Cultural Triangle - Anuradhapura, Dambulla, Polonarruwa

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Some semblance of hope was restored once we got the hell out of Colombo. We took a train to Anuradhapura, which was our first stop of the Cultural Triangle tour, which mainly consists of Anuradhapura, Dumballa and Polonnaruwa, whose locations on a map form a triangle. There are cities in between these that also make up the triangle, but basically, it encompasses some of the oldest sites of Sri Lanka, and some of the oldest Buddhist sites in the world.



Viewing it beyond the apparent poverty outside the train window, the Sri Lankan countryside is very beautiful, with lush rainforests covering prominent hills and small mountain peaks, lined with flowing waterfalls and orange dirt roads and paths; it can be especially majestic when the clouds roll in, revealing only green mountaintops. I kept thinking how I wanted to get off the train and do some hiking.



Once in Anuradhapura, we stayed at the French Garden Tourist Rest Hostel and hired a driver to show us the large expansion of ancient sites. The Jetavanaram Dagoba was a brick structure built in the 3^rd century, while the Thuparama Dagoba was built in the 3^rd century BC and is said to contain the collarbone of the Buddha. Strewn around the stupa are pillars that probably held a wooden roof, but the actual use of the pillars is still controversial.



The next morning we headed to Dambulla to see the Cave Temples and then to Sigiriya to see the rock pillar.



The Golden Temple in Dambulla is an opulent, if not pretentious, Buddhist structure that houses a Buddhist museum and buttresses a 100-foot golden Buddha image. Behind the temple is a path that leads up to the ancient Cave Temples, dating to the 1^st century BC. There are 5 cave temples in total, all housing various Buddhist images.



Sigiriya has probably been the highlight of our trip thus far. It’s just an awesome sight as you walk up to this huge rock structure, atop which are found the ruins a large monastery. The views are beautiful.



We spent the night in Polonnaruwa and visited the ruins of a Royal Palace and the Quadrangle – a compact group of ruins surrounded by a wall - the next day on some rented bicycles. I understand the significance and appreciate the fact that the ruins were once something of great grandeur, but, honestly, I was now getting to the point of restlessness: once you’ve seen one stupa, you’ve seen them all; and without a working knowledge of the history of the ruins, they just all looked like a pile of bricks. But it was a fun day on some old-school metal bikes that were basically falling apart; in fact, I had to exchange mine once because the seat kept falling, but my new one wasn’t that much better with barely functioning brakes. Honestly, we had some good laughs.



We ended the day at the Gal Vihara Buddha images.

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Photos

Sigiriya
klaudia with some sri lankan school girls

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

We continue to enjoy your blogs
Great monkey photo.