Amazing Sri Lanka
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Originally posted by LOTUSfairy:
alamak, go scan them and see if photoshop can help to savage the pics...at least save them in softcopies..
anyway, those pic are of low quality. too many self portriat on the scenery -
After crossing the moat, one come into the lower level inner wall where the water garden that imitate the one in Mount Potala. These non-electric water fountains remain functionable whenever it rains, showing you the advance skills of the ancient science of irrigation.
Next is the rock garden with cutting showing you that structure such as pavilion once stood on the rock. Below is a Cobra Hood Cave whereby meditator once stayed
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Notice this cave? These seat were carve out from one single piece of rock from the cave. Beautiful painting once covered this cave and the whole of this hummock
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From here we ascend 347 metre to the top of the rock where once the palace stood.
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Upon climbing up the stairs, one walked along the amber shinny wall known as the "Mirror Wall". This wall is very smooth and glossy and one can see the reflection from the side. Centuries afer Sigiriya was abandoned, visitors who visited these place who saw the painting of these lovely devas and would often inscribed little poems praising the beauty of these painting.
Notice on the right hand corner is a modern steel cage spiral straircase that the lead to a caved in wall whereby the traces of these beautiful painting remains showing proof of the existance of such exotic detailed painting
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The side of Sigiriya rock were actually painted to resemble the abodes of these deities. All these paintings have now disappeared due to elements and erosions with the exception of these on the concave wall that are sheltered from the elements.
Although these painting were inaccessible at that tiime, no effort is spared to ensure each of the little details is visible, from expression to the jewelleries on the devas
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No lah. I don't have to climb that. These are for the workmen that are trying to preserve the other 18 paintings left.
but we have to climb these. imagine if there weren't any of these rails...
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Further ascending the rock, you come to a terrace where a huge crouching lion made of bricks sat on the terrace. In between the lion feet is a flight of stairs that went thru the lion mouth. Unfortunately, the lion had areadly collasped but the peom on the mirror wall describing lion must have been very impressive
"Having climbed Sigiriya to have a look
I was contented just seeing His Lordship the Lion
After that I had no interest to see
The golden-eyed ones on the cliff"
Where the lion head once stood
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Ascending to the top, where once the palace stood.
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A peek at the bottom from the top
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A beautiful reflection on the lake at the foot of Lion Rock
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Day 4 Sigirya => Polonnaruwa => Ritigala => Anuradhapura
Along the way to Polonnaruwa, we saw a wild elephant along Minneriya Tank
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Polonnaruwa is the 2nd ancient capital after Anuradhapura. By the 10th century, the Indians were taking advantage of the civil war and started to invade Sri Lanka. Therefore the Sri Lankan started to relocate their capital southward to Polonnaruwa. And the tooth relic being the sign of kingship thus relocated to south with the king
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Nisamka-Lata Manpada
Pavilion of Nissamka Malla (1187-1196 AD) where he listened to the chanting of protective religious texts.
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Just like a door mat in your house, a moonstone front the doorstep of every entrance. These moonstone rocks have carving of elephants, horses, lions, bulls, geeses and lotus petals too.
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As King Nissamka Malla was adopted from India, he had felt inferior therefore to show his presence, he had left inscriptions everywhere he went boasting about his deeds and his stories
One of the story was how he met a sea monster while swimming in a lake and how he told the monster it had no right to the lake and to leave the lake immediately. As a form of punishment for the sea monster, he had the sea monster bit itself.
Inscriptions on a stone palm-leaf
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Gal Vihara
This was built by King Parackramabahu the Great (AD 1153-1186) which was also known as Uththararamaya in the ancient time. At that time, seperate image houses were set up for each statue. The statue are known as mediating statue, standing statue and sleeping statue respectively.
all these are craving from just 1 piece of rock
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Ritigala
Ritigala Mountain is 776 metre high and is the highest mountain in the northern Sri Lanka. It was once a huge forest monastery but today is more a nature reserve although a small scale forest monastery still remain. In the Great Hindu epic Ramayana, , Hanuman leapt from this mountain back to India to tell Rama that his kidnapped wife Sita was found.
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This forest monastries have a certain mysterious feature unique in Sri Lankan monastic architecture; long paved path often with roundabout in them. These are the group of monastic order known as the Pansakulikas or "The Rag-robe Warers"
Nothing is known for the reasons of the long paved path or the roundabout. My speculation? maybe it's a path for the spaceship and the roundabout their landing pad?
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Originally posted by SevenEleven:
Just like a door mat in your house, a moonstone front the doorstep of every entrance. These moonstone rocks have carving of elephants, horses, lions, bulls, geeses and lotus petals too.
Actually my guide told me a very meaningful thing about these moonstones, that's why we like it a lot.
The sumbols on the moonstone have meaning - such as, the flames is frustration or anger, the geese are people 'gossips', the vines are all the complex relationships etc... and of course the lotus right in the centre is purity.
So they put this stone at their door step to symbolise that, all the frustraion, gossip, complexity of the world you leave outside your house, so that when you enter your home, your heart is pure and calm.
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Originally posted by ShrodingersCat:
Actually my guide told me a very meaningful thing about these moonstones, that's why we like it a lot.
The sumbols on the moonstone have meaning - such as, the flames is frustration or anger, the geese are people 'gossips', the vines are all the complex relationships etc... and of course the lotus right in the centre is purity.
So they put this stone at their door step to symbolise that, all the frustraion, gossip, complexity of the world you leave outside your house, so that when you enter your home, your heart is pure and calm.
hmm.....i only thought it looks nice. There was a belief that usually some form of treasure such as jewels and gold were buried under these moonstone. So petty thief had been digging under these moonstone. To date, none had been found but that still did not kill the belief.
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For these Pansakulika site, other than the mysterious paved path and the roundabout, no stupas or temple or images was ever found. These could be related to their practice of "back to the forest movement". However, there's a stone that be found on the platform that has elaborate craving decoration, sometime of lions like this one here.
So, my intellegent reader, can you guess what this stone slab is? I'll give you an answer later.
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Here's another riddle. Why do you think there are so may holes on this rock?
To give you a clue, see the next picture
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Day 5/6 - Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura was founded by the 5th king of Sri Lanka in the 3th century BC and remained the capital of the country for more than 1400 years. This city was surrounded by 4 reservoirs that serve as defence,irrigations and drinking water to the surrounding land. The largest of these reservior is the Nuwara Wewa. It is across this reservior that this picture was taken. In the background are 2 of the largest stupa surrounding the city
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The Great Stupa
This is the most sacred stupa to the Sri Lankan. When there was a plan to build this stupa, many design by the architects were submitted to the king. However all were rejected as inadequate. Finally one architect presented his design by asking for a bowl of water, scooping up some water from the bowl and pouring the water back to the bowl. so that it formed a bubble. He explaned that his stupa would look like that and his design was accepted.
Today, a huge bubble shaped crystal donated by the King of Burma sits on the pinnacles.
