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Published: February 8th 2006
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OVERNIGHT TRIP: WILD ELEPHANTS Another long drive in the bus, this time to Giritale, a region to the north of Kandy which has several National Parks, and a mini-tourist industry featuring safari rides through these parks. For me, as a biologist, this was another highlight of the whole trip.
On the way there, we stopped at a site with caves that were used by the Buddhists (still are, actually!). Some of the caves had peaceful Buddha images, and elaborate painted patterns on the walls and ceilings. But one cave was special. The painted images in this cave were shocking, to say the least. Jon called them images of "Buddhist hell", which is a great description. However, I really need to read up on the actual theology involved here. I'm not sure how this gruesome afterlife fits into the doctrine of reincarnation. Simply put, the painted images were graphic, bloody depictions of people being tortured by giant blue-gray demons, who appeared to be totally pleased with their jobs. Limbs were ripped off. Heads were split open. One person had been so thoroughly impaled that the shaft was sticking out of her head. The look on her face was just what
you might expect in such a grim situation. Shock. Disorientation.
Our first safari ride was in the afternoon, during a fairly heavy rainstorm. ("Not the monsoon!" everyone kept telling us. "The monsoon was over two weeks ago!" "Well, how long has it been raining after the monsoon?" "For the past two weeks.") The jeep ride reminded me a lot of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. We would alternate between creeping slowly through the dense vegetation, to roaring over bumps and around curves to get to another site quickly. At one point, on the way out, we forded a pretty impressive river that hadn't been there on the way in. It ran fast, and red with the silty mud. It rose higher and higher on the jeep as we forded the torrent. Soon we were safe though. And yes, we saw the wild elephants. At least their rear ends disappearing in the dense jungle. But on the ride home that night, there were several wild elephants right alongside of the road! Up close and real.
This first safari trip was at Minneriya National Park. Here the jeep road circles a large tank (manmade lake- there are no natural
lakes in Sri Lanka, but there are plenty of tanks- relics of the early hydraulic civilization). At one point, we stopped and walked around a lookout tower. Plenty of birds here! People in our group also saw mongeese (or is it mongooses?), giant squirrels, spotted Fallow deer, a wild pig, a jackal, plenty of monkeys, hares, a vine snake, and miscellaneous other critters. I kept teasing our escort from PGIS about seeing a pangolin. They're here, all right, but since they're both nocturnal and shy, I was not surprised to fail to see one. It was fun to look though. You know, there might be one here... or here. There were plenty of termite mounds around, so they had lots of potential food.
The second jeep safari took off before dawn, so some of the group decided to pass and sleep in. Their loss! Kawdulla National Park is very beautiful, and the sight of flocks of Painted Storks in the misty marshes at dawn is a sight that I will remember all of my life. We also saw two Fishing Owls, and so many other neat birds that a true and full account would bore anyone but a real bird-lover. Maybe peacocks sitting in trees and flying through the air might impress someone. Sure impressed me! Oh yes- no elephants. I didn't mind at all. We also had a mini-adventure when the jeep got stuck in the mud at the edge of the marsh. Our driver had confidently driven into a V-shaped, deep, muddy gulley. Too deep. Too muddy. Too much gulley. We all got out, jumping into the squishy mud, and some of us pushed the jeep a little. We got out very quickly, and were on our way again.
Later that day we had the opportunity to go to the archaeological site at the Polonnaruwa complex. This is a UNESCO site, and part of the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka. It was amazing. Old. Beautiful. It was also raining, overcast, and cool. I used my Sri Lankan umbrella with great glee. When we exited the bus, we were almost attacked by very insistent vendors ("touts") who pushed carved wooden Buddhas in our faces and dangled baubles in front of our eyes, always with an incessant patter. Apparently there are lines they cannot cross however, for as we entered the remains of the palace, suddenly they all disappeared. I can't complain too much about the touts, as I bought two beautiful wooden Buddhas from them!
I was quite impressed with how much is left at this site, and how well it has been restored. Besides the multi-storied palace, there were many temples, many with carvings that didn't look thousands of years old-but they were. I liked the "moonstone" which is at the entrance to each temple; it is a half-circle with curved rows of figures carved on it: horses, swans, and others. I was surprised that we were allowed to walk on the moonstones as we entered the temples. I would have expected that over hundreds of years, people's feet would have worn away the carvings, but this doesn't seem to be happening. My favorite memory of Polonnaruwa was the giant sleeping Buddha. I will always remember standing there in the rain, looking at the utter serenity with which Buddha was facing his own imminent death. Calm acceptance of reality. This seems so rare in our world, where people fear death and clinging to the last, sad tatters of life. Hopefully, I will carry the feelings of tranquility and peace which I experienced here with me forever.
We also toured the excellent, on-site museum which features many sculptures, tools, and so forth which have been found at Polonnaruwa, and a model of what the city looked like during the height of its occupation . Everything in the museum was well-lit, well-labeled, and of impressive quality. I liked the sculptures of Hindu deities the best. These date from a period of great Indian influence in the country.
During our tour of Polonnaruwa, some of the group discovered a tiny, very wet (utterly sodden) little kitten huddled among the ruins. Throughout Sri Lanka, we have seen lots of dogs, and a few cats. They are not quite feral, and not quite pets, either. The dogs often scavenge in the trash along the side of the road, and very few have collars. They also ran around freely, forming packs, fighting, and dodging in and out of the traffic on the road. Many of them walked with a limp that showed they haven't always moved out of the way in time. Many dogs were literally mangy, with much hair missing. But the majority of the dogs seemed really happy, fat, and successful. And fertile! To the American eye, it was bizarre to see so many intact males and pregnant or nursing females. You could tell the sex of each animal a mile away. There were lots of puppies too. Anyway, back to the kitten. She was rescued, dried off, brought on to the bus, and fed tidbits of our lunch. She ended up under the care of the family who runs the Mahakande Bungalow. She should survive on scraps, and the prey she takes with her "hunting habit", as the locals say. This is how most cats survive in Sri Lanka, although they do sell cat food at the stores. I wonder how the Sri Lankans would view the way we Americans pamper our pets. My fat cat has never had to hunt anything, and in feline fashion, he turns up his pretty little nose at a flavor of cat food that he's tired of...
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