I spent two weeks in Sri Lanka with my dad. He had given presentations in hospitals in Sri Lanka during the month of July to promote his idea of Emergency Care Units. The day I arrived, I went to Negombo to meet him, and from there we travelled to Peradeniya (near Kandy), Nuwara Eliya, Matara, Galle, Sri Jayawardenapura, Sigiriya, Anuradhapura/Mihintale, Pollonaruwa, and even Ritigala.
On this trip I saw more of Sri Lanka than I had ever seen before on a single visit. I saw archeology of a civilization that went back 2400 years: a civilization which outlived the Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires, brought Buddhism to Southeast Asia, and created an unbroken tradition of literary history (chronicles) which few civilizations can match.
I hope to share with you my experiences in the land of my ancestors.
This picture was taken in the far southern part of the island, and most of the south looks like this. As you can see, it is pretty green. Indeed, one probable reason why Sinhala people (my ethnic group, which constitutes the majority in the south and the island as a whole) are stereotyped as lazy is that the farmers do not have to toil a whole lot on their farms other than at harvest time compared with farmers from the north and South India where the land is more arid.
The falls at Ravana Eliya in the upcountry (the middle highlands of the country) is supposedly where the mythical king Ravana lived. This rakshasa from the Hindu epic Ramayana kidnapped Rama's bride Sita from India to prehistoric Lanka, his kingdom. Rama came with the help of the monkey Hanuman and killed Ravana. The north Indian version (by Valmiki) makes Ravana an evil villain, but the south Indian version (by Kampan) depicts Ravana as a complicated soul who is caught between his love for Sita and his hatred for Rama for killing his sister.
My father in the mountainous region.
This is a dagaba built to commemorate the place where King Duttugemunu's mother, Queen Vihara Mahadevi came to Mahagama, the southern tip of the island from Kelaniya in the west around 150 BCE. Here she married King Kavantissa and had two children. She encouraged her son Duttugemunu to become a great warrior, and when he rebelled against his father to fight the invaders from India, she secretly supported him.
In 145 BCE, the same year that Duttugemunu (shown here) was born in Mahagama, the South Indian warlord Elara conquered Anuradhapura, the capital of Sri Lanka. Duttugemunu's father Kavantissa mobilized an army to defend his kingdom, but he did not want to start a hasty war against Elara. Duttugemunu became resentful of this policy, so Kavantissa assigned the ten best warriors of the land to be his bodyguard and keep him out of trouble. The young prince drew them to his cause, and he assigned each of them the task to find the next best warriors they could each find to put under their command. These hundred warriors were then each assigned to find the next best warriors to command and so forth, and that is how Duttugemunu built his army and its hierarchy.
Duttugemunu then disguised himself and mingled with the normal people. He heard an old woman boast how Duttugemunu would triumph, so he approached her and asked how victory would be achieved. She replied that the "great king" would keep his outnumbered army moving, prevent Elara from massing his forces together, and defeat each South Indian general one by one. Duttugemunu used this strategy to defeat all of Elara's subordinates, and then he resolved to converge upon Anuradhapura and retake the capital.
Elara and his main army were waiting for Duttugemunu at Anuradhapura, and it was clear to both men that the ensuing battle would be bloody. They decided to fight single combat for the island. As honorable as this may have sounded, one must keep in mind that Elara was about seventy years old at this time, Duttugemunu being thirty years his junior. Duttugemunu won the duel, but he gave proper honor to Elara.
This peak is the place where Mahinda, son of Emperor Asoka of the Indian Mauryan Empire came to Sri Lanka to introduce Buddhism in 247 BCE. King Tissa converted to Buddhism, and he held a second coronation in the Mauryan style and received the title of 'Devanampiya.' Seven years later, Mahinda's sister Sanghamitta later brought a sapling from the very tree under which the Buddha himself realized the end of suffering, and she also established the order of nuns (bhikkunis). This place is in Mihintale, near Anuradhapura.
From the top of the aforementioned peak, one can see the other sites at Mihintale such as its dagaba and a statue of the Buddha.
The famous Sri Maha Bodhi, the 2300-year old sapling brought by Sanghamitta, still alive and serving as one of the greatest symbols of Buddhism in the world.
This is the dagaba at Anuradhapura, the largest in the country. Dagabas are structures where relics of the Buddha (particles of his remnants after he was cremated) are interred. The structures evolved out of burial mounds; eventually kings wanted to build these beautiful structures to symbolize their patronage of Buddhism. Dagabas can be found in India and Thailand.
Anuradhapura served as the capital of Sri Lanka for 1400 years.
At the ruins of Anuradhapura are the oldest documented hospitals in the world. At this one is a surviving medical vat. Sick people would lie in these coffin-like vats, and the vats would be filled with a medicine to immerse the people. Obviously, it is no longer used.
This is not a lake. This is the Tissa Vava Tank, one of the many man-made reservoirs which dot the north. The ancient Sinhalas were masters of hydraulics, and that is how they irrigated the arid north. Sri Lanka produced so much food that it was able to export a hefty surplus to Imperial China.
Around the 12th century C.E., a number of unfortunate things occurred at once. The Chinese discovered Thailand, and therefore they had no further need to import rice from Sri Lanka. The stagnant waters of the tanks became breeding grounds for mosquitoes (which plague the north even today), and it is surmised that the northern civilization collapsed through malaria.
Ritigala is the oldest archeological site in Sri Lanka. It was a military base constructed at about the 4th century BCE to hide the young prince Pandukabhaya from his uncles. Here Pandukabhaya mobilized an army and defeated his uncles, and later he built the city of Anuradhapura to honor an uncle who had supported him.
Later Ritigala was converted to a Buddhist monastery, but it was brought to ruins in about 1000 C.E. by South Indian invaders.
A palace was built at the top of this rock by King Kasyapa. Kasyapa had murdered his father Dhatusena and feared retaliation from his brother, so he had Sigiriya built as an impregnable fortress, where he ruled from 477-95 CE. Kasyapa was defeated by his brother Mogallana when he came down from the rock to fight; the mad king was abandoned by his army and was killed.
Here is a "deterrent" to keep invaders from Sigiriya. Once the smaller stones underneath collapse, the boulder sails down and somebody gets squished.
Parakrama-bahu was the king of Sri Lanka from 1153-86 CE, and he ruled from Polonnaruwa. He was famous for building a navy which conquered a part of South India and the kingdom of Ramanna in Myanmar.
For a long time it was believed that this statue was Parakrama-bahu, but some now argue that it is Agastya, the mythical sage and father of the Tamil language.
The ruins of Parakrama-bahu's palace. It was supposed to be twelve stories tall.
A statue of the Buddha at Polonnaruwa. The Polonnaruwa period features more figurine art than that of Anuradhapura, and the art is influenced by South Indian Dravidian culture.
Our housekeeper Pema's nieces. Aren't they cute?