OUR LOVE LETTER TO SRI LANKA
Arise is our love letter to Sri Lanka. This country gave us something we couldn’t find anywhere else: room to slow down and actually build the life we wanted. Hiriketiya is where that happened. We didn’t plan to end up here. We just did, and once you’ve spent time in Hiriketiya, you’ll understand why.
We started Arise because we simply couldn’t find the place like this in Hiriketiya. Not another pretty backdrop for photos, but somewhere to actually move your body, to breathe, and to be in nature without distractions. So we built it: in the jungle, looking out over a village stupa, a five minute walk from the beach. The Shala sits among the trees, open on all sides, facing the village temple. We built it for practice, but also for the workshops, the conversations, and the people you meet before, during or after class.
MEET THE FOUNDERS
Emma
Emma didn’t plan to end up in Sri Lanka. In fact, as a kid she’d always insisted she had no interest in Asia whatsoever. Turns out, sometimes life has other plans. You just never know where you are going to end up. She now lives here permanently with her Sri Lankan husband and their dogs.
After years in corporate events and crisis management in The Netherlands (including through the COVID-19 pandemic), she knew she needed a change. She headed to Asia, eventually going to Hiriketiya in April 2022. And the rest is history.
Step by step, she found her way forward in the slower pace of life and the small town community. In the process, Emma unexpectedly found her home in Sri Lanka. A country that doesn’t let you plan too far ahead. Living in the moment is deeply rooted into the culture here, and that’s both beautiful and at times a bit chaotic. It reminds you constantly that you never know what’s coming. That’s Sri Lanka for you!
Charlie
Charlie arrived in Sri Lanka in 2019 to volunteer in mental health: running workshops in residential care settings and psychiatric hospitals near Colombo. She lived with a local family who treated her like one of their own, and spent her weekends exploring.
One of those weekends took her to Hiriketiya for the first time. She fell in love with the place, and with someone in it, and knew she wasn’t leaving.
She trained as a yoga teacher in 2020 and has been teaching across the Bay ever since. She now lives in the village with her husband, Amma, and three rescued dogs.
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