History longer than mankind!

We have a history longer than mankind can believe, just as a Bollywood movie typical dialogue “Yugon yugon ka saath hai humara tumhara”… Sitting at our village home sipping a hot cup of coffee early on a Sunday morning my father was like “Let’s go to Sri Lanka. After all Uncle Ganesh has shifted again and is now stationed in Colombo”. Seeing him grin like a ten year old made us all agree with him whole heartedly. It was after a gap of 6 years that we were planning a full family holiday outside India.

‘Chalo bulava aya hai... Uncle ne bulaya hai…’that was our tune when Uncle Ganesh replied positively to our mail and we all planned the week of Vesak in May to visit our small southern neighbour. Vesak day celebrates Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death. Buddhism is the prime religion in Sri Lanka. We started our long journey all the way from Mumbai to Srilanka via Chennai. The 30 Km Palk strait, the so called Adams Bridge or Ram Setu was a delightful sight from a height of 8000 feet. Landing at Colombo we were driven straight to Uncle’s new apartment in the up market district of Colombo. That evening we went for a stroll along the court and parliament district along the sea face. WE were royally welcomed by on the spot showers and drenched to the skin in a matter of no time. Later, over some highly ok tasting Indian food from the eat out, we planned our trip itinerary. We planned to pack in the Golden Triangle of Srilanka’s old capitals and if time permitted decided on going to Nuwara Eliya or Kandy.

The long road journey started the next day as early as six in the morning and as obvious we all dozed off through the early part of the drive. The drive was extremely stunning with paddy fields on both sides of the 2 lane highway and the blue mountains making an ideal backdrop. We stopped at a tree house café before proceeding to our first stop- City of Dambula! Dambula has a huge golden Buddha beckoning all devotees and visitors. Under the statue is the entrance to the Museum. A little walk away begins the flight of steps that take us to top of the hill where the caves house some real heritage belonging to as early as 1 and 2 BC. The monks have patiently carved statues of Buddha and his various moods and engraved inscriptions in an ancient language. The caves are very well maintained and have been made navigable. The ceilings have been painted with natural dyes and in particular there is one cave with 365 paintings of Buddha on the ceiling!

Our next stop was supposed to Sigiriya the construction of which took place during the reign of King Kashyapa in late 400 AD. Sigiriya is a monolithic rock on top of which an impregnable fortress was built. Unfortunately some unknown tourist had disturbed one of the hornets’ nests resulting in evacuation of people till everything settled. So we gave it a miss and proceeded towards Polonnaruwa. The Polonnaruwa period started in 1073 AD when the capital was shifted from Anuradhapura to Polonnaruwa. This capital was deserted for almost 400 years and the palaces and temples were rediscovered due to the tall Stupa at the western end. We were always pursued by guides who wanted to show us things that they feared we might miss but in the end we gave them a miss. On completion of the now UNESCO heritage site, we stopped for a cup of Ceylon Tea at a boat house club. For the night we drove down to an eco friendly resort nestled in the woods between Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura.

All around there were festivities and lanterns being lit. Lanterns and lamps form an integral part of Vesak celebrations. After a quiet dinner and a cultural dance performance we retired and all of us just crashed on our beds. The next day dawned early and we proceeded towards Anuradhapura the capital set up by King Devanampiya Tissa as early as 200 BC. The layout and the science involved in building such a flourishing capital is something that needs to be experienced. My words would fall short for describing the architectural and engineering designs of that period. Anuradhapura is based on a circular pattern with the Stupas forming the core center and all other establishments in concentric circles around the place of worship. The kings had then used sluice gate principle and gravitation of earth as methods to build the extensive water and drainage system in the capital city. Most of it is still existing and good to use.

Being Vesak day there were numerous celebrations all over and so many devotees had gathered at the Bodhi tree site. Legend says Princess Sanghamitra; daughter of the Indian King Asoka brought a branch from the Bodhi Tree in Gaya where Lord Buddha attained enlightment. The tree is 2500 years old and still continues to grow. Many more trees have sprung up from its seeds and branches being replanted around the temple complex over the centuries. After the visit of the holy tree and seeking blessings of the Lord we proceeded to our hotel. That evening we decided to pay a visit to the elephant national park opened a while ago. Our driver and guide was an 18 year old who spoke Tamil with a Sinhalese tinge and was fun to see him drive without inhibition all the way to the park. We saw many herds along the highway and an occasional billboard stating ‘This is Elephant land. Elephants have the right of way.’ We laughed but a short distance later we saw a female herd of 10 elephants along with kid elephants in all sizes lumber down the highway to the other site. It was overwhelming, both their size and their acceptance of us in their midst.The nature park was a fabulous experience ad though it rained we all loved it. On our way back we had 2 huge tuskers for company who wanted to get photographed but withdrew the moment the flashes began. Poor things got scared and started to run and we all (10 jeeps back to back) had panic attacks till they disappeared in to the undergrowth trumpeting on their experience.

The next day we had a long journey all the way to Kandy, and it being the day after Vesak celebrations continued. The journey up the hills was breathtaking with tall eucalyptus trees occupying major portion of the slopes. After a 5 hour journey we reached Kandy for the mid day celebrations. It’s truly an inaccessible capital which remained so during all the European ruling through out the centuries.The temple of tooth , where the tooth of Buddha has been stored underneath a golden stupa was overflowing with devotees and the whole city was festive. We had a sumptuous lunch and I also tried out the Sinhalese form of wearing a sari. It was hilarious as I looked more like a 10 year old than my age. We got back to Colombo hearing Radio Ceylon which shook the nostalgia box of my parents and uncle. That night we all just had a dinner of rice and dal and went off to sleep. Next day was shopping and beaches in Colombo. On day 7 we flew back to India with a sense of not seeing enough and an urge to pack in more the next time, before the internal war ravages the beautiful country of Ceylon.