Completing the Cultural Triangle

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Geo: 8.45732, 80.5438

Habarana,
Kandy and on to Ella in the Hill country 9th - 15th
October

We left Mr Abi in Habarana with great reluctance, we have never been taken care of so well. Sarat, the neighbour agreed to drive us to Kandy and stop and see sights on the way.

The first stop was at Dambulla Cave Temples, 5 temples in 5 caves. They were interesting, especially the reclining Buddhas and the wall and ceiling paintings. As at all the temples, as soon as you enter their grounds you have to take off your shoes and walk barefooted. This can
be a real trial either because the ground is burning hot and it is very painful, or the ground is gritty, or as on our last temple visit of the day when there had just been a heavy downpour, it is muddy! But who said travelling should always be easy?

Our next stop was Nalanda Gedige, built in the style of a Southern Indian Temple, (but always used by Buddhists), it is the oldest stone building in Sri Lanka dating back to the 8th Century. It has been reassembled as it was moved to avoid being flooded when a reservoir was constructed. We enjoyed this stop as there were no other visitors and it was a very peaceful place to look around.

The third visit of the day was my suggestion as I noticed Aluvihara marked on the map and thought it worth looking at. When we did I could understand why Sarat had not suggested it. It is very different from every other temple visited so far as it concentrates on punishment of sinners. It comprises a series of monastic caves set in a sheer rock face, and the first cave houses a 10 metre reclining Buddha with superb wall and ceiling paintings of lotus flowers. After that it is downhill rapidly, all the way to hell, with the next cave containing quite modern looking cartoon murals of devils meting out inventive punishments to sinners in the afterlife. It is not for the faint-hearted and I am sure psychologists would be able to tell us more about the disturbed mental state of the creators of these horrifying pictures. After a few minutes Jim and I decided we had seen enough and returned, rather subdued, to the car. I will put one of the less disturbing scenes on the blog to show what we mean.Others I would not want to show.

Eventually we reached Kandy and said goodbye to Sarat when he deposited us at our next accommodation, The Settle Inn!

Only 10 minutes walk from the Temple of the Tooth Relic we were in a very convenient position close to the lake. The next day we set off to the temple having read the guidebook and realised that we might get a 5 second view of the altar where the relic is enclosed. The building itself is not particularly grand but the Drumming Hall where you start to climb the staircase up to the relic has a tangible sense of awe and excitement, enhanced by the drummers and pipe player.

We climbed up in a big queue made up of tourists and Buddhist practitioners from various countries, up the stairs, along a corridor, and then past two open doors in the wall, (designed like hatches found between kitchen and dining areas but larger and covered in gold carvings) and whilst being hurried along by guardians we managed a quick glimpse of the Shrine, a beautiful gold dagoba. The dagoba houses five other dagobas of reducing size and the tooth
itself is kept in the smallest. It was rescued from the funeral pyre of the Buddha and has a fascinating history of intrigue and battles of different people who have sought to possess it.

We slowly walked through the rest of the building and were just about to leave when we noticed the queue up the stairs had disappeared. Jim said he had seen enough but I decided that as there was no queue I could quickly go up and round again for a second more leisurely view ( I know it sounds as if I was trying to get a second ride at Disneyland but it was with respect that I wanted to see more). How wrong was I! I reached the end of the corridor in front of the Shrine walk to find a gate closed across the way and just like the lines controlling queues at airports, someone had closed off some entrances and opened others. I thought of turning round and going back down as Jim was waiting for me but a huge crowd had formed behind me of Sri Lankan visitors and I could not get through without causing havoc as we were so tightly jammed. I had not understood that different groups were meant to go through at certain times and I had gone into the local group.

So I stood and watched proceedings with fascination. Various groups were being shepherded in from different doors, some taken past the Shrine as we were but others actually allowed through the Shrine room itself. All these people were fully clothed in white. There was a
group of elders with helpers, again all in white. In front of the Shrine doors was a sort of holding pen where groups were assembled , until they were calm and quiet and then they were lead past or into the Shrine room. Most had offerings of flowers, some very elaborate, others handfuls of petals, and the scent of the these was wonderful (and only a tad overpowering) but having seen the sign saying don't smell the flowers that are being given in offerings to the Buddha, I felt very guilty enjoying them.

Then a group of mothers and babies drifted into the pen and sat on the floor. There were probably 30 or more. It was stiflingly hot as you can imagine with all these bodies in a relatively small space and some of the babies started to cry, and that set off others. The others were desperately trying to quieten them and I realized then that they would not be allowed to go further until ALL the babies were quiet. Not an easy task. Grandmothers were drafted in to help, but unfortunately, some babies had to be sent away (in disgrace?)
Finally after about half an hour they were allowed through and thankfully our turn came next.

Although Jim was not too happy about my extended absence (he was getting worried about what had happened to me) the time spent crammed in amongst the very intense, reverential and excited devotees was very moving and taught me more about the importance of Buddhism to these people than just visiting temples.

We enjoyed walking around Kandy and the next day decided to visit the Udawattakelle Sanctuary on the hill above the town. It is meant to be a good bird watching area as well as having deer, wild boar, monkeys and reptiles. We had a lovely two hour walk but saw nothing until we walked out through the park gates to find lots of monkeys playing in the road. Perhaps we were not up early enough.

After three days in Kandy we took the train to Ella in the Hill Country. The scenery on the journey is stunning as the train climbs to a height of approximately 2,500 metres. People walk along the track and move off it when the driver blows his whistle, whilst passengers hang
out of the doors and stand on foot plates. We had seats in the Super First Class, expensive for Sri Lanka (£7 each for a 6 hour trip) but felt it necessary as there was no ordinary first class and seats could not be reserved in second class. The carriage did have wifi and
comfortable seats but that was the extent of the luxury. Lunch could be ordered and to eat it a table was squeezed in between the seats. Unfortunately there were only 2 tables per carriage so only 4 people could eat at one time. It was a very late lunch.

Ella is positioned at a gap in the hills so there are stupendous views down to the plains below and very good walks around the village. We saw a number of Black-tailed Flame Backed Woodpeckers. A German couple walked down the path towards us as we were watching a pair and Jim was so excited he didn't want them to miss the moment, so said, “Have you seen that red Woodpecker just by you?” and the woman said no and walked by, looking at Jim as if he should be locked up. Obviously not bird watchers!

Tomorrow we are moving north to Anuradhapura, the last of the ancient cities of the Cultural Triangle. We were saving this until we eturned in November to meet up with Richard and Beverley. However, Richard is not able to travel at the moment for medical reasons. It is a great shame as we were looking forward to having company and discovering Sri Lanka together. If you read this Richard, we hope you are improving, and there is always next year.

15th- 18th October Anuradhapura

We were up bright and early to catch the 6.35 from Ella and standing with our bags on the platform when the train came in. The only problem was it didn't! ? It arrived on a second line, one removed from the platform. I turned to someone standing close by and asked if it was going to go out and reverse back in on the right line. He laughed and said, “Jump down quickly”. Not easy, I had to sit down on the edge of the platform and then jump. Even more difficult was getting up on the train as the lowest foot plate was above my waist height. I managed to get one foot up and then hauled myself up by the handrails. Jim miraculously managed to get the bags on board but I don't know how. I was too concerned trying to get myself aboard. Once on, the First Class was fine and we had a lovely journey with the sun shining on tea plantations, rock outcrops, streams, waterfalls and pretty little stations covered with flowers.

The real surprise came when we reached a 'cul-de-sac' style junction where we drove in then reversed out to complete the rest of the journey going backwards. One pair of passengers stood up and rotated their block of 2 seats, whereupon everyone else jumped up to do the
same. After a few minutes of re-organisation, moving belongings from backs of seats as of course they were whisked around to end up in front of other people, we were all facing forward again. An excellent design and so simple.

We eventually changed to a train that only had Second and Third Class with no reservations. We clambered aboard but there were no seats free for an hour. Then I sat down but as our bags had to stay between the entrance doors (which are fastened back fully open), Jim stayed
with them. I think he envisioned them being blown out.

As a well behaved pupil traveling to school by train for 7 years, and conditioned by British Rail, this whole experience is a challenge. Crossing railway lines was not allowed! And any guard who allowed a train to move with a door open would have been in trouble. Here, people were sitting on the door step with their feet dangling out, or standing with their whole body out of the train. The journey took from 6.30am to 7pm excluding half an hour when we changed. It ounds
a long way but we had not traveled that far as the Ella hill country train rarely reached more than 15 kilometres an hour, and spent much of the climb below 10.

Once in Anuradhapura, we settled into our homestay, Villu Villa, a lovely house owned by a lawyer. He owns the house across the road and then built a bigger one, VV, but decided before moving in than an extra income would be useful. We are the only guests at present so it is peaceful, with a lovely garden.

The first day we relaxed, only visiting a tank to see birds in the morning and then, late afternoon, going in the Villa's tuk-tuk to Mihintale. This is a very important site for Buddhists as it is where Buddhism was first introduced in Sri Lanka. We started the climb up the 1800 plus steps as the sky darkened and we felt the first drops of rain. Everyone was rushing down and we made it half way up before deciding to join them. Just as well, the rainy season started at that moment. We made it to the tuk-tuk without getting too wet but then water plummeted from the dark sky and thunder crashed overhead and lightning flashed non-stop. It was very dramatic!

We drove off but visibility was almost zero as the tuk-tuk had no wipers and the inside was steamed up. The road was awash with a couple of inches of water making it difficult to grip the surface. The driver had unfurled the side covers but they had been folded so many times
most of the plasticised material had cracked and fallen off leaving areas of cotton mesh, not very waterproof. We had to hold the edges down to get any protection at all. I could see the driver was very nervous so I said if he wanted to wait a while that was fine with us We sat and had a chat and all looked at photographs we had taken before the rain (see the one of the hospital treatment 'bath'😉 for half an hour or so until it eased a little then drove home.

The next day we had a car to take us around the Ancient City, not because we had been put off the tuk-tuk but we decided that as we were going to have a longer session visiting lots of sites that air conditioning was a must. There are numerous temples, dagobas, ruins of huge
monasteries, buildings that had been 7 and 9 stories high to house monks, a royal palace, ponds and museums etc. A huge amount to see. Something that fascinated me was in the ruined monastery, a long stone receptacle where local people placed rice to feed the monks,
and a smaller (but still giant) one for curry. The rice container could hold enough for 5,000 monks.

Jim found the sewage system interesting. Under the monastery was a system of clay pipes from stone urinals and stone toilets, in place by the 10th Century but I am not sure how early they were used.

By 11am we gave up visiting the temples and dagobas because you have to take off shoes and the ground was so hot we could not walk.

At the early cave temples, (which are identical in position and usage to the Australian Aboriginal shelters), we came across a Kandy style wedding party and they very happily posed for us. The costumes were beautiful, especially the men's.

I mentioned tanks in the last blog, what I had not appreciated that some tanks were built as early as the 4th Century B.C. They help to control flooding as well as providing irrigation.

Tomorrow we are back on the train to Colombo and then down to Galle on the south coast, so hope you can catch up with us there.

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Comments

[Pauline]

Ouch, looks awful

[Pauline]

Just like the pictures of Ceylon we used to get in tea packets 50 years ago.