Story of courage and resilience: Second Sri Lankan to climb Ama Dablam in the Himalayas

By Shanika Sriyananda

“I want to be a special, exceptional and unmatched citizen of this country. That is the purpose of my living. And, I want to give back my share to this country, which is the greatest country in the world,” Dimantha Dilan Thenuwara, who is now in Nepal to climb the Ama Dablam one of the famous peaks in the Himalayan range, said. 

Thenuwara, a business analysis manager of the Cloud Solutions International owned by the famous Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Group, which is one of the leading hospitals in the Middle East, is a living testimony, who turned a disaster to embark on a different journey with sheer courage, determination and resilience. 

Life is always full of ups and downs but losing the person who is closest to one’s heart is always a permanent scar. 

Some people make these scars lifelong sufferings but Thenuwara made it to keep his footprints in different terrains to make his loss alive.

“The day after Christmas, 26 December 2004, changed my life forever. I was 17, happily riding an early morning train from Colombo to Galle in the south with my family. We were excited to meet relatives who were visiting Sri Lanka after a decade – like everyone else, oblivious to the tragedy ahead,” he recalled that fateful day over thousands of people were taken over by giant waves when the catastrophic tsunami struck Sri Lanka 20 years ago. 

Everything was calm when their train stopped at the coastal village of Paraliya. Then at 9:28 a.m. a wall of water hit us. I heard screams and saw commotion. Nothing was left undamaged.

Survived but losing pillar of strength

 “I survived, and managed to save my mother, her sister and her son. But I could not save my father – my best friend and my pillar of strength,” he got emotional when recalling the incident that took place when he was 17 years old.

On 26 December 2004, the Tsunami, which took over 230,000 lives was recorded as one of the deadliest natural disasters in history. 

A product of D.S. Senanayake College Colombo, Thenuwara made losing his father a strength to complete his higher studies with a BSc Honours in Information Technology (First Class), Middlesex University, UK and an MBA (Distinction), Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK. 

He plans to climb Nepal’s Ama Dablam in 2025 to test his limits for a bigger challenge.

“I was a very shy boy in my childhood. The turning point in my life was the 26 December 2004 Tsunami. I thought I had to find strength, not just for myself but for my father’s memory. It was a call whether I want to rise or to be done and dusted. I chose to get back on my feet and did my higher studies and became an IT professional working for a famous company,” he said.

But while doing his job for over 12 years, he felt that something was missing in his life and started studying art, culture, religions, architecture, history but one day he realised that the missing link in his life was adventure, which revolved around what he studied. 

Lost trail in Sinharaja

His first expedition was the Sinharaja Rainforest trail, where he and his friend crossed the jungle from South to North within 24 hours.  

He believes that adventure is his life line and has done lots of adventure travel in Sri Lanka while travelling to different countries like Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Thailand, and Pakistan doing waterfall abseiling, extreme level of hiking through dense jungles, etc.

Thenuwara calls the Sinharaja trail as a ‘lost trail’ it was not a path that others had selected to as half of that trail was very challenging for a normal person as it is with high tree density, unpredictable weather, mainly the rainfalls, unexpected encounters of animals and poisonous snakes and difficult terrains, especially the slippery and muddy terrains.

“This encouraged me to step into more challenging adventures, including walks in bush jungles, rocky terrains and water crossings. I have walked about 50.68 kilometres again within 24 hours from Ohiya to Pathaha in Thanamalvila, which was the longest walk I had after the Sinharaja trail,” he recalled.

“In early June 2022, I had another life-changing moment. My mentor showed me a picture of a mountain and asked whether I would like to climb it. It was the K2 in Pakistan. That day marked the beginning of my deep dive into high-altitude mountaineering,” Thenuwara said.

 K2 in Pakistan

 According to him, K2 is not just a mountain but a test of human endurance. Popularly known as the ‘Savage Mountain’, which is the world’s second highest peak. 

He has begun rigorous training this year (2025) preparing to climb Nepal’s Ama Dablam as a precursor to K2. He started his day by early morning training from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m., walking with a 10 kg weight jacket and again strength training in the gym. 

Since he has no training in climbing mountains in Sri Lanka he will do climatisation in Nepal.

Thenuwara said once he decided to follow this dream to climb K2, he began making every effort to learn about Pakistan, its people, and its relationship with Sri Lanka and also started learning Urdu.  

“I also reached out to several Nepali sherpas. Ngaa Tenji Sherpa, Director of Summit Force, who has climbed Mt. Everest nine times, agreed to help me on my quest,” he said if he succeeded in climbing K2, it would be the first attempt ever by a Sri Lankan to summit one of the most dangerous mountains in the world. 

His first adventure outside Sri Lanka is climbing the Ama Dablam in the Himalayas, which is a technical mountain with vertical climb where it has to be climbed by fixing and anchoring ropes and also using industrial ascender kits.

Ama Dablam 

 Ama Dablam, which is popularly known as ‘Matterhorn of the Himalayas’, is one of the well-known peaks in the Himalayan range. It is the third most popular Himalayan peak permitted for expedition. 

It belongs to the Mahalangur sub range of the Nepalese Himalayas. The name Ama Dablam means ‘Mother’s necklace’. The long ridges on its either side are considered the arms of mother (ama) which are protecting her child and the hanging glaciers are considered the dablam, which mean a traditional double pendant with the god’s picture imprinted on it, much worn by the Sherpa women in Nepal.

Thenuwara’s sheer courage will lead him to climb Ama Dablam, one of the beautiful mountains which has ice and rocky climbing. 

In the Ama Dablam, there are two areas called Mushroom Ridge and Yellow Tower which are very challenging as the climbers need prior skills in ice and rocky climbing but Thenuwara has made it another challenge as he will do climatisation while climbing.

If he succeeded in this challenge he will be the second Sri Lankan and the first IT professional to climb Ama Dablam, which is one of the beautiful mountains in Himalaya to climb.

The first Sri Lankan to summit this Himalayan mountain was Mihin Amarasinghe who successfully climbed it on 27 October, 2011.

Twenty-five days expedition 

 Thenuwara has now teamed up with seven to eight people. He specially thanked the other climbers, who have reached Kathmandu to commence their 25-30 days expedition.

He specially thanked the Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Group, which has a hospital chain with latest facilities with cutting edge technology in Saudi Arabia, for providing him all support to continue with his adventure travel. 

“It requires a lot of physical fitness and mental fitness. They are very supportive and this is why I can balance time with work and adventure,” Thenuwara said, giving a message to youth who are aspiring to follow him to realise that adventure is all about taking risks.

“First learn about adventure and taking risks. Danger is real and fear is a state of mind. They need to understand the difference between fear and danger. If they want to become adventurers, they cannot be afraid and danger is attached to each step that they take. If they are ready to take risks, start from small horizontal hikes where you can walk in different terrains, small jungles and popular hiking routes. Once you realise that your body and mind are ready to reach the next level, then increase the intensity and remember this is a gradual process, where they need to patiently move ahead without taking unnecessary risks without analysing the situation,” he advised.

The 38-year-old Thenuwara always wanted to join Commando Regiment or Special Forces of the Sri Lanka Army but his poor vision on long distance kept him away from realising his childhood dream.  

But the Tsunami disaster turned him into an extreme adventurer, who takes risks like a member of the two units that train youth to face extreme situations.

“Never give up on your dreams. That is my motto in my life,” he said with a smile.

 Thenuwara said that the world needed people who think out of the box and have to give back to one’s country.

He said with his educational, professional qualifications and over 14 years of experience in the field with corporate giants he could easily migrate to another country for greener pastures but he did not want to leave Sri Lanka, which gave him education, fed him and enriched him as it was the greatest country in the world to live despite politics.

“I have to give back to my country but not to any other country,” he said.

Regional peace 

Thenuwara is a firm believer of regional peace as he thinks that South Asia can play a vital role in maintaining regional peace and is determined to enhance people-to-people connections through his adventure travel. 

“When I am climbing, I am not climbing only with the Sri Lankan flag as when I am stepping into a country I am a part of that country, its culture and its people, I think I am a Sri Lankan who connects people. When I am in Nepal I am a part of the Nepal and Sherpa community. I will exchange their cultural values, beliefs while preserving my own values,” he said that he would raise Sri Lankan and Nepali flags together when he reached Ama Dablam summit to signify the unity between two countries and to say that they will stand for each other.

Thenuwara said that South Asia is best for adventure travel due to its amazing natural resources and people. 

“You can stay in a luxury hotel and enjoy nice hot meals but for me adventure travel connects you with the roots of civilisations, nature, culture, beliefs, religions of these countries as we are living with them during our expeditions. I am hoping to wear Sherpa national dress during rituals as a tribute to this community and also to connect with them,” he said that at the summit he will leave his footprint in memory of his father, unity and people-to-people connection between two countries.