Anuradhapura: Part 2

Part 1 can be seen here

Thuparamaya at night

 

Mirisawatiya

It was about 7 AM the next day when we arrived at Mirisawatiya, and we were greeted by some retired test cricketers! ;)

...and these 3 handsome kingfishers:

...and a family of mynas, looking wet after a bath! :D

We planned to visit Thanthirimale, the Charikaramaya and Isurumuniya afterwards. 

Both Thanthirimale and the Charikaramaya were really really green with trees growing and lakes filled up due to the monsoon rains. They seemed much greener than when Harumi visited last August.

Thanthirimale

Thanthirimale is believed to be the ancient village of 'Thiwanka Bamunugama', where the party led by King Tissa transporting the Sri Maha Bodhi sapling to Anuradhapura are said to have rested. 

 

 

One of the original 8 saplings from the Bodhi in Anuradhapura

is said to have been planted in Thanthirimale

 

Thanthirimale can only be described as a vast sea of

Granite. Please visit before the sun heats up the rock and makes it impassable.

The new shrine room was completed recently thanks to

donations made by pilgrims who visited Thanthirimale

Some of the footpaths in Thanthirimale had been flooded by the rainwater.

The Charikaramaya

The 'Siri Sambuddha Pancha Sathika Shrawaka Charikaramaya' (situated on the Wilachchiya road, which we use to travel to Thanthirimale) had been mostly completed, with only the last few (about 100-50) statues and rock-shaped Shrine room were yet to be completed and painted. When completed the statues will depict The Buddha and 500 disciples travelling on foot. Every statue is unique in the sense that they had taken pains to make small differences to the faces and stances of each disciple.

 

Some statues and the rock-shaped Shrine room were

yet to be completed.

Isurumuniya

We visited Isurumuniya (near the Tissa wewa bund) and as traditionally done, threw coins into a carved niche in the rock, which if done successfully, is supposed to grant your wish. Yeah, you're supposed to make a wish before you throw the coin, and I forgot this essential detail in my hurry to somehow impress everyone by throwing a coin in. I overheard someone there saying "I hoped for an overwhelming victory for the President" but yeah, let's not go there! :P

Lucky Niche

Isurumuni rock, as seen above the shrine room

Some say this is the family of King Dutugemunu (erm, no jokes here! lol)

Isurumuni Lovers

Last pic my camera snapped before the battery went boo-hoo! :(

Accommodation

We usually stay at M.R. Tourist Rest on Kurunegala Road, near Wessagiriya complex. It's a good place with tiled bathrooms and good food. The manager, Mr. Dissanayaka, can be contacted on 025-7902255. Yes, I was paid to promote them, envy me! :P

So yeah, that was my long weekend! It was totally worth cutting uni on Friday... ;D

what??!! :P

Anuradhapura: Part 1

Well, a new year has arrived and I couldn't even write a post yet. So, here's one about a trip that I just returned from!  

Spoiler: It has ECLIPSE photos!!! :D

We arrived in Anuradhapura on the evening of the 14th, passing the beautiful Knuckles range and the city of Matale as we headed there from Kandy. In stark contrast to the last time I visited, around July, everything was green this time, the lakes were overflowing with water, and the flora and fauna were in full celebration, after the much needed North-East monsoon successfully delivered her cargo in the last few weeks.

On the 15th morning, we visited the Sri Maha Bodhi, followed by the Jethawanarama complex (including the museum, which we hadn't visited before) and then Mihinthale in the afternoon.

The Bodhi 

The original sapling is held up by the golden supports. There are 4 saplings

planted around the original sapling in order to protect it.

Jetavanaramaya

This was once the tallest stupa in the world, and is still the largest,

with a volume of 233 thousand cubic meters. (Wikipedia)

The Jetavanaramaya shrine room has the old flags of Sri Lanka's provinces depicted

on the ceiling. Being the avid amateur vexillologist that I am, I snapped two photos.

 

 The Peacock flag is from Walapane.

The Museum


...was a bit anal with their photography rules that didn't let me take any photographs inside the building. But if you ever visit A'pura, this place is a MUST visit. You would be amazed at the stuff that they have on display, including a piece of gold less than a centimetre long, on which the ancients had managed to intricately carve 18 or so flowers! There were also bead-necklaces on display, which to me atleast, proved that the ancients had pretty awesome colour coordination skills, since they had used beautiful turquoise and jade coloured stones. Damn I wish I had pics! :(

I did snap these outside the building though:

Stone used to store semi-precious stones and other 'treasure' in the foundations

of ancient buildings. Somewhat akin to modern day Mulgal or foundation stones.

Our ancestors were really good at plumbing, as Cerno would say! :D

Kuttam Pokuna

The twin ponds, or Kuttam Pokuna (or should that be Pokunu?) seemed to be a really popular photo-op for newly wed couples. We met two such couples during our brief visit... :)

 

Stupas from Afar

We then visited the Basawakkulama lake bund to catch a glimpse of Anuradhapura's monuments from afar. We saw 4 major stupas from here: Ruwanwelisaya, Abhayagiriya, Jetavanaramaya and Mirisawetiya.

 Ruwanwelisaya over the lake...

 

...and Abhayagiriya over the paddy fields.

Eclipse

We had our lunch, but totally forgot about the whole annular eclipse taking place, till some guys turned up at the place we were staying with an x-ray and started looking at the sun. The environment grew really dark, and it felt as if you were looking at the world through a tinted glass! I managed to capture the eclipse using the x-ray. Yeah, I know it's not safe to do that, but this could be the last annular eclipse any of us get to see, so I took that risk regardless! :)

 

Mihinthale

 

 

Ambastala Stupa

We visited the cradle of Buddhist civilization in Sri Lanka in the evening, when the rock would cool down enough so that we could make the climb. The panoramic views were breathtaking. I simply love being on high, windy places, as long as there's a railing to cling onto! :D (I have a semi- fear of heights I guess!)

We first climbed to the Mihinthale Maha Stupa, which is a very easy climb with good cement steps:

Mihinthale Maha Stupa

 above and below: view from Maha Stupa

We then climbed the 'Aradana gala', where the Arahath Mahinda landed and is said to have made first contact with Tissa, King of Lanka.

Aradana gala (which translates to 'Rock of Invitation')

I'm particularly happy with this one handed snap I took from the top
of 'Aradana gala', looking at the Maha Stupa. I was (predictably)
clinging on for dear life with my other hand! :D

Ok, 20 photos on a single post is stretching it, so I'll have to break this post into two pieces. I've written the post and scheduled it for tomorrow... :)

And please don't forget to check out Harumi's photoblog for a beautifully written and very detailed account of the historic and religious sites in Anuradhapura... :)

A Day in the Life

Days when your internet access is limited are... strange! (to say the least) And since I've been downloading a 2GB file for the past two days my adventures across the tubes have been few and (waaay too) far between (not to mention painfully slow!). So I've been playing and trying to win this Crimson Skies mission, again and again and again... Everytime you shoot down all the planes you either get shot at the last minute or crash into a Zeppelin... woe! :(

And in the house is no longer a receptive place for life, all the junk that had accumulated during the last 16 years are being thrown out by the boatload, and yours truly feels like he might be the next to go! ;) The fact that I spilled half a bottle of Elephant House milk (yummy btw) in the car doesn't really help my fate either... My mom gave me the look after I started laughing at myself! :/

"The Look"

OK, my torrent's done downloading! I'm off to play some Sims 2 then... ;D (You see how I play the latest games na! Kinda like the dude here... lol)

Right then, going to finish this off by linking to this song I've been falling in love with... enjoy! :)

Shut the door
Cut the light
Davy won't be home tonight
You can wait till the dawn rolls in
You won't see our Davy... again!

P.S. Imagine the smell in the car in a coupla days! "you won't see our Davy again" indeed! lol ;)

Arugam Bay

We got up early Friday morning and headed to Rathnapura. Most of the family had arrived the day before and were loading up the bus...

we left Rathnapura at around 8.30, and took the upper route that would take us across Balangoda and a portion of the Haputhale climb, the majestic southern slopes of the central mountains...

The view below was simply amazing!

(stitched two images together for this one so excuse the rather crappy blending! click for larger image)

Passed Diyaluma, which was pretty dried up because it's not raining on the eastern slopes these days...

...and a few dusty elephants at Lahugala, which was quite extraordinary given the drought in the area!

and by sundown, we had arrived at the eastern coastline! After months of dreaming about the it after reading Kirigalpothta's and The Unsilent's posts, finally made it there! :D

On the following two days, we were treated to the wondrous sunrise on the eastern coast!

We did make a small excursion to Panama and Kumana, but nothing much came out of that except a pretty long journey time. I later regretted not visiting Komari instead...

The waves at A-Bay were pretty amazing! I had never experienced such powerful waves before, we all had a whale of a time getting struck down by waves and getting dragged back to sea! :D (it sounds pretty un-fun and dangerous, but seriously, it was the most fun I've ever had at a beach! lol) :D

On our way back we passed through Udawalawe, where we spotted about a dozen Elephants on the fence living off what the tourists were feeding them...

We also visited the Elephant Orphanage, but couldn't stay for long because it was getting late and we had quite a bit to go to get back to Rathnapura and then Colombo. We did witness this cute little baby getting smacked in the rear for being a bit early for dinner though... (reminded me of that unfortunate incident at the Maligawa...)

We made it to Rathnapura at around 8.30 and immediately commenced our journey home! made it back in 1 hour 45, which is the fastest I've been from Rathnapura to home! :D

so now you know why I went missing for a while! ;)