BOLDERBoomers: Sri Lanka: Land of the Buddha, Where Elephants Roam Free

SRI LANKA

COLOMBO- Getting There

Ceylon has such an enchantingly exotic name. I for one had wanted to go there since the late 70s. I had finished a PBS Nova documentary, The Fragile Mountain, on overpopulation and deforestation in Nepal and wanted a break. Asking some Peace Corps friends in Nepal their thoughts on going all the way to the southern end of the Indian continent to Sri Lanka they responded," Are you crazy? You're in Nepal. Take a break here." And so I did. I flew to Lukla on a small prop plane and headed out for a February solo winter trek up the Khumbu Valley with a Sherpa I engaged in Lukla to guide me to Everest Base Camp. But that is another story.

Now some 40 years later, I finally got to Sri Lanka with my husband Rob and am so glad I did. The country is much easier to travel in than India because the population is not as out of control as it is throughout India. The other main difference one notes immediately is that there must be a better taxations system because the infrastructure of roads, hospitals, schools is much better in Sri Lanka.

We flew into Colombo via the Maldives, a condition of our Star Alliance partner fare on our Round-the-World Trip using United frequent flyer points. (We used only 180,000 total frequent flyer points for both of us to travel around the world.) What would otherwise have taken us only an hour on a direct flight from Trivandrum India to Colombo Sri Lanka, took us almost 7 hours due to a 6-hour layover in the Maldives. It was worth it to see the Maldive islands from the plane as they are clear blue islands almost fully submerged in water. I am sure the snorkeling and diving that people come there for is worth the trip. However, they certainly will not survive global warming and seem fragile at best for human habitation. The tourist base and divers keep the Maldives alive with extremely expensive getaways that lack much if any cultural interface. Not our cup of tea, even though we love snorkeling in Asia, we are adventure travelers and the Maldives are a little too posh.

We arrived in Colombo 7 hours later at the airport in their capital. Another newer airport has been built inland, financed by the Chinese in a trade deal with SL. As no one uses the newer airport and there is no demand to do so, we understand it is to be shut down for the time being. This is just an example of the corruption and graft at the top of the SL government that has sold out a lot of SL's resources and power to the latest invaders, the Chinese.

Since America is "being made great again," it appears we have abdicated our role as world leaders and China has filled the vacuum. It is abundantly clear here who will reap the strategic geopolitical benefits of locating in this south Indian Ocean country. We found out that the massive construction project that is being built on in the Colombo harbor is actually a Chinese financed new industrial harbor, including a major shopping mall and office buildings. It will change the face of Colombo from the traditional Ceylonese old port city to a new Shanghai look-alike within three years time. We were glad to see Colombo before the old Ceylon was lost completely.

GANGARAMAYA

This is not a name for a Ceylonese strain of marijuana. Gangaramaya is one of the most important Buddhist temples in Colombo. Because we had yet to do our research, we followed a one-eyed tout there who said he would show us a big Buddha temple, arms gesturing largely. We were happily surprised to find the wonderful experience of the temple at Gangaramaya.

Wikipedia notes: "Today Gangaramaya serves not only as a place of Buddhist worship; it is also a center of learning. The temple is involved in Buddhist welfare work including old peoples' homes, a vocational school and an orphanage for tsunami victims.

We found it to have one of the largest collections of Buddha statues donated from countries all over the world and truly an impressive museum/temple. As Sri Lanka is predominantly a Buddhist country, one finds it is also an international gathering center for Buddhists from all over the world. This temple personifies that with its statues if Buddha and devotion to Buddhist culture.

A glass and a gold Buddha

When finished with our tour, the tout tried to milk us for an outrageous sum of money for his touring and taxi services. We shot back a knowing outrage and vehemently put our foot down. In the end, we still paid him twice what the tour would have cost before sending him and his driver on their way.

My favorite Hindu statue of Samantha Bhadjra

Amber Rambo- Our host in Colombo

We stayed at a delightful AirBnB in Colombo called The Halcyon House. Our host nicknamed himself "Amber Rambo" as he is a Rambo movie buff.

While we found Colombo to be a fairly pleasant city to get around in via tuk-tuk, we did not find it to be very entertaining except for the Old Fort area, the Pettah Vegetable Market and its many temples.

We were anxious to set out for the more cultural sights around the upcountry town of Kandy and the environs. Again we took a train up into the hills and much like in Kerala, the high hill country of Sri Lanka is devoted to tea plantations.

The cultivation of tea and spices goes back to the Portuguese who sought to bring Ceylon into the missionary fold of Christianity. The Buddhist majority disliked Portuguese occupation and its influences and welcomed any power who might defeat the Portuguese. In 1602, therefore, when the Dutch landed, the king of Kandy appealed to them for help. When the Dutch who were largely Protestants overthrew the Portuguese, they kicked the Portuguese Catholics out and left the Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims alone. A combined class of Dutch and Ceylonese were called Burghers became the legacy of the Dutch rule

After the Napoleonic War, in 1802 the Dutch part of the island was ceded to Britain, and became a crown colony. In 1803 the British invaded the Kingdom of Kandy in the 1st Kandyan War, but were bloodily repulsed. In 1815 Kandy was occupied in the 2nd Kandyan War, ending Sri Lankan independence until 1948 when Sri Lanka received its independence from the British in 1948 at about the same time India was turned over to their new democratic process.

We toured the Pettah Market Center near what's left of the old city of Colombo at almost midday. The morning activities had wound down and the vendors were kicking back getting ready for lunch. We saw more bananas brought in from the countryside than I have ever seen in my life. This banana room was chock full of bananas to be sent to all the local markets in and around Colombo.

To balance out the Buddhist religious sights in Colombo we walked to a Hindu Temple near our Airbnb just before puja time. Several drummers were drumming and worshippers gathering as we watched the pujas made by the local Hindus who gathered there. The incredible carved statuary on every level of the pyramid-shaped edifice is amazing with each deity and surrounding protectors painted in vivid colors. You get a feeling of ancient faith and many hundreds of deities available for supplication depending on your specific needs, much like the saints in the Catholic religion.


Hindu Deities Temple carvings

As we had difficulty finding anything but a Chinese restaurant in the suburbs we were staying in, we walked a few blocks over and stumbled into a small Vietnamese restaurant. Most Sri Lankans eat at home and restaurants are largely just for tourists.

On the second night of our Colombo stay we happened into a wonderful ornate Buddist temple on the way back from the Vietnamese restaurant. It had larger than life-size carvings of the Buddha, The gold and richly hued statues glowed in the candlelight and it was a beautiful experience.

Large golden Buddha feet

Rob in the doorway of the temple with huge Buddhas at the entrance

We did not know it yet, but these two Buddhist temples were some of the most spectacular we would see in all of Sri Lanka and there are thousands.

Kandy

We were ready to head upcountry by train to the hill country again and set our sights for Kandy in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. Kandy was the government center of the ancient kings of Ceylon. Today Kandy The Temple of the Tooth Relic, one of the most sacred places of worship in the Buddhist world. Declared a world heritage site in 1988 devotees come from all over the world to do puja here.
Situated in a valley surrounding a lake, Kandy is a very large sprawling city.While
visitors come here to see the Temple of the Tooth, we found the highlights to be the
Royal Botanical Garden and a zany artist's therapy house, Helga's Folly.

The Royal Botanical Gardens are worth spending a full day in. We were only there for 3 hours. These gardens used to be the actual grounds of the Royal Palace.
They are fabulous and colorful, well maintained and have every tree, flower, spice and
a plant that can be grown in this region of the world.

The Temple of the Tooth and World Buddhist Museum

We went to a World Buddhist Museum which had Buddha statues contributed from every Buddhist country in the world, before visiting the Temple of the Tooth. The museum held beautiful Buddha statues and replicas of the Buddhist temples like Shwedagon in Burma and altars from Lhasa in Tibet.

Plumeria and lotus flowers are temple offerings

We gathered for the evening puja along with a crowd of Buddhist devotees from all over the world. While the Temple of the Tooth itself has little to recommend it other than the actual relic of the Lord Buddha's tooth, it is the centerpiece of Kandy and a prominent pilgrimage site of the Buddhist religion. All ages, young school children, their parents, and grandparents gathered for the monk's blessing at dusk. The devotion of the attendees was impressive. Upon exiting the temple at dusk, we were treated to the flight of thousands of bats who found this the perfect time to head out in search of food for the night.

Unfortunately, we were not in Kandy at the right time to see the annual procession known as the Esala Perahera, in which one of the inner caskets used for covering the tooth relic of Buddha is taken in a grand procession through the streets of the city. This casket is carried on a richly decorated royal elephant.

The Cultural Triangle: Dambullah, Sigiriya and Pollanaruwa

Hiring a driver from Kandy we headed North to Sigiriya and the Cultural Triangle in the middle of Sri Lanka. We stopped at the Dambullah Caves. Ancient and impressive is the best way of describing the over 80 caves found in Dambullah that house some of the oldest Buddhist statues in the country along with remarkable cave paintings. This was truly a spectacular find on our cultural journey that took us to many Buddhist sites.These caves once housed people before Buddhism every came to Sri Lanka. The Buddha statues and many bodhisattvas , gods and goddesses that are ensconced here are truly revered and kept in excellent condition.

We ended our day at Sigiriya Water Cottages, another great find on Booking.com. This peaceful countryside retreat was our base camp for both climbing the monolithic Sigiriya Lion Rock and going to see elephants roaming freely along the tank at Minneriya National Park.

The monolithic rock that sticks up in the jungle of trees is the Sri Lankan equivalent of Acoma's Sky City in New Mexico. However, this was where King Kasyapa (477 – 495 CE) choose to build his new capital. He built his palace on the top of this rock and decorated its sides with colorful frescoes.

We started early to miss the heat of the day having remembered climbing a similar rock in scorching hot temperatures in Burma. There were already crowds so we basically followed a line of tourists up the stairs that climbed the face of this immense rock.

Huge lion's feet carved at the base of the stairs lead up to the top portion of the rock and thus the name Lion Rock.

Despite my concern about needing to take a Xanax to climb the rock, I was fine. metal hand railings had been installed all the way up to the top of the rock. Huge water cisterns had been built to gather water and support the people who lived atop the rock. It did hold a prominent overlook of the entire countryside which had a defensive benefit.

For whatever reason, traveling in India and Sri Lanka is a great opportunity to just let the days unfold and await the mystery of a place. Rather than a dedicated agenda of where we were going and what we had to see, we floated from place to place and event to event drawn by listening, watching and inquiring of others.

Returning to Sigiriya Water Cottages we saw a large black open-top jeep being washed by the driver. We inquired and found that he took tourists to Minneriya National Park for wildlife viewing. Because elephants are my totem and something I did not want to miss seeing in the wild, we arranged to go the next afternoon. Seeing the elephants roaming free in the wild there proved to be a high point of this trip.

On the way down the rock, we passed tourists widely skirting a snake charmer with his cobra. The vendors lined up at the base of the rock selling cold drinks and trinkets. We sat in the shade of a tree and watched life unfold sipping on our lukewarm sodas.

From the open top of our jeep, we watched elephants emerge from the forest toward the Minneriya tank to drink and bathe in the evening. They move peacefully and deliberately, watching for their young. Having long ago established an easy truce with the jeeps lined up on the road to see them, we tourists were largely ignored as scenery. It is a delight to see the elephants move freely, not shackled by heavy chains and at home in their natural environment. Sri Lanka once had tens of thousands of elephants roaming the jungles and hillsides. Now there are only 2,000-3,000 wild elephants here and only about 250 more in captivity.

The young ones here are just as frisky and noisy as any two year old would be. The older elephants patiently watch over them at a distance while systematically gathering grass with their trunks and eating it. Getting to see these elephants in the wild is a pleasure and makes one want to contribute to their continued peaceful and unfettered existence.

Pollanaruwa

Pollanaruwa is a World Heritage site covering hundreds of acres, best seen by bicycle.
We rented bikes somewhat rusty but functional and headed off in a northern direction through the grounds populated by dozens of temples that were built around 1070.
It is the second most ancient of Sri Lankan royal grounds.

The temples built here while large are not particularly ornate. They have been redeemed from jungle growth for tourists to appreciate. The most spectacular Buddhist statues are found on the Northern end of the Park at the Gal Vihara.

The grounds are peaceful and even with tourists, you feel somewhat alone in this quiet ancient ruins. We spent a rather hot day working our way to the far end and were richly rewarded with beautiful carvings of Buddha at the end of our journey.

The devout spent years creating the huge reclining Buddha that spanned about 40 yards. The peaceful countenance of the Buddha made us ready to return for a late afternoon nap at our guesthouse. Spent from a long and full day we returned to the busy streets of the city to take our bikes back.