The Cultural Triangle

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The Cultural Triangle - Polonnaruwa , Anuradhapura and Sigiriya

We awoke at seven and drew back the curtains to reveal the vast Kandalama tank fifty metres beneath us, surrounded by forest and not a building to be seen. We had coffee on our large balcony listening to the myriad bird calls and watching the cormorants busily fishing, the egrets urgently flapping off in search of breakfast, colourful orioles darting in and out of the branches and the Brahmini kites hovering with intent above it all. It was magical, and not a human or mechanical sound to be heard.

Later we left for a two-hour drive to the World Heritage Site of Polonnaruwa where the ruins of an ancient city lay sprawling along the edge of a lake. Although Polonnaruwa had been an important settlement for several centuries, it was King Vijayabahu who first made it the capital of a Sinhalese kingdom, relocating here from Anuradhapura in 1055. In the golden age of King Parakramabahu I (1153 -1186) the city was expanded enormously, and gloriously transformed with the addition of palaces, temples, monasteries, ornamental ponds, baths, and a huge tank (reservoir) stretching over 2,500 hectares. Unfortunately, Polonnaruwa's prominence lasted less than 300 years, and by the middle of the thirteenth century it was abandoned like Anuradhapura before it.

The site has an excellent Archaeological Museum with which we kicked off our visit before lunch at the colonial Rest House on the lake (we were proudly shown the suite where Queen Elizabeth II stayed in 1954). We then spent the next five hours wandering among the extensive ruins that sprawl over ten kilometres north to south. It is a wonderful site, reminiscent in parts of the Khmer temple ruins in Cambodia and Laos, but boasting a greater variety of architectural style and building functionality.

Parakramabahu's royal palace is particularly impressive, the massive weathered brick walls standing ten feet thick and two storeys high and believed to have supported another five storeys made from wood. North of this complex is the sacred quadrangle full of important religious buildings, most notably the graceful circular Vatadage, or relic house, said to epitomise the ultimate development of this type of religious architecture. Polonnaruwa's largest stupa (dagoba in Sinhalese), the Rankot Vihara, was built by Nissanka Malla, Parakramabahu's successor, in early Anuradhapura style and stands 54m high. The largest and most imposing sanctuary in the city is the brick-built Lankatilaka the walls of which rise 17m and which houses a colossal standing Buddha, also of brick. The most celebrated site in Polonnaruwa, however, is Gal Vihara known for its large rock-cut images in a perfect state of preservation; there are two sitting Buddhas, one standing, and one reclining - all carved from the same large granite rock face. Each Buddha at one time had its own separately covered brick-built shrine which must have made for a fascinating façade given their different sizes and orientations. Truly a beautiful sight.

The sun was setting by the time we dragged ourselves away from these and many other fascinating sights for the drive back to Kandalama where we grazed the dinner buffet and fell gratefully into bed.

We left the hotel at eight the next day to drive 70km north to Mihintale , a rocky hilltop 1,840 steps above the plain. It is an extremely important site for the Sinhalese since this is where Sri Lankan Buddhism originated; in 247BC, King Devanampiya Tissa was converted to Buddhism here by Mahinda, a kinsman of the Indian Emperor Ashoka, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Climbing up the hill you pass through the remains of stupas and monastic buildings dating from the third to first centuries BC and then, at the top of the last flight of steps lined with sweet-smelling frangipani trees, you reach the Ambasthale Dagoba where King Devanampiya and Mahinda met. Today was poya, the day of the full moon and a monthly public holiday, and Mihintale was awash with cheerful families on a day out. The dagoba terrace was busy with pilgrims making offerings, praying, and lighting oil lamps - everyone seemed immensely happy just to be there. From here we clambered up steep steps cut into the granite to reach a precipitous rock about 400m above the plain known as Aradhana Gala (Convocation Rock), offering stunning views in every direction. There were people-jams up and down the pathway, but everyone was particularly good natured with smiles, laughs, encouraging comments, and a helping hand here and there. The Sinhalese seem to dress up on poya days and the women in particular present a wonderful sight with almost every one of them dressed head to toe in white.

By the time we descended from our delightful morning at Mihintale it was almost noon and we drove into nearby Anuradhapura. Lunch for the third day in a row was "rice" - mounds of white rice with bowls of curries, vegetables and salad - this time in a kind of modern family restaurant, but still very palatable.

Anuradhapura , the first great capital of Sri Lanka, was founded by Devanampiya Tissa's grandfather in the fourth century BC. It is one of the world's most extensive ruined cities and its status as a royal capital spanned well over a thousand years. In addition, it was a great centre of Buddhism, and magnificent monasteries, dagobas and associated buildings rose up many storeys, roofed with gilt bronze or clad with tiles of burnt clay glazed in brilliant colours. Because of its age, however, its vast extent, and its state of abandoned ruin for over eight hundred years, this World Heritage Site is much more difficult to comprehend than Polonnaruwa. The golden period of civic and religious building was between about 250BC and 300AD, driven first by Devanampiya Tissa, then Dutugemunu (c161-137BC), Vattagamani (89-77BC) and finally, the first of Sri Lanka's great tank builders, King Mahasena (276-303BC).

For sheer scale, the most impressive monument in Anuradhapura has to be the Jetavana Dagoba founded by Mahasena and probably finished in the fourth century - at which time it was the third tallest monument in the world, surpassed only by the two tallest pyramids at Gaza. At over 120 metres in height when completed, it remains the tallest stupa in the world, and the tallest brick structure ever built. It has been calculated that it contains over 93 million baked bricks, and I love the fact that some "expert" calculated these would build a wall a foot thick and ten feet high between London and Edinburgh, a distance of 400 miles! This stupendous tribute to the construction technology of the Sinhalese over 1,600 years ago sits on a platform of about three hectares, raised above the level of the surrounding monastery which housed about 3,000 monks in its eighty hectare complex.

The other great stupa is the Abhayagiri Dagoba, the centrepiece of a monastery for 5,000 monks built in the first or second century BC. This 75-metre stupa is still overgrown with vegetation but when we visited it was pretty well covered with scaffolding and one assumes it will be extensively cleaned up and renovated as the Jetavana has been.

Anuradhapura's most holy pilgrimage site is Sri Maha Bodhi which is considered to be the oldest surviving documented tree in the world and was planted in 249 BC by King Devanampiya. Reputed to be a cutting from the Indian bodhi under which the Buddha attained enlightenment, it was brought to Sri Lanka by Emperor Ashoka's daughter, Sangamitta, and has been cared for by a succession of guardians for some 2,250 years. Almost lost in the poya crowds, we made our bare-footed way the length of the kilometre-long approach to the holy spot amongst thousands of Buddhist pilgrims coming to pay their respects. We were practically the only non-Sri Lankans to be seen and we felt quite privileged to share in this ancient tradition.

In the mid-afternoon we left Anuradhapura to drive to Habarana where Ervin had arranged a Land Rover to take us on a game drive. Since the rainy season had finished only recently the game was scattered over wide areas, so rather than visit Minneriya or Kaudulla National Parks we went into Habarana Eco where we got close to a herd of about fifteen elephants, including some very young ones, and watched them feed voraciously on the long grass, shrubs and trees. Paddyfield Pipits flew up constantly from the track in front of us, and we spotted the very pretty Little Green Bee-eater for the first time. There was not much else on view here in the way of wildlife, though it was an attractive area of scrub and light forest and we enjoyed our drive. At sunset we clambered up a steep outcrop with great views all around, some of which were reminiscent of African landscapes. Making our way back to Habarana we emerged onto the narrow and deserted main road to Trincomalee on the east coast. This being the fringes of Tamil Tiger country, there were Sri Lankan army guards scattered every few hundred metres along the road - basically gun positions built out of logs and tarpaulin, each manned by two or three soldiers. Worrying or reassuring? I could never quite figure.

Close by Kandalama is another of the Cultural Triangle's great historical sites - the Sigiriya citadel. The following morning we left the hotel early to ensure we arrived soon after sunrise, and what a delight it was to wander alone across the moat and ramparts and through the ornamental gardens laid out by King Kassapa in the fifth century. The early morning sun painted the brick ruins an earthy red-brown, contrasting vividly against the emerald green of the dewy grass and leaves. And two hundred meters above it all towered the rock of Sigiriya topped by the remains of the palace Kassapa built after he deposed his father in Anuradhapura, killed him, and usurped the throne. Much despised for his patricide he spent the next eighteen years building an extensive royal capital based on Sigiriya before deciding to take on his brother, Moggallana, in a great battle in 495. Kassapa was killed, and the monks took over the palace and citadel and remained there until it was, for some reason, abandoned in the fourteenth century.

After passing through the gardens you start to climb the rock itself and soon reach the most famous feature of Sigiriya, a series of exquisitely executed fifth-century fresco paintings of bare-breasted celestial nymphs. There are believed to have been perhaps 500 of these images, originally covering an area of perhaps 140m long by up to 40m high. Only twenty-two remain, unfortunately, in a sheltered gallery protected by ancient drip-ledges. Alongside this gallery, and originally curving all the way to the north-east of the rock, is the three metre high "Mirror Wall", coated with a glaze that would have reflected the rock paintings as you moved along the corridor between the wall and the cliff face. The surface of the wall is covered with graffiti dating from the sixth to the fourteenth century; almost a thousand of the inscriptions have been deciphered and most are poems inspired by the beauty of the women depicted in the paintings. It is a unique and quite remarkable historical site.

Reaching the northern end of the rock we emerged onto a large platform where two colossal lion's paws were unearthed in 1898. The rest of the lion has disappeared, but originally it was fourteen metres high; mightily impressive even in its ruined state it must have afforded a vision of great power and majesty when it was intact. The stairs to the summit pass between the paws and would have then continued up through the lion's body. Today, you scramble up a series of narrow metal steps anchored somehow to the rock face until you emerge, breathless, at the summit. It's a pretty scary climb if you suffer in the slightest from vertigo and Lisa had a couple of panic attacks on the ascent, but made it bravely all the way to the top. The palace complex spreads out here across a stepped plateau of more than one and a half hectares, its three distinct sections converging on a large and beautiful rock-cut pool.

Sigiriya stands out for us as one of the most impressive and exciting World Heritage Sites we have ever visited. Located in an area of considerable natural beauty, it affords an amazing concentration of visionary architecture, technological ingenuity, horticultural planning and artistic accomplishment rarely matched anywhere in the world at that time. Right up to the summit we had had Sigiriya almost entirely to ourselves but, as we started our descent, the crowds began to build so we were grateful for our early start. We made our farewells to our excellent guide, Ricky, who Ervin had recommended to us, and drove a short distance to the Sigiriya Rest House where we regained our breath and had a welcome cup of coffee. Next ➤ ➤

Howard's Polonnaruwa Gallery, Anuradhapura and Mihintale, Sigiriya

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