Photo Gallery

A traditional toddy tapper at work, a scene that is particularly typical of Sri Lanka. Toddy tappers climb palm trees to extract the sap from the inflorescences of coconut or palmyrapalm trees. To avoid having to climb up and down each tree individually, the treetops are often connected by ropes, along which the tappers balance from tree to tree at dizzying heights. The sap extracted is called ‘toddy’. It is a milky drink that ferments naturally, turning into an alcoholic palm wine. – Induruwa – 1990

A palm grove near the village of Induruwa on the south-west coast of Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Like a circus acrobat, a man walks along the ropes stretched at the height of the tree tops, linking around a hundred palm trees together. Twice a day, he harvests the milky, sugary palm sap, which is extracted through incisions in the fresh flower shoots and, when fermented, produces the much sought-after toddy or palm wine. If the palm wine and rice are fermented again, distillation yields the strong arrack or palm spirit, which is particularly popular among the Sinhalese. – 1990