The rock at the edge of the world
Where lands end and worlds begin.
In May, I found myself in Uluwatu, the southernmost tip of Bali, Indonesia. Itself a stretch of rock, attached to the mainland by a spit of land the width of an airport. Its name Ulu - watu literally translates to ‘rock at the end of the world’.
I discovered this entirely accidentally, as I traversed one of the most convoluted cliffside passages on earth, down to a famous beach one morning. The path took me through multiple restaurants, through people's homes, down uneven steps, with a slight jump over a gap in the concrete, to an inlet where the water washed all the way up through the cliff edges, themselves connecting to form a triangle viewfinder through which the infinite ocean lay in wait beyond. It was a beautiful spot, but unfortunately, it was swamped with people getting photos for their Instagram. I left, made my way back up the cliffside, and came across this piece of etymological wisdom on the wall of a cafe I hadn’t spotted the first time around.
The relationship between mythology and the physical world is symbiotic. Each has the power to shape the other (Cosgrove, 1993). The Greeks and Romans crafted entire worldviews based on the stars, and now, when we look up at night, we look out for Canis Major, Libra, and the Milky Way (or the Via Lactea - Road of Milk - as the Romans called it). In Bali, like many island nations around the world, traditional mythologies situate the ocean as a central player. The sea is understood as both a giver and a taker of life. It is both a symbol of fertility and an object that demands respect. One that can bestow both the ultimate kindness and the gravest cruelty (Hull, 2023).
Land’s End, the southernmost tip of England, equally inspires its own cosmologies. There is a sublime intrigue to this stretch of rock, understood to date back to Greek Antiquity, when it was referred to as Belerion - the shining land. The point is closely associated with the legend of King Arthur’s realm, famously drowned by the sea on a cataclysmically stormy night. In 1862, Edmond writes: “the aged and the young, the educated and the uneducated, the Englishman and the foreigner, all regard it as one of the most strikingly sublime and beautiful objects they have ever beheld.” More than just a coastline, it is an emblem of intrigue and danger, woven into the very heart of Cornish and English mythology.
Central to the mystique of these geographical thresholds is the very duality of their existence. Land’s End and Uluwatu are symbols of the edge of knowing. They represent the terrifyingly thrilling prospect of all that lies beyond, and they serve as a reminder that all can never be known on the land that lies behind you. They are a choice between forwards and backwards, the known and the unknown, the past and the future. Their physical beauty is striking, and their emotional resonance seemingly universal. As I thought about them more, I found myself imagining an ordinary Balinese person and an ordinary English person, staring at the same ocean, years in the past, utterly incapable of fathoming each other's existence, and it dawned on me. Land Ends, as you may call them, may indeed be closing off one world, but they are they are also doorways into others, both physically and metaphysically. They prove to have enough capacity to connect people as they do to separate them. They are a beginning as much as they are an end.
In India, there is another land’s end known as the Vivendakanda Rock, considered a sacred place for its association with the Goddess Kanniyakumari. It is thought that she meditated here, at the edge of her world, and today tourists flock en masse to explore the area. The following poem, written by K. B. Sitaramayya, draws on the way that these geographical extremities have long been a source of introspection and reflection, and I leave it with you as a final nod to these intriguing landscape features and the unique and fascinating emotional impact they seem to have had on human populations for centuries.
THE VIVEKANANDA ROCK
(Kanyakumari)
At the Land’s end is the Soul’s End,
The rock that stands every human shock
Stands beckoning him that understands,
Calls him from all that is false.
It calls them too, they are not a few,
Whom divine beauty from human duty draws,
Whose joys spring from no little toys:
They see the sun and moon rise and set
And rise again in all their glory there
They that seek escape also visit the Cape,
To ferry to the rock makes them merry.
Among them all you sometimes find a soul
Finding a balm for all ills in the Calm
May suddenly discover its destined goal.
thanks for reading :)
lots of love,
ellie
sources
https://landsend-landmark.co.uk/nature/lands-end-history/
https://substack.com/home/post/p-167524350
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/3647/
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003575269-10/landscapes-myths-gods-humans-denis-cosgrove?context=ubx
https://www.wisdomlib.org/history/compilation/triveni-journal/d/doc72630.html
