In this fusion essay, Dilantha Gunawardana traces the journey of true cinnamon, a spice produced only in Sri Lanka.
A Bite at History
What vanilla means to Madagascar is equivalent to what true cinnamon is to the island nation of Sri Lanka. The history of cinnamon is also about a monopoly of a crop that has spanned nearly seven centuries on the tip of our tongues, as a gift of indulgence and a theme of conversation. Prior to the 14th century, true cinnamon was used to treat meat to eliminate harmful bacteria that were colonized on the meat cuts. It is even said that Bartholomew Dias and the many explorers after him were driven by the quest to find the heartland of cinnamon1. Still, true cinnamon was a decisive factor in the colonization of Serendib – as Sri Lanka was known back then – by the Portuguese.
However, the major explosion in cinnamon cultivation is synonymous with the colonization of Sri Lanka by the Dutch. One of the true symbols of how cinnamon in Sri Lanka was valued immensely by the Dutch invaders, comes in the form of the Hanguraketha Agreement [The Treaty of Batticaloa] signed on Valentine’s Day in 1766 that allowed the Dutch to peel cinnamon bark from primary forests, traded for the protection conferred to Sri Lanka by the Dutch colony, in the heyday of European colonization1.