Some people choose to explore Sri Lanka. For Priyanwada Rathnayake, it was inherited.

Born into a family where archaeology was not a profession but a way of life, Priyanwada grew up in the company of ancient civilisations. Her father walked alongside some of Sri Lanka's most distinguished archaeologists — among them Siran Deraniyagala, Roland Silva, and Senake Bandaranayake — men who gave their lives to uncovering the stories this island had buried beneath its soil for centuries. Through his journeys, his conversations, and his quiet reverence for the past, Priyanwada was introduced early to something most people never find — a genuine sense of belonging to a land and its history.

She grew up surrounded by sacred sites, crumbling fortresses, and landscapes that held more memory than any textbook could contain. And she learned, from the very beginning, to look at Sri Lanka not as a tourist destination, but as a living story still being told.

From that foundation, her curiosity could not stay still. It carried her beyond ruins and rock inscriptions — into rainforests, lagoons, national parks, and the ancient ecosystems that have existed alongside Sri Lanka's civilisations for millennia. The land that held the past, she discovered, was also teeming with extraordinary life.

Today, as an environmentalist, naturalist, national tourist guide lecturer, and conservation educator, Priyanwada brings a perspective that is genuinely rare — one that bridges ancient heritage and living nature, history and ecology, the human story and the wild one.

"Sri Lanka is not just an island. It is a living museum — of nature, of people, of time."