SRILANKAN DIARIES - DAMBULLA

After our first day's sightseeing in Pinnawala, we were ready for the tour of Dambulla after a hearty breakfast at our Hotel Amaara Forest, which included Indian dishes dosa and string noodles in addition to continental fare. 

First we drove to the nearby Sigiriya Hill, an ancient rock fortress.

Sigiriya (Lion Rock) "is famous for its palace ruins on top of a massive 200 meter high rock surrounded by the remains of an extensive network of gardens, reservoirs and other structures. The rock itself is a lava plug left over from an ancient long extinct volcano."

This site was selected by King Kashyapa (477 – 495 AD) for his new capital. 

At the base of Sigiriya Rock are moats, water bodies, and gardens. The moats, walls and gardens of the palace extended for a few hundred meters from the base of the rock. The site was both a palace and a fortress. He built his palace on the top of this rock and decorated its sides with colorful frescoes. 

On a small plateau about halfway up the side of this rock, he built a gateway in the form of an enormous lion.

Sigiriya contains the ruins of an upper palace located on the flat top of the rock, a mid-level terrace that includes the Lion Gate and the mirror wall with its frescoes, the lower palaces clings to the slopes below the rocks. 

On the west side of the rock lies a park for the royals, laid out on a symmetrical plan with water-retaining structures,  some of which are working today. 

The south contains a man-made reservoir. Five gates were placed at entrances. The more elaborate western gate is thought to have been reserved for the royals. 

Originally this wall was so highly polished that the king could see himself whilst he walked alongside it. Made of brick masonry and covered in highly polished white plaster-mirror wall. 

There is a cozy seat inside Cobra Hood Cave.

There is an interesting rock throne too. Paintings would have covered most of the western face of the rock; there is reference to the graffiti of 500 ladies in these paintings, which incidentally have a close resemblance to paintings seen in the Ajanta Caves in India.

The Gardens of the Sigiriya city are one of the most important aspects of the site, as it is among the oldest landscaped gardens in the world. The gardens are divided into three distinct but linked forms: water gardens, cave and boulder gardens, and terraced gardens.

The capital and the royal palace was abandoned after the king's death. It was used as a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century. Sigiriya, one of the best preserved examples of ancient urban planning, is today a UNESCO listed World Heritage Site. 

This historic landmark has some 1200 steps. Some of the senior citizens in our group bowed out.

We were warned about the monkey-hazard during the climb; so we had to be careful about snacking on the way.

The climb proved even more difficult as it was crowded;

the steps were very narrow horizontally and vertically. A few more dropped out after climbing 80 % of the steps, when we reached the Lion's Paw,

and were happy to pose there, 

and admire the scenic splendor around.

After a short break to catch our breath, the undaunted few, including us, bravely took up the challenge of climbing up the last segment of metallic stairs too. 

An interesting episode happened as we started the climb. My husband ( a diabetic) needed a snack, so he took out his dry fruit packet and took out a few almonds. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, jumped a monkey in front of him, and tried to snatch the packet. A real tussle ensued, as my husband put up a brave fight and tried to save his snack, but our shouts of 'Let go!' was effective and he gave in. With a grin of victory, the monkey, jumped away and ran to a quiet spot to enjoy his 'loot'. That moment was really nerve-wrecking, because a physical reaction from that fellow could have sent my husband and those queued behind him, tumbling down!

Looking back, it's really funny and elicits a heart laugh in us. 

In fact, as we were going through the pictures of the tour, we saw a monkey in one of the photos we had taken before the climb. (See picture above, at the far right, you can see the fella...). If only we had noticed him earlier ......).

It was worth the arduous climb - the beautiful frescoes, some of them with mistakes (such as an extra thumb)....(photography was prohibited).

And the view from the top was breathtaking.

 As we were returning, we admired the royal swimming pool.

It must have been so cool to walk down the steps and have a nice refreshing swim!

A few more interesting structures captured our attention as we were climbing down.

We were back at the base at 12.30 after a strenuous 2 1/2 hours.

We sighed in relief as we seated ourselves in our coach. But our relief was to be short-lived. During the head count, our tour manager found one person missing. Actually that person was with us for most of the time and we had seen him last at the exit. That meant that he had taken a different route and strayed away from the parking lot.

Everyone was on pins and needles as there was no sign of him for the next half hour. The tour manager and local guide and driver went in different directions and sought the help of the security at the gate.

Finally after almost an hour and a half, we could heave a collective sigh of relief as the guy was 'found'.

That drama helped us forget our exhaustion!

We had a late lunch, enjoying the local cuisine 

at a modest, authentic local eatery and relaxed during our drive.

However, the day was not over for us - not yet. We had another visit on the day's itinerary - Dambulla Cave Temple  also known as the Golden Temple of Dambulla and Jambukola Vihara, the best-preserved ancient edifice in Sri Lanka, is a World Heritage Site.

It is the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. The rock towers 160 m over the surrounding plains. We had some 364 steps to climb!

It has five caves under a vast overhanging rock, carved with a drip line to keep the interiors dry. These contain statues and paintings, related to Gautama Buddha and his life. There are a total of 153 Buddha statues, three statues of Sri Lankan kings and four statues of gods and goddesses including one of Vishnu and Ganesha. (There are more than 80 documented caves in the surrounding area.)

Inside the caves, the ceilings are painted with intricate patterns of religious images following the contours of the rock. 

The temple is composed of five caves of varying size and magnificence. Access is along the gentle slope of the Dambulla Rock, offering a panoramic view of the surrounding flat lands, which includes the rock fortress Sigiriya. Hindu deities are also represented here, as are the kings Valagamba and Nissankamalla, and Ananda - the Buddha's most devoted disciple.

Cave of the Divine King - The first cave is dominated by the 14-meter statue of the Buddha, cut out of the rock. 

It has been repainted countless times, most recently in the 20th century. At his feet is Buddha's favorite pupil, Ananda; at his head, Vishnu, said to have used his divine powers to create the caves.

Cave of the Great Kings -

 In the second and largest cave,

in addition to 16 standing and 40 seated statues of Buddha, are the gods Saman and Vishnu, which pilgrims often decorate with garlands,

and finally statues of two kings.

The murals cover an area of 2,100 square meters. 

The third cave, the 'Great New Monastery' acquired ceiling and wall paintings in the typical Kandy style during the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1747–1782), the famous Buddhist revivalist. In addition to the 50 Buddha statues, there is also a statue of the king.

The Buddha statues are in varying sizes and attitudes - the largest is 15 meters long. 

One cave has over 1,500 paintings of Buddha covering the ceiling.

As we were coming down, we were amused by the antics of the monkeys frolicking around. Some youngsters were trying to tease the little monkeys with their cell phones. Luckily, the monkeys did not succeed in snatching the gadget and run way with it.

The Golden Buddha statue, Dambulla golden temple, stands majestically just downhill from the Cave temple.

We also saw some interesting statues as well as a golden stupa.

The Banyan tree, Stupa, and Image house are the three important aspects of Buddhism.

We started our drive to Kandy at 5 pm and after 2 1/2 hours, reached the base of the city - our hotel was located at an elevation; our coach could not go up. So we had to take shuttles to Hotel Topaz.

The view from the hotel was breath-taking! Weren't we glad to check in at our hotel after a truly hectic day!

SRI LANKA DIARIES - PINNAWALA

We were excited about our tour to Sri Lanka and Maldives. It was a 8 day tour - between 18 and 26 January, 5 nights in Srilanka and 2 nights in Maldives. Ideal weather wise - neither hot and nor humid.  We were a group of 40, many of them senior citizens.

The value of 10 INR is equivalent to approximately 25 Srilankan Rupee (SLR). We were carrying USD, mainly for use in Maldives. We had planned to exchange USD at the airport for SLR, for use for shopping in Sri Lanka.

Our flight from Mumbai landed in Colombo after over two hours, around 6 am. After freshening up at Bandaranayake airport, 

we got into our coach which was to drive us around the various cities during our 6 days in Sri Lanka.

We drove straight to a nice restaurant facing the beach. We enjoyed a hearty breakfast and strolled around the beach for a bit.

We started our two hour drive for Pinnawala. Our local guide Mr. Benjamin briefed us with tidbits about Sri Lanka. We were surprised to hear that the country boasted of 98% literacy among the youth ... no diamonds found in the country, only graphite and gemstones .... 

The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is an orphanage, nursery and captive breeding ground for wild Asian elephants. It was established by the Sri Lankan Department of Wildlife Conservation in 1975 for feeding and providing care and sanctuary to orphaned baby elephants found in the wild. This has the largest herd of captive elephants in the world. In 2011, there were 96 elephants, including 43 males and 68 females from three generations, living in Pinnawala. 

It was planned to attract local and foreign visitors, the income from which would help to maintain the orphanage.

The Pinnawala Orphanage has since become a tourist attraction.

Pinnawala Elephant orphanage has separate enclosures for male elephants, and for female elephants and babies.

Adult males do some light work such as transporting feed.

They are chained and managed individually. At night, the females are individually chained in stalls.

Visitors to the park can view the care and daily routine of the elephants, such as bottle feeding of elephant calves, feeding of all other elephants, and bathing in the Ma Oya (River).

The female and young elephants in Pinnawala roam freely as a herd during the day in an area of a few acres. They are herded for about half a km twice a day to drink and be bathed in the river at specific timing.

We walked around the orphanage looking at the male elephants.

Then we had to walk down to the river just before noon to watch the female and baby elephants having their drink and daily shower in the nearby river.

We passed by the little shops lining the way ....

and reached the river side. The elephants enjoyed being hosed down ....

Exactly at noon, all the spectators were cordoned off to safety, as the elephants started their walk back to the orphanage.

We then entered the interesting shop that sold paper and items made of elephant poop.

The statue at the entrance was so funny and true to life.

Within minutes, we saw the male elephants coming from the orphanage - it was their turn for bath. It was really cute to see them cross the road, as the traffic police controlled the traffic.

After a sumptuous lunch at an Indian restaurant, we drove for three hours and reached Dambulla. 

We checked in at Hotel Amaara Forest.

 It was a nice resort and we liked our apartment-like room.

After freshening up, we strolled around the resort. It had been a long day; we were happy to retire to bed early after dinner.

We were fresh next morning for Day 2 - Dambulla sight-seeing.