While driving along a rough track through the Yala Nature Reserve in Sri Lanka, our driver stopped the jeep beside these unusual tree trunks. Before we realised it, the tree trunk moved, grabbing a bunch of branches. The elephant crossed the track right in front of our jeep, munching away while crossing the road.
This is the first post in a trilogy of posts on the wild elephants we encountered in the Yala Nature Reserve.
One of the most famous features of Sigiriya are the 5th Century paintings found in two depressions on the rock face some 100 metres above the ground. These paintings are a merely a fragment of an immense backdrop of paintings that once extended in a wide band across the Western rock face measuring some 140 meters long and 40 meters high.
All that has survived are the female figures preserved in the two depressions known as apsaras (or celestial nymphs), often found in religious and royal art in Asia. As so little of the mural has survived, the entire composition is left to ones imagination. The mural could well have depicted a devotional procession of the ladies of Kasyapa’s court or an expression of the cult of divine royalty with vijju kumari (lightning princesses) and meghalata (cloud damsels) at the abode of the god Kuvera.
This last image is a closeup of the centre of Sigiriya’s rock above, clearly showing the location of the Apsara paintings. There are two narrow spiral staircases leading up and down to a closed off viewing platform from the hidden traversing walkway partway up the rock face.
A scary climb, especially if you suffer from vertigo, but it is well worth it. The Apsara paintings are absolutely superb and without a doubt a must see for anyone visiting Sri Lanka.
On the last day of our holiday, we went on a short river safari up the Balapitiya River in South West Sri Lanka. Not the best choice of river for watching birdlife, as the banks of the river were covered in mangrove trees. Consequently, there were no ibises, storks, herons, egrets and other waders, that we had seen in abundance elsewhere in Sri Lanka, to be seen.
The boat trip marked by a very noisy outboard and with the continuous diesel fumes was disappointing, although there were a couple of highlights. The first highlight was this kingfisher, perched on a post sticking out of the water. The kingfisher was, surprisingly, unperturbed by the noisy outboard motor, so we managed to get very close, giving me the opportunity to take a couple shots.
I will leave you in suspense with what the other two highlights of this boat trip were, as each will deserve its own post.
The Lion’s Rock, or Sigirya in the local tongue, is a dominant volcanic rock rising some 1,000 feet above the central planes of Sri Lanka and is distinctively visible from all directions.
Sigiriya has had a very long and turbulent history, from being inhabited in pre-historic times to becoming a Buddhist monastery in the 5th Century B.C., before being captured by King Kashyapa’s to build his splendid palace in the 5th Century A.D., and finally returning to be a Buddhist monastery after the king’s death until the 14th Century A.D. But more about the archeology, history and legacy of the Lion’s Rock in various upcoming posts.
We were lucky to witness this fantastic sunset from the terrace of the superb Kandalama hotel shortly after our arrival while sipping on a fresh mango juice. The Kandalama hotel was a fabulous experience in itself, but I will leave that also for a future post.
The next morning our guide drove us to Sigirya via the senic route, giving us the opportunity to view the fabulous rock across Kandalama Wewa. Due to the dry period, the water level in the reservoir was so low that the dead trees provided an eerie foreground to the prominent rock.
This final panorama of Sirgiriya is taken from the extensive gardens surrounding the rock on our walk in to a long but very rewarding climb to the top.
A wonderfully preserved ancient Sri Lankan door.