We have begun to notice an increase in security on the roads and at the roundabouts, we learn the president will be visiting the very Dagoba that we have planned to visit. Tents have been set-up alongside the roads in fields with troops bivouacking in the brush. We will change plans and visit another site. Military officers have taken rooms in our hotel. At dinner my appetite abandons me even though we had a sumptuous meal before us.
We checked out of the hotel in the morning and set out for Mihintale a Buddhist temple site on a hill; we ascended the steps glad for the exercise and met Wolley at a parking lot half-way to the summit. He introduced us to a guide and we continued up the steps. Ruan agreed to accept what we thought his worth as a guide was. The site had no visitors, Ruan was glad to have work. He showed us a refectory where the monks were fed and the extensive water channels that supplied the baths and food service. A number of low brick stupas appeared alongside the stairs as we continued. They contained the bodies of revered monks from the period. The stair leading to the sacred buildings and statues was lined and sheltered by Frangipani trees in full bloom, their five petaled flowers adding a light fragrance to the humid air. A Buddha figure overlooked the site from a hill top to our left; another solid rock promontory reached to the sky to our right, it was our next climb. We had left our hats and shoes at the stair end and we were walking with bare feet over the dirt and stones. This whole place is a shrine. The beginning steps up the rock were well defined, but as we rose higher they changed to mere cuts and then to little cup-shaped dents in the stone. A railing helped with the confidence as we neared the top which required a convoluted bend and a long step up pulling up by the rail. The view was an expansive one of most of the surrounding countryside, there was another, higher mountain on the other side of the sacred plaza that we had just arisen from. I had an inkling that we were going up that one too. We had some fun talking with some local devotees at the apex of this stony hill and then we began our descent. Half-way down were some trees below the “stair” which held in their branches endangered Bear Monkeys, they are black and have white beards. They were calm and cool in their shade.
Before we put our shoes and hats back on we donated some money to the monks who are responsible for the shrine and we each decided to buy a Buddhist flag being sold at the kiosk. The flag was designed by an American, Henry Olcot, who came to Sri Lanka in the 1880’s. It symbolizes the unity of Buddhism. We thought it was an interesting flag and these two were flown over this sacred site.
At the beginning of our journey up the last peak, we came to a large pool. In the back wall of the pool was carved a large seven headed cobra, Naga the symbol of water. The pool extended along the foot of the cliff base and had steps leading down to the water. It was cool and it was very impressive, carved out of the living rock of the cliff. The steps lay ahead to the peak and I was beginning to regret not bringing water. The day was hot with unrelenting sun, no cloud relief. We continued up the stairs and I had a flash of nausea. Ruan offered to get water from the food stands below, but I said no, I was uncomfortable but not in danger yet. We made it to the top to another expansive view that we missed from the other hill. The Dagobas of Anuradhapura lay before us as did tanks of the water systems and the densely forested jungle surrounding the area. I had to stop to recover from weakness, water is what was needed. We rewarded Ruan with a healthy tip for his work.
We returned to Anuradhapura to finish our visit to the White Dagoba and the Bodhi Tree, the president having left by this time. Wolley left Steve and I at the entrance and instructed us to walk to the end of the avenue to the entrance of the Bodhi Shrine and follow directions of the attendees having taken our shoes and hats off. I am beginning to ache all over and I still have the nagging back pain in my middle back which shoots pain when I twist or turn.
We enter the Shrine of the Bodhi tree which is a cutting from the original tree under which Buddha came to enlightenment. This tree is supposedly the oldest historically recorded tree. The entrance exhibited the same themes of the Sacred Shrines, with the stairs, the dragon Makala railing, the Guardian Stones and the Moonstone bottom step leading up to a shrine which had flowers on the altar and devotees meditating on the images. Steve and I continued around to the next shrine and I was pulled into the altar area by a saffron robed monk who held my hand and chanted a blessing and while another monk tied a white cord around my wrist. We gave a donation and left to continue the turn around the shrine. The tree can only be seen by looking above the walls and fence surrounding the whole tree. Some of the branches are supported by brass supports and some by iron supports. Steve spotted a small textile at the entrances to the shrines just like one he and I bought at a stand earlier in our journey and we saw how they were used. We were pleased to have made the purchase before the fact.
The Bodhi tree is a type of ficus tree which I guess is quite hardy. An interesting fact is that the seeds of another ficus tree the Strangler Fig are deposited by birds in the upper branches of a host tree, the strangler ficus grows down to the ground and roots and continues to grow toward the sun. It eventually surrounds the host tree and kills it in its deathly embrace. These couplings are all over the grounds of these sites. I find it disconcerting to watch the slow strangulation of a tree. All stages of this silent agony can be seen at the Sacred Sites.
We collected our hats and shoes and returned to near the beginning of the avenue to the entrance to the last Dagoba of the area. It is completely restored in gleaming white plaster. Hats and shoes off, we entered the shrine and Steve was drawn to a group of tents where people were sitting and listening to a man chanting in a plaintive voice. Someone approached me and told me that this was the culmination of a year-long ceremony supported by a donor family, of continual chanting day and night that would end this night. So explains the plaintive voice.
We walked to the left around the Dagoba on the stone plaza, a small dusty puppy was walking and sniffing around unconcerned by anything happening not noticing us, not curious of us, just there on his own. Apparently the monks feed the dogs and cats regularly. These are the temple dogs. Dogs are everywhere, the same dog, I have never seen so many broken dogs, mangy dogs, unconcerned dogs, dogs in the road, lying by the road. For us they are a constant worry that they will be hit by our van or another car. I just walk by the puppy and continue the path around the Dagoba. Behind the Dagoba a woman with a child asks us to take her picture which Steve does, my camera dies at that moment. I went to the wall of the plaza to look over the edge and kicked an elephant tenon which fitted into the curve of the Dagoba as I stepped to look, no shoes. They were lined along the back wall, I heard my toe break and I was convinced by the pain that it was broken, but days later the black and blue disappeared completely. Just one more pain for me, nothing to be done. We reached the third frontier of the Dagoba where some young women and boys were being confronted by a policeman. He was chastising a young girl and she was crying into her hands, but peaking out at us as we walked by. Curious. It was probably some perceived disrespect to the shrine.
We left the Dagoba and visited a bath which was partially carved out of living rock and the remainder finished with brick and cut stone, about 100 yards long and about 50 yards wide and still held water at the bottom. Some men were fishing it and showed us their catch as we were leaving, Steve had teased them about not having anything to show and they had the last word.
We are at the end of our stay in Anuradhapura. We have gotten an understanding of the themes of the remaining ruins and we can see other sites of mounds with pillars projecting from the earth. These pillars held up roofs over the sacred figures. Models of the shrines were located at certain sites to show how the completed buildling was built, wood beams and red tile roofs being supported by the square pillars.
We left Anuradhapura and traveled South and East to Minneriya and the Hotel Giritale on a huge reservoir, the Minneriya Tank where we would experience our first Safari and explore the ruins of Polannaruwa.
No comments:
Post a Comment