Country trip: Lithuanian flavour in Sri Lanka (2)

Amazed, exhausted, happy, annoyed, surprised, tired, excited and hungry for more were those feelings which lead us all the way through this beautiful island. With the taste of super delicious fruits, magazines in our hands, endless conversations and home smelling cheese sandwiches our journey in Sri Lanka continues with …

Sigiriya (Day 5)

Last point of Cultural Triangle (Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya) we had to see was Sigiriya – breathtaking rock, or Sri Lanka’s most extraordinary sight as it is. So many legends and so many stories, told about this place, indeed make it magical, but most surely all must to see why Sigiriya (“Lion Rock”) was declared a World Heritage Site in 1982 and is described as one of the most impressive touristic attraction and one of my favourite too.

History says Sigiriya rock was a palace of ancient king Kassapa (middle of 1^st century) who drove his elder brother Mogallana into exile in India, imprisoned and killed his father king Dhatusena. Kassapa on the top of 200 m. rock constructed a pleasure palace as well as impregnable fortress expecting it to emulate with Kubera’s (god of wealth) adobe.

Local guides say that ancient kings used to live in palace near the rock and called them Summer Palace. Here smart drainage system solutions are proven by the remains of perfectly shaped water gardens and fountain gardens.

While we were climbing beautiful Sri Lankan scenery was taking our attention, helping to forget tired legs and loose the number of countless stairs formed from the rock itself, or made out of a metal. We reached another attention point – island’s most famous frescoes, more known as Sigiriya Damsels. This fame they've got from being only ones non-religious painting survived from ancient Sri Lanka. Painted in 5^th century Sigiriya Damsels are most reproduced iconic images here.

Icons are pretty simple and similar to some murals at Caves in India, they are showing ancient girls scattering petals and offering flowers and trays of fruit. Nevertheless, attention grabs some painting ‘mistakes’ – one damsel has three hands, while another sports three nipples.

 Moving on we have reached The Lion Platform. Previously it was a lion statue and final stairs lead to the mouth of the animal and reached the summit. And so did we. In the summit the remains of Winter Palace look unbelievable. Ancient Shingalese had pools and were able to channel water using an ingenious hydraulic system powered by windmills from the source around 6 kilometers away from the rock. This hydraulic miracle is still a question for scientists and is a reason to call Sigiriya Rock the 8^th World Wonder. Nevertheless, nothing amazed us more than the most spectacular view you are able to see from this rock. Freedom, endless horizons, you being so small and at the same time feeling so powerful; amazement, contemplation about you and your life and the feeling “I will come back here one day” are what I was left with, I believe, as well as my travel mates were.

Dambulla

Speechless from the beauty of Sigiriya we left to another must-see destination point - Dambulla cave temples. The temples here are like little masterpieces of Sinhalese Buddhist art. That’s what I have told to girls and completely forgot to mention Golden temple standing in the front with enormously big Buddha statue and, to my eye, totally unnecessary Chinese looking dragon-lion-like beast stair entrance to the Golden Temple Buddhist Museum. I was told that this kitschy ensemble is a gift from China. Inside we could witness Sri Lankan art and cultural development testimonies, but rather than that our attention caught local people and once already mentioned Cave temples which we first had to reach by climbing up to the top of the rock. Luckily, this didn’t appear such a big task. 

I was happy to show Dambulla to my girls and enjoy it for the second time. Before that I have already been here with few interns, Sri Lankan friends and a Buddhist monk in our crew, but that’s a different story to tell. So with the trust and a guide book in my hands I was telling stories about all 5 caves.

The first one, Devaraja Viharaya, or “Temple of Lord of the Gods”, is named after Vishnu and is filled with 14 m. long sleeping and couple of smaller Buddha statues. This cave looks like a kids play room compering to 50 m. long Maharaja Vihara, or “Temple of the Great Kings” colourfully painted cave with Singalese kings and Buddha statues. There is also a pot which never runs dry. Drops from the ceiling are filling it unconditionally to any seasonal droughts.

“Great New Temple” reaches its height of 10 m. and is filled with big and various, again, Buddha statues, and several murals too. Much smaller cave is no 4 (Paccima Vharaya, or “Western Temple”). Beside couple Buddha’s heavily painted walls and ceilings it has a small dagoba in it, which by belief contains jewellery of ancient kings and queens. And the last cave, called Devana Alut Viharaya (“Second New Temple) has 10 m. reclining Buddha. 

 

With genuine "I love Sri Lanka" attitude and full cameras of framed impressions we left Damulla in the afternoon and quickly dropped by spice museum on our way to Kandy.