Elephants, elephants everywhere
The elephant orphanage at Pinnewala takes baby
elephants and looks after them, taking them from the land twice a day to the
river. Pinnawala is notable for having
the largest herd of captive elephants in the world. In 2011, there were 88
elephants, including 37 males and 51 females from 3 generations. The orphanage was originally founded in order
to afford care and protection to many of the orphaned unweaned wild elephants
found wandering in and near the forests of Sri Lanka, often the parents killed
by land mines left from the war.
The orphanage at Pinnewala covers a large area, where
the elephants are able to roam and feed, as well as those ‘on show’ including
being cleaned and washed as well as the show of feeding. For just £1.50 or $2.00 you could feed the
elephants, which we did. After this
feeding the elephants are taken down to the river. (By the way, on arrival here we were introduced to two
concepts – the foreigner price against the local price (as much as 10 times
more – but still relatively cheap) and the toilet, or more precisely the toilet
attendant, who expects a tip for keeping the toilet clean…. )
Later in the trip we visited the Minneriya national
park. Here we transferred into an open
topped jeep like vehicle with the aim of finding a wild elephant or two. We drove a through the forest
and while we saw many birds (and a snake or two) elephants seemed to be in short
supply. We did come across a lone male
who looked pretty livid and was given a wide berth. After about an hour we stopped for a stretch
before heading off again. Then the radio
crackled into life… we swung around and headed around a headland coming across a
herd of wild elephants, possibly 70, with about 8 babies, as young as 3 weeks
old.
As we watched they slowly walked forward eating grass
and generally not seemingly worried about anything. A small family group came back from the lake
as we watched. They kept either side of
the baby, giving protection. As we watched
more vehicles arrived and there were 20 odd jeeps, watching. This made one elephant unhappy who charged
one vehicle which made a quick move.
Later we watched two males literally go head to head on the other side
of the herd. What was the surprise was
they were silent while they did so; no Hollywood soundtrack here!
We stared in awe as these seemingly gentle creatures
edged slowly across the road towards the tree line, eating a small amount of
the 250kg (500lb) of grass each day for a fully grown male.
Kandy
and the Sacred Tooth
According to Sri Lankan legends, when the Lord Buddha
died, his body was cremated in a sandalwood pyre at Kusinagara in India and his
left canine tooth was retrieved from the funeral pyre by Arahat Khema. Khema then gave it to King Brahmadatte. A belief grew that whoever possessed the
Sacred Tooth Relic had a divine right to rule that land. Wars were fought to take possession of the
relic. 800 year later the tooth came
into the possession of King Guhaseeva .
Kalinga had become Buddhist and begun to worship the Sacred Tooth
relic. This caused discontent among his citizens, who went
to King Paandu and said that King Guhaseeva had stopped believing in god and
that he had started to worship a tooth.
King Paandu decided to destroy the relic, and ordered it to be brought
to the city. It is said that, as the
tooth arrived at the city, a miracle occurred, and King Paandu converted to
Buddhism. When King Ksheeradara heard of
this, he went with his army to attack Paandu in the city of Palalus. The
invaders were defeated before reaching the city, and King Ksheeradara
died. According to legend, Hemamala hid
the relic in her hair ornament and the royal couple disguised themselves as
Brahmins in order to avoid discovery. It is said that Sri Lanka was chosen as
the new home for the tooth relic because the Lord Buddha had declared that his
religion would be safe in Sri Lanka for 5000 years.
The tooth has moved around a number of locations but is
now in Kandy, encased in seven increasingly large gold boxes. The last and only
one visible is bell shaped. This is only
on view three times each day for approx. 40 minutes each time. The ceremony started with drums and horns,
before opening the viewing window. At
this time the devout line up to present flowers to the shrine so there were many,
many people are carrying lotus flowers in preparation. The whole process was manic and the time to
‘see’ the relic is minimal before being pushed on.
We spent some time going around the temple site, before
heading up the road to the ‘British Garrison Cemetery’. This holds the remains of about 150 British
souls, who were buried mostly in the 19th century. The weathered tombstones and neatly-kept
grounds make for an atmospheric escape from the throngs of people at the
temple. Most of the dead here died
young, victims of malaria, war or cholera and perhaps most intriguingly were 7
who were trampled to death by ‘wild elephants’. We followed this by a short
lunch close to the Commonwealth War Cemetery – it was here that Mountbatten had
had his base in WWII - before heading on to the Peradeniya botanical gardens, which
attract 2 million visitors
annually. They are renowned for their
collection of a variety of orchids and include more than 4000 species of
plants, including of orchids, spices, medicinal plants and palm trees. The Orchid house was beautiful with many
colours and varieties. The Gardens are a
haven for the local ‘courting couples’ as a place to go away from family. Indeed in walking around there were many
young couples enjoying each other company in a romantic but non-physical way.
The
Drambulla Caves
Spread over five caves, which contain statues and paintings
related to Lord Buddha and his life. There
are a total of 153 Buddha statues, 3 statues of Sri Lankan kings and 4 statues
of gods and goddesses. The latter
include two statues of Hindu gods, the god Vishnu and the god Ganesh. The murals cover an area of over 2,100 square metres.
We started at the bottom and were warned to bring socks
with us as we needed to remove our shoes at the temple. We also needed to have long trousers and at
least short sleeves to enter. We walked
to the top of the hill, passing wild monkeys on the way. On the top of the
final ascent we removed our shoes and walked around in socks. A strange feeling, but some of the more
devout walked all the way to top in bare feet. However we took comfort in the fact that
thousands of locals walk around everywhere in bare feet without injury. The caves date back to the 1st century BC and
have the five caves under a vast overhanging rock, carved with a drip line to
keep the interiors dry. The caves are
beautifully decorated. With many statues
the whole area is sacred.
Sigiriya
A place full of archaeological significance – it’s
dominated by a massive column of rock nearly 200 metres (660 ft) high: (the
central plug of a volcano. According to
the ancient Sri Lankan chronicles this site was selected by King Kasyapa (477 –
495AD) for his new capital. He built his palace on the top of this rock and
decorated its sides with colourful frescoes. On a small plateau about halfway
up the side of this rock he built a gateway in the form of an enormous
lion. The name of this place is derived
from this structure —Sīhāgiri, the Lion Rock. The capital city at the bottom of the rock
and the royal palace were abandoned after the king's death. It was used then used as a Buddhist monastery
until the 14th century.
Sigiriya today is a UNESCO listed World Heritage Site.
It is one of the best preserved examples of ancient urban planning. It is the most visited historic site in Sri
Lanka. I first read about this place some 30+ years ago in a Sci-fi book
written by Arthur C Clarke, called Fountains of Paradise. His description has always stayed with me and
so it was a must to visit.
Our visit started at the Museum, putting the site in
context and explaining that the King who built the palaces etc, wanted
somewhere away from his subjects as he had killed his father (the earlier king)
as wasn’t all that well liked. And
that’s why when he died the location was almost abandoned in a few years.
We then started through the ‘pleasure gardens’ or town
area to the bottom of the rock. To be
fair we were climbing the whole way, by the top we had climbed some 1200 steps. This area includes a number of ‘pleasure
baths’ and fountains which were fed from the local lakes and worked without
pumps. Indeed the Sri Lankans were well
known as hydraulic engineers, better than the Romans at the same time in
history.
We went up a small spiral staircase to the
frescoes. Once they would have covered
most of the western face of the rock, an area 140 metres long and 40 metres
high. There are references in the
graffiti to 500 ladies in these paintings.
However, most have been lost forever. Some 800+ years old, there are about 18
semi-naked women remaining, painted directly on to the original wet plaster.
These stare out of the wall, seemingly as fresh as the day they were painted. Because
of the need for speed during their painting there are some errors including one
lady with six fingers, another with three nipples. Hauntingly beautiful, they
look across centuries of time. We were transfixed by their serenity. More
frescoes, different from those on the rock face, can be seen elsewhere on the
rock.
From here we descended on a second spiral staircase to
the Mirror Wall. 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, the wall is now partially covered with verses scribbled by visitors to
the rock. The mirror wall has graffiti of verses dating from as early as the
8th century. While not a mirror any longer the wall still shines in the sun.
We began to climb, following the path around the rock
and as we turned a corner we were literally blown off our feet. Fighting our way up we got to the next
plateau, some 50m from the top. It was
here that remain the paws from the giant lion whose mouth you would have had to
climb through to go to the top. Also
here were a number of signs asking visitors to be quiet to avoid hornet
attacks. There was also ‘tent’ made of
small gauge netting for people to access in the event of an attack. Looking up at the rock we could see the nets
clinging to the cliff face.
The last section of climb was between the lion’s paws,
and up a stone stair case, before it changed to a steel staircase hanging off
the side of the rock. Sweating and with wobbly knees we arrived at the top, we
thought… only to find another 30 steps..
Something about delayed gratification as a tenet of Buddhism came to mind. The
top was windswept and the clouds seemingly much closer. The top of the rock is where the main palaces
(one apparently a further 3 stories high), as well as gardens and swimming
pools were located. While the pools
remain the structures above ground have long since been reduced to a mere 30cm
(1foot) or less the layout is still understandable; it must have been
magnificent to have been here at its height.
On this trip we had grown to love the people and the
countryside, the beauty and the traffic madness that make up one special place,
quite like no other….
First published in VISA 117 (October 2014)
