UFOs in Sri Lanka
UFO sightings have been reported from various parts of Sri Lanka over the years. Hundreds of people have seen UFO phenomena over Sri Lanka according to professor Chandana Jayaratne of the University of Colombo who has investigated some cases of UFO. Some predict that the Extra Terrestrials could either be on the lookout for technology that was used to construct sacred buildings or may be an attempt to locate the “Vishva Yathura” (Key to the Universe)!
The UFO analysts believe that UFO lights that moves two feet off the ground could be an alien probe. “They could be doing a research,” he says. “Extra Terrestrials may be seeking the ‘Key‘ to the ‘Star Gate‘ and thereby activate a system of travel that transcends conventional space travel to reach another galaxy.”
1. 1990: UFO FLIES OUT OF OCEAN 210 miles south of Matara
(This article originally appeared in Weekly World News, April 10, 1990 – the writer is Ann Hughey. , It was re-printed in Lillian Crowner Desguin‘s 1992 book Unidentified Flying Objects: Fact or Fiction?)
UFO FLIES OUT OF OCEAN
A saucer-shaped UFO stunned the crew of a tanker when it blasted out of the ocean and circled their ship for fifteen terrifying minutes before vanishing without a trace back into the sea!
According to Sri Lankan newspaper reports, the incident took place in broad daylight in late March, 210 miles south of Matara, Sri Lanka, in the Indian Ocean.
No one was injured, but the 175-ft tanker Kim Seng suffered severe structural damage from the towering waves that were kicked up when the UFO rose out of and later returned to the water, the press said.
“It was enormous – at least five times the size of our ship,” Rasika Mawatha, the 47-year-old captain of the Kim Seng, told reporters.
“I‘d just come up on deck when the huge silver orb flew out of the sea and hovered just off the starboard bow of the ship. We almost sank from the waves it made as it left the water.
“At first, I was so shocked I nearly fainted from fright. My crew was terrified, too. They fell to the deck – covering their eyes and cowering like small children.
“All the ship‘s instruments went haywire and the needle on the compass kept spinning around and around. I couldn‘t even use the radio to call for help,” he said.
“The spacecraft glowed and pulsated with a silvery light and another eerie beam of light shone from the bottom of the ship. It seemed as if whoever was in the craft was scanning our ship, but for what purpose, I don‘t know.”
After about fifteen minutes, the UFO disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.
“One minute it was there and the next it had vanished back into the sea in a blinding flash of light,” said Mawatha. “It kicked up such huge waves it almost capsized the ship again.”
Immediately after the UFO disappeared, the ship‘s instruments began working again as if nothing had happened.
“I radioed authorities about what had happened and they sent planes and ships to scan the area but they came up with nothing,” said Capt. Mawatha.
Officials searched for days but not a trace of the UFO could be found.
“We spent days searching for signs of the alleged spaceship but couldn‘t find anything,” said Adi Chandrakar, a spokesman for the coastal authority.
“Even though we couldn‘t find any concrete evidence of the UFO, we know that something highly unusual did happen out there because of the damage to the ship.
“Only extremely rough water like you‘d experience in a severe storm could cause that kind of damage and there wasn‘t a cloud in the sky.
“We‘re calling this incident an official UFO sighting because there‘s no other explanation for what happened.”
2. April 1998: Sri Lanka UFO Landing in Bandarawela
Was it a bird? Was it a plane? Many, including two young boys who saw the strange object in their school playground in Bandarawela are convinced it was a UFO.
Indika Sampath Dissanayake habitually comes early to school. Thursday, April 30, he arrived at the Adikaram Primary School at 6.30 am. He left his school bag in the year 3 classroom when a slight but sharp noise caught his attention. He thought that something was collapsing outside the room. But as he came out a strange sight met his 8 year old eyes. A large disc shaped object with legs was on their playground, just below his classroom. Then as he watched, it flashed bright red and yellow lights and took off at a frenzied speed. “It turned around once and flew sideways, above the jak tree and went into the sky.†The time was exactly 7.43 am.
Indika has not heard about flying saucers before. His description of that morning’s sight is childlike, frank and according to his teachers, his story has not changed at all in the past week. Indika takes a stub of chalk and draws a picture of what he saw. Simple, even cartoonish but with vivid detail.
Sharing this unusual sight with him that morning was Harsha Ellawalagedera. This 10 year old is regarded by his teachers to be a very promising candidate for the year five scholarship exam this August. Harsha, as a senior student in the Primary School, was entrusted with the task of opening the doors of all classrooms early morning.
He was unlocking the classrooms that flanked the playground when a slight noise made him look back. He could not believe his eyes when he saw the disc shaped object that suddenly flashed bright red and yellow lights. It disappeared before my eyes,†he recalls. â€A second later I saw it in the sky. It climbed higher and floated off over the mountain,†Harsha points southwards.
Harsha says the object was quite large -measuring maybe 8 feet in diameter and 7 feet in height. Both boys said that it made a slight, soft purring noise as it flew off. But in the sky it glided noiselessly.
Harsha’s friend, Priyanjith also saw the disc shaped object as it flew high into the skies.
The flying object is no stranger to these youngsters. They claim it flies over their school quite often, early mornings. In the sky it takes on a curious tubular shape with a single upright fin. The children have nicknamed it koka (stork). But this was the first time the craft had landed.
“I have a problem. At assembly, the students are distracted, they all look up at the sky,†the Principal joked. But jokes apart, the two children who saw the ‘UFO’ are very much in the limelight, sought after by UFO enthusiasts and science fiction writers. But being a primary school in Bandarawela the importance of preserving the ‘landing site’ was not considered. By the time the adults got to the site most imprints in the sandy pitch had been erased by hundreds of little feet.
The principal of the Bandarawela Madya Maha Vidyalaya, Jayantha Wickremasinghe managed to get some photographs of the curious flower shaped marks that remained in the sand. But the large, shoe shaped marks and the deep churn marks in the sand- which Harsha and Indika describe seeing on the playground right after the object took off – were mostly gone by the time teachers came. At the site also was part of a white, dead insect like a large locust. The insect a stranger to these parts, had also been lost in trying to preserve it by drying its remnants on a rock.
The people of Bandarawela take this news in their relaxed stride- mostly disbelieving that the two young children actually witnessed a strange phenomenon. But, if one is led to believe that the ‘UFO’ has a partiality to the Adikaram school, it is really not so. Many others, including two doctors have been witness to strange sights in Bandarawela town during the last two weeks.
The next most vivid description is offered by another student, this time from St. Thomas’ College. Sheran de Silva, 16, was walking home from his grandmother’s home when, near St. Joseph’s grounds, his attention was diverted by a large column of bright light coming down from the sky. The source of the light, he says, was a shadowy disc shaped object. He said that as he stood and watched a very bright red-yellow light, was beamed onto his body. Scared, Sheran ran all the way home. “I knew instantly that it was a space ship.†This was 7. 45 pm on April 30.
That same night, Dr. P. Ramachandran of the Bandarawela District Hospital was driving home from the town when he noticed a curious skyward light. Dismissing it as a flare from the Diyatalawa camp, Dr. Ramachandran and his wife proceeded home. But as they neared the hospital, the light appeared to come from a lonely plot of land behind the AMO quarters.
“The light was strange because it went straight into the sky, like a laser beam. It was very powerful and did not disperse out.†The doctor and his wife also describe the light as a red-yellow beam. But they found patients waiting for Dr. Ramachandran at home and could not go and investigate the matter further.
His colleague, Dr. Kamani Pushpa Kumara, DMO, Diyatalawa hospital was star gazing with her three children in their garden, mid last month when they all saw a disc shaped object flying overhead. It was flashing red, yellow, green lights. “But it was night. I cannot be sure of what I saw,†Dr. Pushpa Kumara said.
Could it have been a helicopter or an aeroplane ? “No, definitely not. Here in Bandarawela we are used to planes, jets and helicopters because of the Diyatalawa camp. But this was different. I cannot say it was a UFO. But it was unlike anything I’ve seen before.â€
The Bandarawela Police cannot explain the abnormal sightings over their town. They dismiss the suggestion that it could relate to some military activity stemming from the Diyatalawa camp.
Few people, with scientific know how, had actually been to Adikaram school to check on the site. UFO researchers, Ravi and Saliya de Silva contacted the Principal and requested him to keep an eye on Harsha and Indika lest they show any physical or psychological changes after the incident.
Two young UFO enthusiasts from Bandarawela, Ruwan Liyanage and Suranga Ediriweera who followed a course at the Arthur C. Clarke Centre, were planning to set up camp in the Adikaram school and watch the sky for any trace of the flying mystery.
In town nowadays you find quite a few people sky gazing. How unfair, adults say, that only children see it. But for Indika and Harsha the novelty of it, after endless description, has long worn off . Indika still comes to school at the crack of dawn but the ‘UFO’ has never landed again. Harsha has bigger things on his mind. He has to prepare for his scholarship exam. UFO or not, life must go on.
[Source: The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) / by Tharuka Dissanaike and Michelle Henricus - May 10 1998 ]
3. Flying saucers on the rise again?
(Daily News of Sri Lanka, July 4, 2002)
Hundreds of people have seen UFO phenomena over Sri Lanka according to professor Chandana Jayaratne of the University of Colombo who has investigated the cases.
Several UFO sightings have been reported from various parts of Sri Lanka over the last few weeks, and Jayaratne sais that “these sightings have been confirmed by a group of keen observers,” at a press conference held in the Colombo University. One of the observers, Sanjeeva Bandara, has even written books on UFOs.
Another unnamed observer said that “More than 100 villagers have seen the UFO,” and “In general we cannot consider these stories as being fabricated. We camped near the Parakrama Samudra on June 15. We didn‘t see anything on our first day but on the second day around 11.30 pm we saw a blue-white light. The light beam is so unlike any of other light beam we have seen before. The light beams rotated, suddenly disappeared and reappeared a few seconds later from a place 300-400 meters away from the place it was initially. A few seconds later it again disappeared. We camped near the Parakrama Samudraya. Dense jungle stretched out to the far end and the light beam came from the jungle. Therefore, we could not go out to investigate. Out of our preliminary investigations it turned out to be an object capable of emitting ‘V‘ shaped beam of light of intense illumination. The villagers including an Advanced Level student told us the flying object is capable of moving at a very high velocity and when it is travelling at a lower height it made a sound similar to a sound made by a bee. And it could change its direction to avoid colliding with trees. For three consecutive days we observed the same UFO.”
4. POLONNARUWA, SRI LANKA
The national television channel, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation reported on it‘s 8:00 pm, news on both June 9, and 10th, that there have been UFO sightings in the city of Polonnaruwa in first week of June 2002. The TV channel showed video footage of the craft. Several aliens too have been sighted, who had apparently run away when seen by civilians. These sightings have been reported on several days. All the above information was reported by the national television channel, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation.
5. UFO fans galvanised
(Sunday Observer, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on June 16, 2002, by Umangi de Mel)
Could the strange blue ball of light, speeding at just 2 feet above the ground near the ancient, sacred cliff of Dimbulagala, have been an alien space probe seeking the mysteries of our ancients?
5. UFO fans galvanised
(Sunday Observer, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on June 16, 2002, by Umangi de Mel)
The particular “blue light” was sighted for the first time in the seed farm in Polonnaruwa on May 13, around 11.30 pm. It has also later appeared in the Anuradhapura district. “It took me three days to get this thing on video tape and when I finally did, it was around Dimbulagala, the same stretch where it was first seen,” says Gamini Obeysekara, Polonnaruwa correspondent of Rupavahini. “It was about 3km away from me,” he says.
However, this “UFO” sighting has still not been confirmed, even though many predictions were being made. “Members of the Sri Lanka UFO Research Association will proceed to Polonnaruwa to get an on-the report on Saturday as 95% of the sightings could be fabrications,” says Chandana Jayaratne, Senior lecturer in the Physics department, University of Colombo. “We do not doubt UFOs but we can not be sure until we check for ourselves. We should be able to confirm it by Tuesday,” he says.
Meanwhile, Nalaka Gunawardena, Executive Officer to Sci-fi guru Sir Arthur C. Clarke, says that there is no link between the UFO sightings all over the world and the potential for life in other galaxies. “A majority of scientists believe that there is life on other habitable planets but there is not enough evidence to make most of the previous sightings plausible.”
According to Gunawardena, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) USA, 90% of the previous sightings have been merely man-made phenomena. They have proved that it has always been an image of a natural object, created due to certain weather conditions.
“However, Sri Lanka Air Force and the Air Traffic controllers have the capacity to track each and every object that crosses into our air space, and so far, nothing of that nature has been reported,” he says.
But the man who saw the light disagrees. “So many people, unknown to each other have seen the light and have come up with the same account,” says Sanjaya. “The light seems to go towards sacred areas”. He predicts that the Extra Terrestrials could either be on the lookout for technology that was used to construct sacred buildings or may be an attempt to locate the “Vishva Yathura” (Key to the Universe)!
The UFO analysts believe that this light that moves two feet off the ground could be an alien probe. “They could be doing a research,” he says. “Extra Terrestrials may be seeking the ‘Key‘ to the ‘Star Gate‘ and thereby activate a system of travel that transcends conventional space travel to reach another galaxy.”
He points out that there have been a number of such sightings in Egypt where historical structures exist. “It is possible for them to be interested in ancient sites such as Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.”
Arugam Forum
Arugam Photo Galleries on Picasa
Old Website
Press Coverage
Surf Forecast for Arugam Bay
ALIYA Wildlife Project
TODAY’s Comments