the University converted his residence into a museum that documents his life and pioneering work. Among the exhibits that can be seen to this day are more than 800 paintings by the hand of Professor Ernst Haeckel, 70 of which are of Ceylon, his 'evergreen island of marvels.'

The University of Jena (known today as the Friedrich Schiller University) has achieved much in maintaining Haeckel's work and publishing his writings. For instance, the University was responsible for the publication of the letters Haeckel and Thomas Huxley wrote each other. The University has also organised exhibitions of Haeckel's work in Germany. In 1960, Ian Goonetileke was able to see one of these exhibitions. Titled "Haeckel - Scientist, Artist, Philosopher", it featured 30 of the 70 Ceylon paintings on show at the Ernst Haeckel House.

Another Sri Lankan known to me who has an interest in Haeckel and who has made a special visit to the Ernst Haeckel House at Jena is R.K de Silva, the author of the book, Early Prints of Ceylon, mentioned earlier. It was on a wet and inhospitable evening in 1991 that Dr. de Silva enthralled a small but appreciative audience at the Royal Asiatic Society with a photo-lecture tracing Haeckel's travels in Ceylon.

Numerous books have been written about Haeckel. Perhaps the most relevant to us is Ernst Haeckel: Tropenfahrten Reiseschilderungen aus Ceylon, Java and den Millelmaergebieten ("Ernst Haeckel's Travels in the tropics. Reports from Ceylon, Java, and the Mediterranean") which appeared in 1969. In addition, several volumes of Haeckel's general correspondence have been published, which include letters written while he was in Ceylon.

Aleister Crowley (another visitor to Ceylon featured by me in an earlier article), was a great admirer of Ernst Haeckel and his theories. 'I had a considerable opinion of the intelligence of Germans, dating from the time in my boyhood when Helmholtz was the great name in physics, Haeckel in biology, Momesen in history, Goethe in poetry, Bach, Beethoven and Wagner in music,' Crowley admits. 'One of my great difficulties was that my senses told me that the archangel Gabriel existed; in fact, rather more so. I had accepted Haeckel on mere hearsay,' he writes elsewhere.

On the subject of the persecution of Darwin, Crowley declares, 'I had been forced into the awkward position of having to be ready to go to the stake with Maudsley, Ray Lankester and Haeckel, as against superstitious religion.' Haeckel came to Ceylon twenty years before Crowley. Crowley may have known of this fact, because Haeckel's A Visit to Ceylon was widely available before the turn of the century. Crowley may well have stopped off or stayed at the Weligama Resthouse while on his way to Hambantota.

D.H. Lawrence (yet another visitor to Ceylon who will be featured in a future article), was, like Crowley, highly influenced by Haeckel when a young man. Lawrence read theology, history and philosophy with particular avidity, and is known to have walked around his home town of Eastwood with copies of Darwin, Haeckel and Huxley. Haeckel's The Middle of the Universe, which was frequently reprinted in cheap editions, produced in Lawrence what he later described as his own temporary adherence to Monism. It has been claimed that William James' Pragmatism (1907) probably did more than anything else to steer Lawrence away from Haeckel.

While there is little trace of Darwin and Huxley in Lawrence's work, Haeckel certainly left his mark. Several Haeckelian characters inhabit Lawrence's earlier fiction, such as the tragic materialist Annable in The White Peacock and Dr. Frankstone in The Rainbow. It is of relevance that at the turn of the century Lawrence's brother Ernst bought a set of the 22 volume anthology International Library of Famous Literature, edited by Dr. Richard Garnett. Lawrence doubtless read widely in them, which is of interest because included is a fragment of Haeckel's A Visit to Ceylon.

Ernst Haeckel was not the only botanical artist to visit Ceylon during the l9th century. The Englishwoman Marianne North was another. Her stay in Ceylon in 1876 and 1877 at Galle, Colombo, Kalutara and Peradeniya is described in Recollections of a happy life, being the autobiography of Marianne North (1892). When in 1980 A Vision of Eden: The Life and Work of Marianne North was published in America and England. This book consists of excerpts from North's autobiography, together with examples of her fabulously detailed and exotic botanical paintings of Ceylon, some of which can be seen in the Marianne North Gallery at Kew Gardens in England.

He was not the only German artist to visit Ceylon during this period either. In 1853, the distinguished landscape painter, Baron Hermann von Konigsbrunn, had spent eight months in Ceylon, and had executed a large collection of sketches and pictures, more particularly studies of the vegetation, which Haeckel much admired. Von Konigsbrunn made his tour in the company of Professor Schmarda of Vienna, who had given a full account of his travels in the island in his book Voyage Round the World. Unfortunately it appears that von Konigsbrunn's drawings, which were intended to illustrate Schmarda's travels, have never been published.

Happily this was not the case with the work of Prince Friedrick Wilhelm Waldemar, who in 1845 was the first German Prince to visit Ceylon. A soldier and gifted artist, his Journey of Prince Waldemar of Prussia to India had been published posthumously in 1853, and the exquisite sepia lithographs contained therein are among my favourite prints of old Ceylon.

Continue to Plus page 4

Return to the Plus contents page

Read Letters to the Editor