Sri Lanka - Day 2 Part 2

Back in the car for the afternoon, not sure where we were going next, but a good guess was that it was probably buddhist and old!   Again, our guide parked the car, got out and started walking without saying a word.   You could actually see this monument from the parking lot, so we knew to follow him, so that was nice.  Paying a small fee for someone to watch our shoes, we headed in.

Ruwanwelseya is the name of this dagoba, and at almost 30 stories high, it's one of the tallest monuments in the world.  I never quite caught on as to why some of them are all white, but it sure was pretty.

Buddhist flags around the base.

In case you're wondering, here's what the colors on the buddhist flags stand for.

The six vertical bands of the flag represent the six colors of the aura which Buddhists believe emanated from the body of the Buddha when he attained Enlightenment:

Blue: Loving kindness, peace and universal compassion
Yellow: The Middle Path – avoiding extremes, emptiness
Red: The blessings of practice – achievement, wisdom, virtue, fortune and dignity
White: The purity of Dharma – leading to liberation, outside of time or space
Orange: The Buddha's teachings – wisdom

The sixth vertical band, on the fly, is made up of a combination of rectangular bands of the five other colours, and represents a compound of the other five colours in the aura's spectrum. 

An old lady leaving her offering:

Obligatory shot of the two of us...

The main attraction of this place is actually a tree.  "Just a bit of a walk down this way..." our guide told us.  About a mile later in my bare feet (remember we had to leave our shoes at the entrance), we came upon the Bodhi Tree.  The story goes:

The Bodhi Tree, also known as Bo, was a large and very old Sacred Fig tree located in Bodh Gaya, under which Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher later known as Gautama Buddha, is said to have achieved enlightenment, or Bodhi.

According to the Mahavamsa, the Sri Maha Bodhi in Sri Lanka was planted in 288 BC, making it the oldest verified specimen of any angiosperm. In this year (the twelfth year of King Asoka's reign) the right branch of the Bodhi tree was brought to Anurādhapura. The Buddha, on his death bed, had resolved five things, one being that the branch which should be taken to Ceylon should detach itself.  From Gayā, the branch was taken across the sea; finally it arrived at Anuradhapura.

I was excited to see such an important (and old) pilgrimage site, apparently people come from all over to see the this.  What I didn't know before I walked all that was was that you can't actually see most of the tree, as it's surrounded by a wall.  See that big tree toward the right?  That's not actually the tree.  But see that limb that's held up by stakes?  That's part of the tree.  The closest thing you can get to is a branch that sticks out.

You can go inside the little temple and look through some gates to see the trunk.

This girl was so pretty I had to take a picture of her.

Having had enough of a tree that I couldn't really see, we walked all the way back in out bare feet, and were on to the next site.  

I don't know the name, but there were some carvings on the rock, look to the lower left of the picture.

A laughing elephant!  I love anything with elephants on it, I'm not sure why.

Here's what's inside.  Our guide kept asking us if we could tell if the buddha was sleeping or enlightened.  I kept guessing and always got it wrong.  I think this one is "enlightened".  Something about the long ears maybe?

Oh look, a cave...

With more bats!  Great.

======================================

At this point in the journey I was exhausted and starving.  I inquired about lunch, and our guide said, "I think you will eat back at the hotel."  "Oh, okay, um, how long until we get back to the hotel?"  "Oh, three to four hours, maybe."  Wait, what?  We hadn't eaten all day!  He had much to learn about the American appetite.

We stopped at a small pastry shop in a nearby town, which I tried to play it safe by ordering a vegetarian pastry, which turned out to be a mistake because it was one of the most unbelievably spicy things I had ever put in my mouth.  Downing my lukewarm 7-Up, and trying to recover, we started talking about how expensive the hotel spa was.  "Oh, I know a very good place, much more cheaper", he assured me, "and very nice."

===================================

Next up:  I wanted a 20 minute foot massage.   What I got was so much more.

Sri Lanka - Day 2 Part 1

Man, we had a jam packed day.  Our driver picked us up smack on time at 8am, and we were off.  A quick 2 hours of dodging cows and passing trucks on a two lane road, we were at our first monument.

=================================

I can't remember the name.  I tried looking it up, but there wasn't anything that looked close.  Anyway, it was old.  Like, 1st century AD old.

The ruins of the surrounding monastery.

Below is the main dagoba (or stupa).  Remember that these are structures that you can't actually go in, they just usually have a religious relic parked inside somewhere.  We took our time here, wandering around the outside, not knowing if this was a big deal or not (the driver was fairly vague as to what exactly we were doing that day).  I did learn that dagobas symbolize a meditatiing buddha:  The spire is his crown, the square is his head, the vase shape is his body, his legs are the steps, the square base is his throne.

Detail of the pillars.  More naked ladies to come in the following days.

I'm pretty sure that this was not the elephant's original intended purpose (holding the extension cord).

We had just started to get to know our guide at this point.  He was from Sri Lanka, and could reel off tons of facts about the monuments, none of which were written down anywhere I could find so of course I can't remember.  He would never tell us what our next destination was, or how far away it was.  He often just parked the car, got out, and started walking away.  Were we supposed to stay in the car?  Follow?  We were also to learn that he didn't eat lunch.  Which means that we didn't eat lunch.

Like here.  He just stopped the car and pointed.  (I found out later it was called Kuttampokuna).  "Oh, pretty, should we get out and take pictures?"  He just shrugged, "There is much else to see, there are just pools."  We got out and took a couple of pictures anyway.

From Wikipedia:

"The faces of the pools were cut granite slabs which includes the bottom and the sides of the pool. A wall was also built around the pool which encloses the compound. Flights of steps are seen on both ends of the pool decorated with punkalas, or pots of abundance and scroll design. Embankments were constructed to enable monks to bathe using pots or other utensils. Water to the pools were transferred through underground ducts and filtered before flowing to the pool and in a similar fashion the water was emptied.

========================================

On to the next site, but I can't remember the name of this place, either... Wait, I found it, Anuradhapura!  That's it!

This buddha was supposed to show a different mood depending on which way you looked at him.  You be the judge (his name is Smadhibuddha):

Left side:

Right side:

I couldn't tell the difference.

The remnants of another seated buddha:

I swear these colors are not enhanced, the moss really was this stunning green color.

Any guesses what this stone canoe was for?

Apparently the entire thing was filled with rice, enough for 5000 monks that used the refectory.  Here's a shot of what used to be the rest of the kitchen.  Or library?  Again, there were no signs.  The guide could have said it was the bathroom and we would have had to believe him.

A Guardstone, located at the front steps of another temple nearby.  Here's the story:  "Two lovers emerge from the dragon's mouth above the cobra king, who has in his had the pot of abundance, signifying prosperity.  This is said that fertility generates prosperity.  (7 - 9 century AD)."  Can't find who the little guy is at the cobra king's feet, maybe the "whimsical dwarf" we would start seeing everywhere.

We met this family along the way, they wanted their picture taken.

She started to get a little shy when I zoomed in...

The Moonstone is one of the more famous features in Sri Lanka, placed at the entrances of most of the temples.

The lotus flower (Nirvana) is at the center, followed by a row of swans (distinction between good and bad), a ring of foliage (worldly desires), followed by a line of elephants, lions, horses, and bulls, symbolizing the four stages of life:  growth, energy, power and forbearance.  Or birth, decay, disease and death, depending on if you're a glass-half-empty kind of person.  Here it is inverted and up close:

You're supposed to start at the outside ring and go in, ending up at the lotus flower (Nirvana), right before you enter the temple.  Or the other way around, I supposed, as you leave and go back into the world.  Clever.

Another dwarf guarding the entrance.  Good parting shot, I think.

=================================================

Had enough for one day?  Ready for dinner?  Too bad, this was only the first half, not even lunch time yet.  Back in the car, off to the next one temple...