Once I has seen the statue of the Buddha entering into Nirvana, I did not want to see anything more at Pollunurwa. I walked back to the car in tears and it took me sometime to recover. However, because my camera had not functioned I hoped to get some postcards back at the museum. We drove back to where we had bought the permit for me to enter Pollonaruwa and strode into the museum. A dog was lying in the entrance panting in the hot sun. It urinated as it lay there but did not bother to move. There was something reassuring about this commonplace sight that brought me back to earth after the ecstasy of the statues. The museum was cool and had very good displays- by far the best that I had seen in Sri Lankan museums up to that point. There was an overall plan of the Pollonaruwa sight which was very helpful in putting what I had seen in geographical perspective. There was also a wonderful imagined facsimile of the round ruined temple that i had seen whch gave one some idea of the majesty and beauty of Pollonaruwa in its heyday.
Alas, there were no postcards of the statues of the Buddha and the only definitive guidebook that was in my price range was in French. The people who served in the shop were having their lunch in a back room, sharing rice and curry from newspaper, rather in the same way as we would eat fish and chips. They were very reluctant to get up and serve us (it did look a delicious meal!) but eventually did so on the request of our driver and even took the dvd of the site that I bought out of its case and tested it for me.
Then it was back to the hotel for dinner and much digestion of the past day.
The following morning we were off again, early, to drive up to the hill country where we would be staying in a planter's bungalow on a tea plantation. Tania my hostess was brought up on a tea plantation as her father was a planter in the days of British rule and beyond. Many of the cooks who had served the British went to work for the Sri Lankan planters and kept the recipes that had been given to them by their British mistresses, closely guarded secrets. Tania says they kept the practice of wearing livery and would serve them lovely desserts like butterscotch, creme caramel or bread and butter pudding. It sounds as if she had an idyllic childhood and was very happy in the cool hills of the tea plantations.
Before we left, we drove around the Siguria rock and saw the great moats that had been built around the base of the rock. Some of these in the dry season were now empty of water but filled with plants and monkeys.
On the way, Tania suggested that we might drive through Kandy so that I could catch sight of some of its famous landmarks. I was very happy about this as i had hoped that we might be able to visit Kandy. However I was not prepared for the quantity of traffic and pollution. This medieval town, which was once the capital of Sri lanka is built on a hill and in order to reach the main centre you have to spiral up the hillside along with tuk, tuks, buses, lorries and all the other traffic which is belching out its exhaust. it is rather like a vortex sucking the pollution into its centre, which is a shame because up at the top, the city is quite beautiful, there is a temple with a golden roof by a lovely lake ( which has some macabre tale of chopped up bodies thrown in it) and the feel of a city in the sky- if it wasn't so polluted.
Nevertheless, I was glad we had made a detour in order to visit the place and also because we saw the stadium where Tehani and Tiasha had competed when they were at school. One was an excellent runner and the other a very good swimmer.
As we drove on Tania began to describe the plants and trees to me. We passed plantations of cocoa and pepper. The pepper vines often curling round the trees in the foreground. We saw paddy fields that were still being harvested and swathes of rice growing. There were ebony trees and more teak and roadsides where the shops were selling wooden furniture beautifully carved. There was coffee growing which was the principle beverage in Sri Lanka before the tea plantations were established in the late 18th, early 19th century.
As the roads climbed higher the air was becoming pleasanter and cooler and I felt that, at last, I was no longer under seige to the heat, although the car was air conditioned, it could still be very hot for me, at least.
Tomorrow, I will describe the plantations and my visit to the Faitrade tea factory.
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Saturday, 8 October 2011
In my end is my beginning.
Yesterday, I described the post enlightenment statue of the Buddha. Today, I want to talk about the final statue at Gal Vahara; that of the Buddha in his death. I had been attracted to the photograph of this huge statue in Merton's Asian Journal and somehow I knew this would be the statue that held the most significant message for me. I was not disappointed. However, there were some difficulties. Not only was it very difficult to find a shady spot in which to stand before this giant figure but next to me stood a guide and a tourist couple. He was busy describing the ins and outs of the statue in Sinhala or Tamil while I was trying to listen below the words in my head to what the figure was conveying to me. Eventually I manged to sink below the words and to gaze upon the beauty of the recumbent Buddha. Here is how Thomas Merton describes the experience:
"Looking at these figures I was suddenly, almost forcibly, jerked clean out of the habitual, half-tied vision of things, and, an inner clearness, clarity, as if exploding from the rocks themselves, became evident and obvious...The thing about all this is that there is no puzzle, no problem, and really no "mystery." All problems are resolved and everything is clear, simply because what matters is clear."
For me, the experience was like coming home. I knew that here was a place that would be so familiar to me that I would not fear its coming. It was a place of great sweetness and rest. I remembered seeing a similar smile on my dead father's face, with his hands resting on his fat tummy and thinking; " oh, so you were a contemplative too!" "You had been waiting all your life for this moment"
Here is what I wrote in my diary when I came back from Pollonaruwa:
" It is impossible to describe the sweetness of this huge figure; the utter rest and peace that emanated from the form. I wanted to stand there for ever and drink and drink in the silence and the surrender. To find one's heart open but unafraid, filled with joy but striving after nothing, was maybe something of what Merton describes in his Asian Journal. Each gesture and detail in the carving contribute to that sense of rest and peacefulness- OF FULLY BECOMING. I thought to myself: "Well, if this is death, then what do I have to fear? It will be like coming home." My father used to give himself up to sleep so often that it looked in death as if he had been "practising" all his life and knew about the love of God deep within himself."
Well, the Buddha certainly seemed to know about love and joy and peace or , at least, the people who carved the statue did. Merton quotes Walpola Rahula at the Buddhist University who said:
"Those who carved those statues were not ordinary men"
As I stood gazing at the figure the tourist couple left and the old man guide began to talking to my driver. The then began to explain to me in broken English different aspects of the statue- the way that one hand rested by the Buddha's head and the other arm extended along his side; that one foot rested on top of the other with one set of toes slightly in front of the other. all these apparently had significance but I was unable to understand what. I think you could stand before those figures for a lifetime and still not discover all there was to learn. The old man then produced a chart with all the areas of significance upon the Buddha's feet and explained through the driver that all that was left of the sins in death was the imprint of the lotus. When I was led to his feet sure enough, the lotus or was it mandala was there- the essence of the Buddha?
I felt that I neeed to read more to understand, yet in another way, before such deep silence there is no need for knowledge and words
The carved stone and its natural markings flowed from life to life, from life to death to life. Every aspect of the stone- its colours,contours, markings, properties and patina had been used to convey something of the wonder and mystery of our lives.
I had been so afraid that I would be disappointed and that I would see nothing of what Merton saw when he came to Gal Vihara. However, in the end I felt that I could not have enough of standing there and learning.
I had had to cross continents and "burning coals" to come to the place and it left in my heart and inner sight an indelible impression. I can now go back in myself, again and again to revisit the joy of complete surrender in that Love which is all peace, all joy, all hope, all..
"Looking at these figures I was suddenly, almost forcibly, jerked clean out of the habitual, half-tied vision of things, and, an inner clearness, clarity, as if exploding from the rocks themselves, became evident and obvious...The thing about all this is that there is no puzzle, no problem, and really no "mystery." All problems are resolved and everything is clear, simply because what matters is clear."
For me, the experience was like coming home. I knew that here was a place that would be so familiar to me that I would not fear its coming. It was a place of great sweetness and rest. I remembered seeing a similar smile on my dead father's face, with his hands resting on his fat tummy and thinking; " oh, so you were a contemplative too!" "You had been waiting all your life for this moment"
Here is what I wrote in my diary when I came back from Pollonaruwa:
" It is impossible to describe the sweetness of this huge figure; the utter rest and peace that emanated from the form. I wanted to stand there for ever and drink and drink in the silence and the surrender. To find one's heart open but unafraid, filled with joy but striving after nothing, was maybe something of what Merton describes in his Asian Journal. Each gesture and detail in the carving contribute to that sense of rest and peacefulness- OF FULLY BECOMING. I thought to myself: "Well, if this is death, then what do I have to fear? It will be like coming home." My father used to give himself up to sleep so often that it looked in death as if he had been "practising" all his life and knew about the love of God deep within himself."
Well, the Buddha certainly seemed to know about love and joy and peace or , at least, the people who carved the statue did. Merton quotes Walpola Rahula at the Buddhist University who said:
"Those who carved those statues were not ordinary men"
As I stood gazing at the figure the tourist couple left and the old man guide began to talking to my driver. The then began to explain to me in broken English different aspects of the statue- the way that one hand rested by the Buddha's head and the other arm extended along his side; that one foot rested on top of the other with one set of toes slightly in front of the other. all these apparently had significance but I was unable to understand what. I think you could stand before those figures for a lifetime and still not discover all there was to learn. The old man then produced a chart with all the areas of significance upon the Buddha's feet and explained through the driver that all that was left of the sins in death was the imprint of the lotus. When I was led to his feet sure enough, the lotus or was it mandala was there- the essence of the Buddha?
I felt that I neeed to read more to understand, yet in another way, before such deep silence there is no need for knowledge and words
The carved stone and its natural markings flowed from life to life, from life to death to life. Every aspect of the stone- its colours,contours, markings, properties and patina had been used to convey something of the wonder and mystery of our lives.
I had been so afraid that I would be disappointed and that I would see nothing of what Merton saw when he came to Gal Vihara. However, in the end I felt that I could not have enough of standing there and learning.
I had had to cross continents and "burning coals" to come to the place and it left in my heart and inner sight an indelible impression. I can now go back in myself, again and again to revisit the joy of complete surrender in that Love which is all peace, all joy, all hope, all..
Friday, 7 October 2011
The glory of God is a human fully alive
You may have been forgiven for expecting some profound words about enlightenment after the final words of my last blog. I am afraid you will have to be disappointed because I don't think I even know what enlightenment is let alone how to achieve it. Nor do I think I would know that I had achieved it if I had!
However, after racing across the burning sand once more, I passed the small seated Buddha in a cave and came to the large majestic statue of the Buddha, post enlightenment- "the Buddha after maturity" was how my driver described him. I the guide I had, it said that this was the Buddha, two years after enlightenment. Merton mistakenly assumed this statue to be Ananda, the Buddha's favourite pupil. But whoever the statue is it is first and foremost portraying a human in possession of the contentment of being able to be free from grasping desire. He stands relaxed and tall with his arms and hands folded across his chest. There is no reaching out in desire and longing. But the wonderful thing for me was that although the flow of the contours on the stone and the carving on the statue were just as exquisitely beautiful, there were visible signs of decay on this figure. The nostrils had cobwebs or some other detritis in them; there a crack or chip in the stone near the chest and the long drape of stone which was the Buddha's robe had to be supported by iron rods (to stop it collapsing, I suppose). There were other signs of decay too and this filled me with delight because they conveyed to me the sense that here was a man who was already feeling the effects of physical deterioration which would lead eventually to the death of his body while AT THE SAME TIME finding release and peace within his spirit/soul.
Tomorrow, I will describe the last recumbent statue which filled me with such joy that I found it hard to leave its contemplation and cried all the way back to the car.
However, after racing across the burning sand once more, I passed the small seated Buddha in a cave and came to the large majestic statue of the Buddha, post enlightenment- "the Buddha after maturity" was how my driver described him. I the guide I had, it said that this was the Buddha, two years after enlightenment. Merton mistakenly assumed this statue to be Ananda, the Buddha's favourite pupil. But whoever the statue is it is first and foremost portraying a human in possession of the contentment of being able to be free from grasping desire. He stands relaxed and tall with his arms and hands folded across his chest. There is no reaching out in desire and longing. But the wonderful thing for me was that although the flow of the contours on the stone and the carving on the statue were just as exquisitely beautiful, there were visible signs of decay on this figure. The nostrils had cobwebs or some other detritis in them; there a crack or chip in the stone near the chest and the long drape of stone which was the Buddha's robe had to be supported by iron rods (to stop it collapsing, I suppose). There were other signs of decay too and this filled me with delight because they conveyed to me the sense that here was a man who was already feeling the effects of physical deterioration which would lead eventually to the death of his body while AT THE SAME TIME finding release and peace within his spirit/soul.
Tomorrow, I will describe the last recumbent statue which filled me with such joy that I found it hard to leave its contemplation and cried all the way back to the car.
Walking across burning coals to Love, life and peace
Here we are at Pollonurawa. The sun is beating down and the car stereo is blasting out; " jingle bells, jingle bells..!" I had forgotten to mention that one interesting feature of my pilgrimage to Sri Lanka was that most of the cars that I travelled in were tuned to Classic Gold on their car radio. This meant that the interesting sights of this wonderful country were inevitably accompanied by the pop music of the fifties and sixties. To my delight I reailsed that I knew most of the words to the songs and remembered that such tunes had been the background theme music to my chilhood where either the radio or the television was playing all the time.
However, since I returned the awful strains of " tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree" seem to play over and over in my head. This is serious brainwashing and my only hope is that some catchy dirge from Hymns A&M might replace it!
Fortunately for me, Tania had grown tired of classic Gold when we visited Pollonaruwa, so she asked the driver to put on a CD and he chose a Christmas compilation! We drove up to the first temple complex to the sounds of "Silent Night", and now here we were: " dashing through the snow on a one horse open sleigh" while it was 32 degrees centigrade outside the car.
The other factor to my exploration which was disconcerting was that when I tried to take a photograph at the first temple complex, my camera did not work and I realised it had flat batteries. I also realised that for the first time on the holiday I had not brought any spares with me. I was disappointed at first but then thought that maybe it was a good thing because instead of looking through a camera lense at the wonderful statues, I could look with " the eyes of my heart".
I was now set only going straight to Gal Vihara where Thomas Merton had stood. My hostess asked if I would like to go here or there because Pollonaruwa is a vast, ruined complex from the third century AD with many stupas and public buildings. Its development coincided with the construction of the Minneriya tank that I talked about in a previous blog which led to an increase in wealth through agriculture. The whole site is a showpiece of Sinhalese culture whose vast ground plan and artefacts are portrayed very clearly in the good (ac'd!), modern musuem, nearby, which we visited afterwards.
Ad so we drove to an avenue of trees and a large empty lake to where the vast statues could be seen dominating a rock face in the distance. The layout has changed since Thomas Merton visited this place in the sixties. There are now two vast metal canopies over the statues and there are altars before them. I am not sure whether the canopies are there to protect the statues or the humans from the sun. In the case of the latter, they did not succeed. I had to leave my shoes some distance from the area where the statues are now cordoned off. It was agony walking across the burning sand and I could find only a tiny sliver of shade, pressed hard against the altar where I could be comfortable enough to gaze on the first statue. I thought about how rash lovers might say to their beloved: " I would walk across burning coals to you" and wondering if they knew what that really meant.
I looked up at the seated Buddha before me and was immediately struck by the rich sensuality of the statue's face. The delicate flare of the nostrils, the beauty of the heavy lidded eyes, gently and lightly closed, the sensuous lips of the closed mouth and the ears, open and long. It was as if its creator had tried to convey the fullness of each sense through its organ on the face. It seemed to me that each sense was fully occupied in becoming itself but also flowing into the energy centre. I know little about Chakras but I know they have an important role to pay in spirituality because they make it embodied and grounded. As an incarnational faith, it seems to me that Christianity does not pay enough attention to our body. Thomas Merton says on p.91 of his Asian Journal:
" ..the sixth point above the mandala's five points. The mandala is constructed only to be dissolved... No six without the five. The six make "eternal life." Note that when the body is regarded as a mandala, the five chakras ( sex, navel, heart, throat, head) are completed by the sixth "above the head".
It was clear that this statue was made to show the energy flow from each of the chakras. even the pattern on the stone flowed too, in a gracious rhythm down the seated Buddha to his lap. The Kundalini energy centre at the base of the spine, the coiled serpent of sexuaity, was covered by the Buddha's hands and folded legs. Here was the pace where all sensuality was offered and all eroticism given up in love through the long slow process of surrender through meditation.
Looking at this wonderful, beautiful statue of the young Buddha, brimming over with life and desire taught me much about the early strivings of prayer. It showed me how we are constantly trying to tame our wayward senses and desires, erroneously and that perhaps the answer is to allow them to be who they are but channelled into the pursuit of compassionate love- into the very heart of the source of all love. What we Christians would call the Sacred Heart, or the heart of God.
Here, before me, was a man, the Buddha, striving to live in that silent conversation between the Beloved One and its beloved ( To paraphrase Una's Way of Love). All his sensuality was being poured into the place of divine compassion and joy.
I find that recalling this moment has taken far more of me than I anticipated and so I will have to wait until later to write about the other statues in Gal Vahara. However, I think this is a good place to pause before we move on to enlightenment..
However, since I returned the awful strains of " tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree" seem to play over and over in my head. This is serious brainwashing and my only hope is that some catchy dirge from Hymns A&M might replace it!
Fortunately for me, Tania had grown tired of classic Gold when we visited Pollonaruwa, so she asked the driver to put on a CD and he chose a Christmas compilation! We drove up to the first temple complex to the sounds of "Silent Night", and now here we were: " dashing through the snow on a one horse open sleigh" while it was 32 degrees centigrade outside the car.
The other factor to my exploration which was disconcerting was that when I tried to take a photograph at the first temple complex, my camera did not work and I realised it had flat batteries. I also realised that for the first time on the holiday I had not brought any spares with me. I was disappointed at first but then thought that maybe it was a good thing because instead of looking through a camera lense at the wonderful statues, I could look with " the eyes of my heart".
I was now set only going straight to Gal Vihara where Thomas Merton had stood. My hostess asked if I would like to go here or there because Pollonaruwa is a vast, ruined complex from the third century AD with many stupas and public buildings. Its development coincided with the construction of the Minneriya tank that I talked about in a previous blog which led to an increase in wealth through agriculture. The whole site is a showpiece of Sinhalese culture whose vast ground plan and artefacts are portrayed very clearly in the good (ac'd!), modern musuem, nearby, which we visited afterwards.
Ad so we drove to an avenue of trees and a large empty lake to where the vast statues could be seen dominating a rock face in the distance. The layout has changed since Thomas Merton visited this place in the sixties. There are now two vast metal canopies over the statues and there are altars before them. I am not sure whether the canopies are there to protect the statues or the humans from the sun. In the case of the latter, they did not succeed. I had to leave my shoes some distance from the area where the statues are now cordoned off. It was agony walking across the burning sand and I could find only a tiny sliver of shade, pressed hard against the altar where I could be comfortable enough to gaze on the first statue. I thought about how rash lovers might say to their beloved: " I would walk across burning coals to you" and wondering if they knew what that really meant.
I looked up at the seated Buddha before me and was immediately struck by the rich sensuality of the statue's face. The delicate flare of the nostrils, the beauty of the heavy lidded eyes, gently and lightly closed, the sensuous lips of the closed mouth and the ears, open and long. It was as if its creator had tried to convey the fullness of each sense through its organ on the face. It seemed to me that each sense was fully occupied in becoming itself but also flowing into the energy centre. I know little about Chakras but I know they have an important role to pay in spirituality because they make it embodied and grounded. As an incarnational faith, it seems to me that Christianity does not pay enough attention to our body. Thomas Merton says on p.91 of his Asian Journal:
" ..the sixth point above the mandala's five points. The mandala is constructed only to be dissolved... No six without the five. The six make "eternal life." Note that when the body is regarded as a mandala, the five chakras ( sex, navel, heart, throat, head) are completed by the sixth "above the head".
It was clear that this statue was made to show the energy flow from each of the chakras. even the pattern on the stone flowed too, in a gracious rhythm down the seated Buddha to his lap. The Kundalini energy centre at the base of the spine, the coiled serpent of sexuaity, was covered by the Buddha's hands and folded legs. Here was the pace where all sensuality was offered and all eroticism given up in love through the long slow process of surrender through meditation.
Looking at this wonderful, beautiful statue of the young Buddha, brimming over with life and desire taught me much about the early strivings of prayer. It showed me how we are constantly trying to tame our wayward senses and desires, erroneously and that perhaps the answer is to allow them to be who they are but channelled into the pursuit of compassionate love- into the very heart of the source of all love. What we Christians would call the Sacred Heart, or the heart of God.
Here, before me, was a man, the Buddha, striving to live in that silent conversation between the Beloved One and its beloved ( To paraphrase Una's Way of Love). All his sensuality was being poured into the place of divine compassion and joy.
I find that recalling this moment has taken far more of me than I anticipated and so I will have to wait until later to write about the other statues in Gal Vahara. However, I think this is a good place to pause before we move on to enlightenment..
Thursday, 6 October 2011
The end of the road and the beginning
Today is October 7th and it is one week since I went to Pollonaruwa. I returned to the UK from Sri Lanka the day before yesterday and , although many more exciting things happened while I was there ( which I hope to recount later), Pollonaruwa was the end of the quest as far as following in Merton's footsteps were concerned. And yet, the experience instigated a new beginning for me in the light of what I learned there. I shall try and share some of that experience with you now.
I had hoped that we might leave early to go to Pollonaruwa but, alas, we did not leave until after lunch when the sun was climbing to its hottest. By the time we got to Pollonaruwa itself it was 2pm. We had had rather fraught altercations with gates men and officials who sent us to one place and then another and who tried to get us to take a tourist guide with us - which was the very last thing I wanted! Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka there 20,000,000 people all of whom need to find money to live on, whatever way they can, and a white person looks like a meal ticket to many of them.
Eventually, after wrangling, we managed to persuade them that our driver was to be my guide and no he did not need a permit because he was not trying to be an official guide. What I would have done without Tania's wit and determination, I don't know.
We drove first to the ancient temple complex where there were a series of different kinds of temple in various stages of decay. It was rather like a theme park of ruined temples. The driver and myself walked over a trough which used to house water to wash worshipper's feet and then up a series of steps to the complex itself. The sun was very hot and when we removed our shoes and hats, the heat was scorching. I had to run on tip toes as fast as I could into any any patch of shade before the soles of my feet were burned. I must have been a very amusing sight.
The first temple that we entered reminded me very much of a medieval, ruined monastery. The figure of the Buddha and his two attendants had been badly damaged. The stone Buddha had lost his face yet still there was a feeling that this was a place where "prayer had been valid", There was a great sense of openness and deep silence and it was not hard for me to feel at peace and at one with love at the heart of all things there.
We explored some of the other ruined temples including a round one which had a Buddha stationed at north, south, east, and west. I liked this circular arrangement but could not stay long because my feet were burning.
We then went inside a darkened chamber where an elderly man held a candle to show how the stone of the Buddha sparkled in the candlelight because it was made of silica. I did not find this impressive but the great domed brick ceiling which was overhead, lit from an opening at the the side at the top, felt a very powerful symbol of lifted desire and surrender into space, openness and emptiness.
The final temple was shaped in the style of Thai temples but by that time my feet were sore and I was anxious to go on and visit the giant statues of the Buddha that Merton describes in his Asian journal
.I shall describe this in tomorrow's blog.....
I had hoped that we might leave early to go to Pollonaruwa but, alas, we did not leave until after lunch when the sun was climbing to its hottest. By the time we got to Pollonaruwa itself it was 2pm. We had had rather fraught altercations with gates men and officials who sent us to one place and then another and who tried to get us to take a tourist guide with us - which was the very last thing I wanted! Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka there 20,000,000 people all of whom need to find money to live on, whatever way they can, and a white person looks like a meal ticket to many of them.
Eventually, after wrangling, we managed to persuade them that our driver was to be my guide and no he did not need a permit because he was not trying to be an official guide. What I would have done without Tania's wit and determination, I don't know.
We drove first to the ancient temple complex where there were a series of different kinds of temple in various stages of decay. It was rather like a theme park of ruined temples. The driver and myself walked over a trough which used to house water to wash worshipper's feet and then up a series of steps to the complex itself. The sun was very hot and when we removed our shoes and hats, the heat was scorching. I had to run on tip toes as fast as I could into any any patch of shade before the soles of my feet were burned. I must have been a very amusing sight.
The first temple that we entered reminded me very much of a medieval, ruined monastery. The figure of the Buddha and his two attendants had been badly damaged. The stone Buddha had lost his face yet still there was a feeling that this was a place where "prayer had been valid", There was a great sense of openness and deep silence and it was not hard for me to feel at peace and at one with love at the heart of all things there.
We explored some of the other ruined temples including a round one which had a Buddha stationed at north, south, east, and west. I liked this circular arrangement but could not stay long because my feet were burning.
We then went inside a darkened chamber where an elderly man held a candle to show how the stone of the Buddha sparkled in the candlelight because it was made of silica. I did not find this impressive but the great domed brick ceiling which was overhead, lit from an opening at the the side at the top, felt a very powerful symbol of lifted desire and surrender into space, openness and emptiness.
The final temple was shaped in the style of Thai temples but by that time my feet were sore and I was anxious to go on and visit the giant statues of the Buddha that Merton describes in his Asian journal
.I shall describe this in tomorrow's blog.....
Monday, 3 October 2011
Animals galore!
I discovered that the bright green drink was made of guava and neli. I have had some Neli juice since in Colombo and it is very good.
The Story of Sigirya is a fascinating one and it is full of betrayal and bloodshed like many historical stories. In 5th century AD the two brothers of King Dhatusena were in disagreement as to whom should be the rightful heir ( sounds familiar?). On hearing his brother, Mogallana, declared rightful heir, Kassapa drove him out of the country into exile in India and imprisoned his dad. In fact, in the end, he had his father walled up in a chamber and left to die.
Meanwhile, to protect himself against his brother's return, Kassapa built his home- a pleasure palace and fortress on top of the 200 m high rock at Sigirya.. Alas, only six years after its completion, Mogallana came to gain recompense and the upshot was that Kassala's elephant bolted and the naughty prince finding himself cornered, killed himself.
We were much luckier with our elephants because the day after we arrived, on the Wednesday, we set off to see elephants at Minneriya National Park. The reason that it was possible to see elephants in abundance there was because there had been no rain since April and so the elephants have to leave the forest in the evening to come and drink at the Minneriya Tank. Tanks are an ancient method of irrigation which was developed as far back the third century BC but it was later successive kings who built huge man made lakes to store the monsoon rains for irrigation from about 3rd century AD onwards.
I could hardly contain my excitement as we sped in a jeep through dense forest towards the empty plain of the dried up tank- at this time of the year the lake has shrunk considerably so one is able to bounce over many miles of flat plain where the water had once been. On the way we treated to all sorts of sights- a small deer came out of the forest, we saw numerous beautiful birds, a mongoose was sighted, monitor lizards climbed slowly up the banks of a dried river bed while numerous beautiful peacocks strutted about in its floor. We saw the nest of a weaver bird and also of hornets. I was told that 7 hornet stings are equivalent to one cobra bite! There were two kinds of monkeys in abundance who did not bother us but were very happy to be photographed.
When we eventually drove out into the plain, the first group of elephants with their young came into view. It was so wonderful to watch them ambling along, kicking up the dust as they tried to feed off the sparse grass and vegetation. From then on we bumped along and I stood up in the jeep to see groups of elephants here and there. There was one rather excited Bull who became very aroused at the sight of a group of females and another bull who sauntered over and chatted up a few cows by curling his trunk around theirs.
Perhaps the best sighting was of a group of elephants by the water's edge. One tiny baby elephant was no more than three or four days old and kept itself always under its mother as she walked along.
The sun was setting and the world looked so utterly beautiful, I could not help crying with joy. then we saw a golden jackal, slinking off into the sunset and decided it was time to head home. On the way, however, we saw water buffalo soaking themselves in the water and one with a calf by the lakeside. As we bounded back along the forest path, a wild boar dashed into the forest and as dusk drew nightjars flew in front of us.
It was such a wonderful experience to see so much wildlife roaming free. That night, back at the hotel, we heard gunshots several times because the elephants had decided to wander rather too close to the hotel complex and had to be frightened off. Apparently there is one cow who charges the jeeps because her calf was killed by a jeep. I am glad I found that out after we had been to see them!
The Story of Sigirya is a fascinating one and it is full of betrayal and bloodshed like many historical stories. In 5th century AD the two brothers of King Dhatusena were in disagreement as to whom should be the rightful heir ( sounds familiar?). On hearing his brother, Mogallana, declared rightful heir, Kassapa drove him out of the country into exile in India and imprisoned his dad. In fact, in the end, he had his father walled up in a chamber and left to die.
Meanwhile, to protect himself against his brother's return, Kassapa built his home- a pleasure palace and fortress on top of the 200 m high rock at Sigirya.. Alas, only six years after its completion, Mogallana came to gain recompense and the upshot was that Kassala's elephant bolted and the naughty prince finding himself cornered, killed himself.
We were much luckier with our elephants because the day after we arrived, on the Wednesday, we set off to see elephants at Minneriya National Park. The reason that it was possible to see elephants in abundance there was because there had been no rain since April and so the elephants have to leave the forest in the evening to come and drink at the Minneriya Tank. Tanks are an ancient method of irrigation which was developed as far back the third century BC but it was later successive kings who built huge man made lakes to store the monsoon rains for irrigation from about 3rd century AD onwards.
I could hardly contain my excitement as we sped in a jeep through dense forest towards the empty plain of the dried up tank- at this time of the year the lake has shrunk considerably so one is able to bounce over many miles of flat plain where the water had once been. On the way we treated to all sorts of sights- a small deer came out of the forest, we saw numerous beautiful birds, a mongoose was sighted, monitor lizards climbed slowly up the banks of a dried river bed while numerous beautiful peacocks strutted about in its floor. We saw the nest of a weaver bird and also of hornets. I was told that 7 hornet stings are equivalent to one cobra bite! There were two kinds of monkeys in abundance who did not bother us but were very happy to be photographed.
When we eventually drove out into the plain, the first group of elephants with their young came into view. It was so wonderful to watch them ambling along, kicking up the dust as they tried to feed off the sparse grass and vegetation. From then on we bumped along and I stood up in the jeep to see groups of elephants here and there. There was one rather excited Bull who became very aroused at the sight of a group of females and another bull who sauntered over and chatted up a few cows by curling his trunk around theirs.
Perhaps the best sighting was of a group of elephants by the water's edge. One tiny baby elephant was no more than three or four days old and kept itself always under its mother as she walked along.
The sun was setting and the world looked so utterly beautiful, I could not help crying with joy. then we saw a golden jackal, slinking off into the sunset and decided it was time to head home. On the way, however, we saw water buffalo soaking themselves in the water and one with a calf by the lakeside. As we bounded back along the forest path, a wild boar dashed into the forest and as dusk drew nightjars flew in front of us.
It was such a wonderful experience to see so much wildlife roaming free. That night, back at the hotel, we heard gunshots several times because the elephants had decided to wander rather too close to the hotel complex and had to be frightened off. Apparently there is one cow who charges the jeeps because her calf was killed by a jeep. I am glad I found that out after we had been to see them!
Saturday, 1 October 2011
Arriving at Sigirya
When, at last, we arrived at Sigirya, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the place. We had been travelling up what seemed like endless tracks through dense tropical forest. We had moved away from bustling, traffic polluted cities and straggling roadside towns to country villages with fewer people and many beautiful flora. I had been shown ebony trees, dark and tall, coconut plantations with teak trees growing at their edge, there were bougainvilleas, hibiscus and canna lilies in profusion, banana plants (although, most of the bananas seemed to be hanging from stalls along the way and not on the plants!) Then there were the paddy fields. Most of the rice harvest was over, but further up country there were still some places where it was being cut. We saw workers in the field cutting with scythes and the bright, veridian swathes of the uncut rice. I saw a huge, ethereal statue of the Buddha, high up on a hillside next to a mobile phone mast! I had also, much to my surprise, looked out of the window as the road crossed a muddy river and seen a largish crocodile lurking in the water.
Finally, the bumpy track opened out into a village which was obviously designed to serve local tourists with craft shops and a chained elephant waiting to give rides. I was excited to see my first Asian elephant but sad to see him chained so. My hostess asked me if I would like a ride but I said I had come to see wild elephants not captive ones. There had been signs of elephants as we came through the forest, so I was hopeful that we would see some eventually. When the Sigirya Village complex came into sight, i knew we were in for another luxurious stay. the hotel was a series of "jungle" chalets set in beautiful gardens filled with all kinds of plants and trees surrounding an open central pavilion which housed the restaurant, reception and changing rooms for the swimming pool. We were welcomed with frangipani flowers, perfumed faace cloths to wipe away the dust of the road and a lovely, cooling, bright green drink which tasted of unfizzy cream soda! When we asked we were told that it was made from a Sri Lankan fruit with a name that i could not catch. To top all this the great fortress of Sigirya on top of its huge rock towered over the complex. The story of Sigirya rock is worth repeating but that will have to wait until tomorrow's post.
Finally, the bumpy track opened out into a village which was obviously designed to serve local tourists with craft shops and a chained elephant waiting to give rides. I was excited to see my first Asian elephant but sad to see him chained so. My hostess asked me if I would like a ride but I said I had come to see wild elephants not captive ones. There had been signs of elephants as we came through the forest, so I was hopeful that we would see some eventually. When the Sigirya Village complex came into sight, i knew we were in for another luxurious stay. the hotel was a series of "jungle" chalets set in beautiful gardens filled with all kinds of plants and trees surrounding an open central pavilion which housed the restaurant, reception and changing rooms for the swimming pool. We were welcomed with frangipani flowers, perfumed faace cloths to wipe away the dust of the road and a lovely, cooling, bright green drink which tasted of unfizzy cream soda! When we asked we were told that it was made from a Sri Lankan fruit with a name that i could not catch. To top all this the great fortress of Sigirya on top of its huge rock towered over the complex. The story of Sigirya rock is worth repeating but that will have to wait until tomorrow's post.
From Colombo to Dambulla
On Tuesday we were up at first light ( which is about 5.30 am, here) to make the journey from Colombo up to Siguria.This was to be another bone jerkingly protracted drive along very crowded roads because, as yet, Sri Lanka does not have any equivalent of a motorway. We did not have the family's usual driver but a security guard who worked for my host whose driving skills were not as accomplished as the usual diver so the trip was definitely of the extreme stoccatto kind. He had other attributes however, which proved invaluable later on.
we had a cup of tea before we left but after several hours we stopped for breakfast at a very smart cafe called:
Wahalkada
When I walked inside knew that my time of reckoning had come because there were pots of curry on offer for breakfast> "Bite the bullet, Elaine", I thought, because up until then I had avoided the bowls of curry for breakfast thinking that my digestive system would not stand it. I chose some milk rice because I know that I like it, with very small amounts of dahl and potato curry and coconut roti. I can't say that I will ever get accustomed to eating curry for breakfast but I have learned to enjoy eating it.
After another protracted drive, we stopped at Dambulla. Here, there is a huge golden statue of the Buddha facing the road, a Buddhist televison station and a quantity of plaster Buddhist monk statues and many pilgrims including a very large group of shaven buddhist nuns. Above all this is a climb to a cave with a large number of statues of the Buddha and also frescoes inside. Merton mentions this in his Asian Journal on p.231:
"The caves are dark....The guide is not interested in the frescoes which are good, only in the rank of Buddhas which are not good."
On the strength of this, I decided not to make the steep climb in the searing heat up to the cave but i climbed with our driver, who is a Buddhist, up to the huge golden Buddha. He showed me that I must remove my shoes and hat because it is a holy place and I stood there with the frangipani flower offerings before the Buddha, making my own offering of myself to the vast open sky, baking heat and the quiet reflection of the Buddha for the journey to Pollonuwara which lay ahead of us.
we had a cup of tea before we left but after several hours we stopped for breakfast at a very smart cafe called:
Wahalkada
When I walked inside knew that my time of reckoning had come because there were pots of curry on offer for breakfast> "Bite the bullet, Elaine", I thought, because up until then I had avoided the bowls of curry for breakfast thinking that my digestive system would not stand it. I chose some milk rice because I know that I like it, with very small amounts of dahl and potato curry and coconut roti. I can't say that I will ever get accustomed to eating curry for breakfast but I have learned to enjoy eating it.
After another protracted drive, we stopped at Dambulla. Here, there is a huge golden statue of the Buddha facing the road, a Buddhist televison station and a quantity of plaster Buddhist monk statues and many pilgrims including a very large group of shaven buddhist nuns. Above all this is a climb to a cave with a large number of statues of the Buddha and also frescoes inside. Merton mentions this in his Asian Journal on p.231:
"The caves are dark....The guide is not interested in the frescoes which are good, only in the rank of Buddhas which are not good."
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