Caves and Elephants

"Hail Ceylon, pearl of greenness, flower of the islands, tower of beauty!...My ideas and my poetry owe much to this island. I have known and loved its generous people". - Pablo Neruda, Colombo World Peace Council, 1957

In the center of this incredible island, in what’s called The Cultural Triangle, are several ancient cities, dating back 2500 years, that attest to Sri Lanka’s advanced architecture, art and technology. We set out to see as many as we could in a few days. 

For this leg of the journey we hired a driver. Sanjay is a Singhalese from Kandy who works for Blue Haven Tours, a reputable tour company here. His driving and english are very good and he knows the area very well. 

Our first goal was Dambulla, a series of five Buddhist cave temples.  But first, we stopped at the Arumihula Hindu temple. Since there is a big Hindu festival going on, it was closed to foreigners, but we got to visit the temple’s school, three classrooms of cute little 3 year olds. We were shown around by the head teacher, an older lady that you could tell ran a tight ship. The kids were so cute and stared at us big white folks with wide open eyes. We waved at them and the all waved back and I had a feeling that we disrupted whatever lesson was going on. 

Next up was the Buddhist cave temple of Aluviharaya. Legend has it that it was here, about 300 years after his death, Buddha’s teachings were written down. They were written on palm leaves and made into books, thousands of them. They were kept here for over 1500 years until the British came and burned them all. Fortunately, others survived in other places. 

The place itself has some amazing cave temples, set among some gigantic boulders, one with a 30 foot sleeping Buddha and some gorgeous paintings. 

Dambulla ‘s Royal Rock Temple is one of Sri Lanka’s iconic sites and one not to be missed on a visit here. There are five separate caves containing 150 absolutely incredible Buddha statues and paintings going back 2000 years and continuing into the 20th Century. The entire effect is stunning and for me, was the most beautiful thing I saw on the entire journey here. Of the five caves, Cave 2 is the most remarkable. Measuring 160 by 70 feet and up to 23 feet high, it is filled Buddha statues of every variety; seated, standing and a giant sleeping Buddha. The statues line the walls and, in addition, paintings cover the ceiling. 

In the afternoon, we had a special experience, an “Elephant Safari”. This involves getting in a Jeep and traveling a few miles into Minneriya National Park to a big lake, which is actually an ancient reservoir. Here, wild Asian elephants congregate in what’s called “The Gathering”, sometimes in the hundreds. We saw a group of about 60 elephants, including a few babies, one of which was a week old. Although there were many jeeps and tourists watching the great beasts, they paid absolutely no attention to us, making it all the more enjoyable.