Introducing Karina Starnes and her tourism-based mission in Deniyaya

Investment. This is the golden goose that Sri Lanka wishes tomanifest more consistently. While there are many diverse sectors where investment is needed, one significant area is tourism. The Harmony Page, as a holistic, activist oriented integrated form of mass communication, tying up the spiritual with the material, and thereby focusing seamlessly through many areas of national and international humanistic interest, has dedicated much of its space to ideate on how tourism can be developed to protect mother earth and her children. Today we feature a German tourism investor, Karina Starnes who has invested in this country to set up a nature sanctuary in a remote village in Deniyaya, where there is a vacuum in employment opportunities, scarcity of public transport and lack of streetlights. This interview will trace the soul of what investment should be, dispelling the myth that ‘investors’ are found only in plush locations of five-star hotels where investment boosting conferences are held at much cost to the nation. Karina, who arrived in Sri Lanka 13 years ago as a backpacker, freeing herself from her profession as an employee at a leading advertising agency in Germany, shares how she answered the ‘call’ from a Banyan tree in a former tea growing land in Naindawa in Deniyaya. This location had been an ancient place of worship (carried out by tea plantation workers), dedicated to Hindu deities of Shiva and Kali. Karina will tell the reader how she staked her entire life thus far, to create an authentic space for humans to rethink their own earth journey. Her goal? To awaken human consciousness to the mystical soul of earth, where flowing rivers, zig zag of solid rocks, gnarled trees and open skies provide a paradox to the tarred and cemented world that we have created and labelled it ‘life.’ Yes, this is tourism, as Karina explains, but in another sense it is not. It is a mission. A personal odyssey that uprooted her from everything that was familiar; her home, job, family and friends to pursue what is idealistic, as opposed to the materialistic. She was a European woman in an unknown land and the only foreign investor in the area. However by now she is much loved and respected by the entire Deniyaya; known to carry several large bags and backpack to do her marketing in town and walk up the narrow 10 minute unmotorable (by four-wheel) route to her resort, with the heavy load, often sparing her staff the task. En route to the Natural Mystic Sanctuary set up by her, and asking around for directions to the place, this writer discovered that Karina is somewhat of an icon. Her genuine simplicity is known by vegetable sellers, clay pottery shops and three-wheeler drivers, one of whom had pitched her photograph and the name of her nature sanctuary within his three-wheeler (tuk tuk). Below are excerpts of the interview with Karina:

- By Surya Vishwa

Q: Please introduce yourself.

A: I am Karina Starnes. I am 52 years of age and have been a professional in the advertising field in Europe. I worked for some of the biggest advertising agencies where the pay was good but reflecting a different reality of existence where wants are created over needs and industries which do harm more than good earn in billions. I was earning well but I felt trapped. I was not engaged in something I felt was honest. It was a rat race and I had to nibble at freedom, applying for leave when I wanted to travel. Although I knew what my true calling as a human in this life cycle was, I did not know how I was going to fulfil it. I felt I was a slave to something that was opposite to what I should be doing.

I had been earning fairly lucratively. However much of it went to upholding a lifestyle which was ostentatious and more for public display than following my innermost values. The only reprieve was that I could afford to travel when I did manage to get permission from my office for vacations. I have travelled to countries that were outside Europe such as Indonesia, Thailand and India. Around 13 years ago I first travelled to Sri Lanka. Twelve years ago I quit my job in Germany, and formally set up the Natural Mystic Sanctuary on the 6 acres of a former tea estate in Naindava in Deniyaya.

Q: Could you, in your own words, describe the Natural Mystic Sanctuary?