Travels around the 13th Colony

[Siress Sarika]

Hi all, I would like encourage members who have travelled somewhere special and memorable to them in their life, to share their photos and snaps of their travels around the Earth.

I would like to start off with my Sri Lankan travels.

Hope you enjoy them!

Sorry for the enormous file size of these photos, but they were scanned from our original photos from back in the days we had films in cameras...lol :TOH:
My quick shot of the first elephant I saw ...



Back in Galle, this was snapped.
For those of you who might not have ever seen one. Here's a three wheeler taxi.



The famous Temple of the Tooth- where the sacred tooth of Buddha was said to be snatched from his funeral pyre in 543 BC, and smuggled into Ceylon during the 4th century AD, and hidden in the hair of a princess. It is now kept in the Temple, guarded behind closed doors.There is a eye catching gilded roof over the tooth relic chamber was a recent addition by President Premadasa. But the temple was constructed under Kandyan Kings from 1687- 1707, and 1747-82.



This is the lake just across from the Temple of the Tooth. You can see the little island in the centre.



My day spent at Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage with a friend of mine at the time.



Bath time for the elephants. The Mahouts take them twice a day and visitors can watch them from the bank of the river.



Further up in one of the surrounding hills above the township is a large Buddha statue that is illuminated at night. This is a more recently built statue.



This is the lovely view over the township and the lake, as you can see in the background stretching away.



Coming down into the inland dry zone/jungle plains of the cultural triangle, this is Dambulla Rock Cave Temple. It dates back to around 1st century BC when King Valagam Bahu , driven out of Anuradahapura took refuge here. When he regained the throne, he had the caves converted into magnificent rock temple. There are five separate caves containing 150 Buddha images carved out of rock. No photos are allowed within the temple caves, so all I have are shots of the outside of one of these cave temples. Can almost see Indiana Jones walking up to the entrance...lol
(which I am also a big fan of Indy too!)

[Siress Sarika]

Here's a few more today.

First one is still in the central jungle plains of the country. We arrive at Sigiriya.
The spectacular rock fortress, 19 km north of Dambulla, and it is one of Sri Lanka's major attractions. In 473 AD King Dhatusena of Anuradhapura was overthrown and , so the legend goes, walled up alive by Kasyapa, his son by a palace consort. Moggallana, Dhatusena's son by his true queen, fled to India swearing revenge, so Kasyaypa , fearing an invasion, decided to build an impregnable fortress on the huge rock of Sigiriya. When the long expected invasion finally came in 491, Kasyapa didn't just sulk in his stronghold but rode out at the head of his army on an elephant. In attempting to outflank his half-brother, Kasyapa took a wrong turn, became bogged in a swamp, was deserted by his troops and took his own life.
Sigiriya later became a monastic refuge but eventually fell into disrepair, and was only rediscovered by archeaologists during the British era.
Atop of the 200 metre high rock (377 metres above sea level) Kasyapa built a wet -season- palace- a kind of 5th century penthouse. :mrgreen:
The approach to the fortress is through Kasyapa's beautiful water gardens which extend from the western foot of the rock, with royal bathing pools, little moated islands wich acted as dry season palaces and trees framing the approach to the rock.
When you are there on person, you see this monolithic rock rising in sheer and mysterious splendour from the jungle. It truly is very hauntingly beautiful!
It's a steep ascend to climb the rock entrance...believe me..I was wheezing from the immense amount of steps up..obviously I wasn't in shape at the time...that's my excuse anyway.lol
As my mother's knees (nor the rest of her...lol) couldn't manage to go much further than what we did manage, I also stopped about 1/3 of the way up. Perched on the side of the rock face is a precarious looking spiral stair case that has been built there in modern times for visitors to enter the rock. I was dissappointed to not go further as I was so wanting to see the beautiful and exquisite and famous frescoes inside beyond the gallery. A wall named the Mirror Wall has a smooth glaze-mirror like surface upon which visitors of 1000 years felt impelled to note thier impressions of the women in the gallery above.
The grafitti were inscribed between 7th and 11th century.
The frescoes that were painted back then of gorgeous Sinhalese women, deer-eyed , bejewelled in golden chains and pearls, and though they may look bare breasted beauties, they in fact are wearing gossamer blouses...but that doesn't stop the admirer from appreciating their obvious beauty.
Often these young women are called Cloud Maidens or Ladies of Rain and Thunder. I have loved these frescoes ever since seeing them in books, but sadly didn't get up there to see their artistic value (being an artist, I revel in ancient art and paintings. I vowed to myself I shall definately see them the next time I should journey to Sri Lanka again.



Here is a quick link to some images of those frescoes for anyone interested.

www.google.com.au/images?q=Sigir ... 52&bih=580

The next stop is Polonnaruwa city. It was a south Indian Chola dynasty that first made its capitol at Polonnaruwa, after conquering Anuradhapura in the late 10th century AD.
This picture is the the 2400 hectare tank (water resevoir), so large that it was named "The Parakrama Samudra" which translate to mean "Sea of Parakrama" after the ruling king Parakrama I (1153-86). He achieved huge buildings, planning beautiful parks and this tank was his crowning achievement. However, the present lake incorporates three older tanks, so it may not be the actual tank he created. But it certainly gives you a good idea of the vast engineering the Sinhalese Kings aimed at and built successfully in Sri Lanka's past golden age.



Still more to follow...thanks for coming along with my travels back then.

[Siress Sarika]

Royal Palace
Dating back to King Parakrama's I , the Royal Palace was once seven storeys high, measured 31 by 31 metres in the size of the whole construction. The three metre thick walls certainly have the holes to receive the floor beams for two higher floors, but if there were a further four levels, they must have been made out of wood. The roof in this main hall, which had 50 rooms in all, was supported by 30 columns.




Vatadage- Circular Relic House

In the south east of the quadrangle group of buildings in Polonnaruwa, is the Vatadage Relic House. It 's circular architecture is typical of it's kind. It's outer most terrace is 18 metres in diameter and the second terrace has four entrances flanked by exquisite guardstones.
The "Moonstone" at the northern end (which is a intricately carved stone semi circle or arc step) is said to be the finest in Polonnaruwa.
The four entrances lead to the central dagoba with it's four seated buddhas.





Atadage-Tooth Relic Temple

This is the only surviving structure in Polonnaruwa dating from the reign of Vijayabahu I. This once had a upper wooden level.



Satmahal Prasada- Stepped Pyramid

This curious building about which very little seems to be known, has an appearance of Cambodian influence in its design. It consists of six diminishing storeys(and used to be seven altogether once), that gives a stepped pyramid effect.

I was quite astonished to see this construction, and thought it to be quite lovely.




Gal Potha-Stone Book

This is a colossal stone representation of a palm leaf ola book. 9 metres long stone slab and measures 1 1/2 metres wide and from 40 to 66 cm thick.
The inscription on it the longest such stone inscription(of which there are many!) in Sri Lanka, indicates that it was Nissanka Malla who recorded his deeds upon.
Much of it extols his virtues as a King, but also includes the foot note that the slab weighing 25 tonns, was dragged from Mihintale, nearlt 100 km away!

You can just see a chameleon who decided to pose in the picture for me, sitting on the rock supporter in the centre of the photograph. Just his head mainly can be seen. Perhaps he was King Nissanka re-incarnated himself, making sure that visitors read all his wonderful works as a King of Lanka...lol.





Thuparama

At the southern end of the quadrangle, is the Thuparama, which is a gedige. A gedige is a architectural style which reached it's perfection in Polonnaruwa. It still has it's original vaulted roof intact. Dating from Parakrama I's reign. The building actually shows a strong Hindu influence. There are many Buddha images in the inner chamber.
We walked inside this structure and it truly is wonderfully built.
Oh that's me standing in some of these shots btw..other's are my mother appearing in them.




Pabula Vihara or Coral Shrine

This is what is called a Dagoba from the period of Parakramabahu. It is the third largest stupa in Polonnaruwa.
Dagoba's are a Buddhist monument composed of a solid hemisphere containing relics of Buddha. Also they can be known as Pagoda, stupa or chedi in other countries.
They are as precise in their construction as the pyramids of Giza. I thought so anyway, due to their perfect structure.
Truly wonderful to see.





Gal Vihara
Across the road from another Dagoba, called the Kiri Vihara, you come to a group of Buddha images, carved out of one long slab of solid granite rock. They are part of Parakrama's monastry.
They consist of four separate images.The standing Buddha is 7 metres high, and the reclining buddha is 14 metres long.

I feared to take a photo too close to the imgages, out of respect. So I snuck this one from a bit of a distance.
But we had gone up to them to have a closer look at the beautiful carvings.




Next time, I'll scan pics of the ancient festival parade of the Kandy Elsala Perahera and share them here.

[Nacky]

Oh Siress, thank you so much for sharing these! And all the text you wrote with each photo! Don't apologize for the size of them because these are PERFECT! The one of the monolithic rock is one of the best photos I've ever seen, and Dambulla Rock Cave Temple, these places are just absolutely stunning! I, too, can picture Indiana Jones walking in those places. Another thing that I notice is the tranquility in those shots. It's like another world, but an ancient more peaceful one.

Thank you for posting all of that! Hard to imagine that not too far away from that country, lies the very populated and busy city of Bombay.

[Siress Sarika]

Happy to hear you enjoyed seeing them! Oh indeed Sigiriya fortress possesses a very haunting ambience to the visitor. There is a very beautiful tranquility in these ancient places, Nacky. I remember there is a bird that is native to Sri Lanka and India alike, and I always heard it in these places, as well as Kandy. It's bird song/call seemed to loan a mystical sound in the jungle trees.

Definately you feel you are in another world.

I enjoyed writing up the information about each shot. Pictures are fine, but I think it's always better to add some explanation for the veiwer to further appreciate what they are looking at.
Oh yes! I could already hear the "Raiders March" playing in my head, when I visited these wonderful sites! ;D

[Athene]

Those photos are wonderful! I was in awe when I saw them. They look like something from an Indiana Jones movie with the exotic locals. I'm having a hard time on deciding on a favorite.

[Siress Sarika]

Actually my guy informed me(as I had forgotten this fact...silly me..) that many of the scenes in "Temple of Doom" was filmed in Sri Lanka, especially Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage.
That is why Indiana speaks a few words of Sinhala(the main ethinic language in Sri Lanka), in the movie. Though the movie was suppossed to be set in India, due to the Indian government not allowing the film to be shot in thier country, the movie had to shot in Sri Lanka instead.

I felt rather proud that I had the chance to visit the very orphanage that "Temple of Doom" was filmed partially in!

When I was 11 yahren old, Temple of Doom was very big at the cinema's, and my mother worked for our local Drive-In-theatre, and her boss asked me if I would like to dress up as a temple dancer/Indian princess for a float they were making to promote this movie fro our annual Rodeo Procession.
I will post that pic...it was a lot of fun for me!
And a fond memory.

[Athene]

WOW what a part of history...."Temple of Doom" is my personal favorite of the Indiana Jones movies.