Furious Panda

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Sacred City of Anuradhapura

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 9
5th Nov10, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
first published in http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com

Today was a morning tour around Anuradhapura. The ruins, and more temples were spread out further apart as compared to Polonnaruwa, many of which were gigantic stupas, probably the largest in Sri Lankas. The main complex around Abhayagiri Dagaba was where a large chunk of the ruins were situated, though there were many others stupas and monasteries scattered.

Truth be told, after 4 days of ruined cities, I was having a bit of an overdose. But to dismiss the sites entirely would be erroneous. There were a couple of highlights, Isurumuniya temple was where a 6th century carving depicting a man and a woman side by side; "The Lovers". A Samadhi statue depicts Buddha in the posture of his enlightenment. The Sri Maha Bodhi tree located in Anuradhapura, sacred as it is, was another sight.

Then comes the blitz down from Anuradhapura down south. As with all these rushed trips, it's a matter of squeezing in as much in a short space of time. A quick stop at Negombo later, we headed down to the airport, for the midnight flight out. And that was the Sri Lanka experience, short on serendipitous events, but a whole new set of experience to add.

Ancient City of Polonnaruwa

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 8
5th Nov10, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
first published in http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com

Ancient City of Polonnaruwa, that's the name inscribed on the World Heritage List, and the next stop in the Cultural Triangle for us. It's from a 1000 years ago, and built along the shore of the Sea of Parakrama, a huge man made reservoir (you cannot see the other bank).

The sights, ruins of temples, vatadages, palaces are spread out along the town. We go from one to another, marveling the architecture, the friezes along the walls. And it happened to be Diwali, and there were a couple of ruins of small Hindu temples in the mix. A sliver of devotees were present, paying respect at the temples.

After lunch, the van collected us and drove down to Anuradhapura, built several centuries before Polonnaruwa, and the original capital.

Sigiriya Rocks!

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 7

4^th Nov10, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka

first published in http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com

Early morning saw us climbing the ancient rock fortress that is Sigiriya. Originally built into a city fortress in 5AD, it was expanded, used as a palace, monastery up till 14^th century, when it was abandoned. Probably my favourite historical site in Lanka, the sprawling city is made up of 3 levels, the garden terraces at ground level, a mid-level area halfway up the rock, and the topside, where the palace remnants are located.

At the base of the Sigiriya rock are the three terraced gardens, starting out from the water gardens, with pools located on either side of a walkway towards the rock, the pools being almost symmetrical. Then comes the boulder gardens, which looked like like part of the natural landscape, with step-like shapes cut into the boulder indicating that there must have been be some structures atop. The terraced gardens are basically steps leading up towards the top of the rock.

Midway through, we pass by the Fresco, where figures have been painted and preserved onto the side of the rock, and well as the Mirror Wall, running along the side of the rock, and polished so shiny it resembles a mirror, hence the name. On the wall are scribbled ancient graffiti, poems about how visitors to the rock marveled at the wonder.

Next, up to Lion's Mouth, the mid-level clearing, where steps leading to the top goes through what was previously a lion's mouth, (hence the Sigiriya name, Lion's Rock). All that remains now are the lion's paws.

Finally, at the top of the rock, the ruins of the palace /monastery. Nothing spectacular in itself, but the view of the surrounding area was great. From the places visited, seen so far, it seems that the locals, then and now, have an eye for setting up structures on high ground, overlooking everything, on a large scale. Like this rock, Buddha statues set atop hills like in Kandy, and Dambulla. The trend was to continue later when we went up to Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura.

By the time we were topside, we're pretty much exhausted. Made our way down and took the long drive to Polonnaruwa. Did the Polonnaruwa museum for an hour or so, and a couple of ruins. The sights in the ancient city of Polo were spread all around, much like Angkor in Cambodia, and were easier to visit on wheels. Like our van. It started to drizzle a bit, and we took that as an excuse to find lodging and stop sightseeing. In actual fact, we were bloody tired.

Interlude: Here's a list of UNESCO sites in Sri Lanka (source: Wikipedia)

Eight sites of Sri Lanka have been inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage, namely, the ancient city of Polonnaruwa (1982), the ancient city of Sigiriya (1982), the Golden Temple of Dambulla (1991), the old town of Galle and its fortifications (1988), the sacred city of Anuradhapura (1982), the sacred city of Kandy (1988), Sinharaja Forest Reserve (1988) and the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka (2010).

Well, 7 out of 8 isn't too bad – minus Sinharaja.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Into the Cultural Triangle

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 6
3rd Nov10, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

The morning saw us sleeping in, after the long drive into Kandy. That and for once we had an internet wifi connection in the room. Firstly, did the tour around Kandy, taking in the sights. The lake is the most visible landmark around Kandy central, and opposite the lake from where we were staying, was the Temple of the Tooth Relic. A did the temple tour, but the rest of us just did the Kandy museum, plus walked around the town for a bit, dropping by the big Buddha at the top of the hill overlooking Kandy. The tourist office in Kandy was where we bought the USD 50 Cultural Triangle ticket, which covers Kandy, Polonnaruwa, and Anuradhapura, Sigiriya and some other smaller sites.

From Kandy, it was a long drive up to Dambulla Rock Caves, a UNESCO heritage site made up of a series of 5 caves containing around 150 Buddhas. It's a separate ticket from the Cultural Triangle Ticket and costs 1200 Rp per entry. The caves were alright, but of more interest was the great view of the sunset from the top of the hill where the rock caves stood.

It was dark when we did the journey from Dambulla to Sigiriya. Stayed at a Globetrotter's Tourist Inn (1500 Rp), which, if you ignore the mosquitoes, is a great place to stay. Unlike most of the places which were located at the edge of the road (GCSE 'O' Geography: Linear population!), this one had a long driveway and the rooms were located further in, off the road. Its a popular place too, in the Nov Dec months expect the place to be prebooked.

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Interlude: Rasai Sri Lanka!

So. 9 days and 2 kg later. Here's a blog post about food. Rasai means Delicious in Sinhalese =) I pinched the post title from a Sri Lankan food festival promotional ad.