Anuradhapura

All full up of bustle for now, we got out of town to the City of Anuradhapura, which is just north of of the centre of Sri Lanka, sorta like a Singalese Prince George, but with monkeys.

We sped past some spectacular beaches (more time for that later), and arrived in town early enough to catch a Tuktuk out of town to Mihintale, a temple complex dating back to 250 b.c. which, according to legend, is the place Bhuddism was first established in Ceylon.

We stopped first to get an unexpected tour from out Tuktuk driver of Kaludiya Pokuna, or "black water pool", an ancient (~300ad) constructed water reservoir which serviced an adjacent boathouse for monks. They build directly onto and under the adjacent rocks, as they were probably cooling, and had some pretty advanced plumbing systems.

The countryside here is generally low, and Mihintale represents a bit of a highland, with a few very prominent rocks that define the Temple area. On several of them, Dagoba had been build (some currently in ruin, several meticulously restored). To visit the complex, one climbs 1,843 granite steps, passing through several landings, where important historic/legend events occurred, and through the ruins of 2,000 years of monestary technology.

Your reward for 1,843 steps are a rock prominary with views of the surrounding countryside, a large Dagoba, and a large Buddah for which to offer your blessings.

We were fortunate to be there at sunset. I mean really, can you beat this?

We are staying at a small guesthouse just outside of Anuradhapura, appropriately called "Heaven Upon Rice Fields". I always expected the roadway to heaven to be better paved, and less festooned with stray dogs, but with the sunrise, I saw the point they were trying to make.

The area around Anuradhapura is rich in ancient history. It was a capital city of Sri Lanka for about 1,000 years beginning ~300 b.c., and through a series of legendary kings, massive infrastructure was built. These works were seemingly left to the jungle after the capital shifted to Polonnaruwa, but over the last 1000 years, archaeology and restoration have been extensive.

There are many restored Dagoba, and other semi-restored areas. Here is a temple housing the most holy site (to Bhuddists) in Sri Lanka: the sacred bodhi tree. Grown by monks from a sapling brought here from India, the tree has been meticulously cared for over more than 1,000 years. It is surrounded by protected trees grown from cuttings of the holy tree, all well protected. There were crowds of pilgrims here to pray at the tree, and to provide the requisite offerings.

Surrounding the preserved and protected temple sites are hundreds of acres of forest, well tended by random cows and administered by roving gangs of monkeys. The local gneissic rock, cut into pillars, was a well used building material of the ancient city, and everywhere you look, they stand as sentinels demarking the size and scale of the ancient city.

We spend most of the day riding bicycles around the expansive site, tempting heat stroke and death-by-Tuktuk, and visiting the occasional impromptu roadside market to enjoy the contrast between woven and carved local goods and over-wrapped chinese junk. A cold colonial Coca-Cola was appreciated, though.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy