Empty Nesters on a Green Global Trek

With Ben’s meetings and work finally complete, we are eager to head in a completely different direction for the rest of our time in Sri Lanka. Having been in the South of Sri Lanka twice now, we are excited to explore the North East of the island.

For a country as small as the island of Sri Lanka is, it is pretty incredible that it has so many UNESCO World Heritage sites. While we do not often seek out tourist sites, we have found that World Heritage sites consistently reward us for braving potential crowds.

We select one out of the eight UNESCO world heritage sites, which is in the center of the country and has particular appeal to both of us. We would rather focus our time  slowly seeing one, than rush between two to three which are in the area.  We are off to see the temple caves of Dambulla.

The Dambulla caves, in addition to being a sacred pilgrimage site for twenty two centuries, are filled with a trove of ancient Theravadic Buddhist art.

From Viet Nam to Bali to Thailand and Laos we have been filling our minds with Buddhist temple imagery, with memories of friendly orange robed monks, with hauntingly beautiful end of day Buddhist chanting. Buddhism has infiltrated our consciousness on a different, profound level since we began the Asian chapter of our Green Global Trek. We both have a strong proclivity towards Buddhism ~ thus Dambulla attracts us like bees to honey.

We have read that the statues and paintings in the Golden Temple of Dambulla date back to the 1st century BC. (We do not have a guide book, and nor do we read much online beforehand, just enough to have made our selection.)

The caves provided refuge to King Valagamba in his 14 year long exile from the Anuradapura kingdom. The Buddhist monks meditating in the caves provided him with protection from his enemies. When King Valagamba returned to the throne, he had a magnificent rock temple built at Dambulla in gratitude to the monks.

There are five caves, all of which contain statues and paintings related to Lord Buddha and his life.  A total of 153 absolutely stunning Buddha statues,  and a handful of  regal statues of Sri Lankan kings, gods and goddesses ~  these pieces are some of Sri Lanka’s most important and evocative religious art. Large murals cover the rock inside the caves, from ground to and including ceiling, covering every inch of available surface.

It takes a short climb up to reach the outside of the cave temples. Here you can see the rock below, creating ground, and the rock above creating the roof of the caves. (The rock housing the temples is 600 feet high.)

It is difficult to capture the magnificence of the art work in these caves, in photographs.

Being inside these caves is an incredible experience ~  breathtakingly beautiful. A feeling of being transported to another era.

The paintings are done in four natural paint colors and tones thereof, yet have retained a clarity and saturation of color that is surprising considering how old they are. Some of the murals have been restored in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Sri Lankans very much incorporate spirituality into their every day life, and standing inside these caves with huge wooden and stone Buddha sculptures and intricate geometric paintings on the walls and low ceilings above us, we are aware of centuries of reverence.

Close up of an elegant head of a Buddha sculpture.

This exquisite 45 feet sleeping postured Buddha statue is said to be the “parinirvana state” or final passing of the Lord Buddha.

The rock paintings portray early Buddhist historical events and include geometric abstract designs which follow the natural curve of the rock.

A row of beautiful offerings of white, purple and lilac flowers in front of the statues in the cave.

This is merely a section of a mural on the ceiling of a thousand seated Buddhas.

This reclining Buddha statue is carved out of rock. Others are either rock as well, or are made out of wood.

This style of painting in the murals is the characteristic Kandyan style of artwork.

When we emerge from the cocoon of  superbly preserved ancient Buddhist art, we are both conscious of the fact that the lineage of Buddhist practices remains unbroken in this part of the country.

The light of the sky is bright after the darkness of being inside rock caves. The fragrant smell of prayer incense is pervasive in the air and beckons us towards the large sacred tree in the courtyard. We watch as parents demonstrate to their young children the appropriate rituals of lighting incense, the oil stick and placing flowers in or near the shrines around the tree.

This small shrine is in front of the rock caves and has a tiny Buddha at the back. The rest of the space is taken by flower petals, incense and oil lamps.

Monkeys scatter across the rock formations and up and down the stairs leading to the cave temples.

The Dambulla cave temples are a mere 10mn stroll from the small home-stay where we spend the night.

The next morning we wake up dawn in order to enter the nearby Echo National Park before the sun rises, so as to get the best sightings of elephants as possible before the heat of the day.

Sri Lanka has 22 national parks! It actually is the reason we first came to Sri Lanka in 2014 ~ to witness elephants in the wild. For such a small country to have so many parks and so much wildlife is quite astounding. It means that pretty much wherever you go in the country you are bound to find yourself quite close to an wildlife park .(In fact, it is not uncommon to see elephants crossing the roads occasionally, and we do see one, one afternoon, much as one might see deer in another country.)

We drive in to the nature park with our game park ranger and his jeep (this is the only way permissible). He has the roof of the jeep open and we stand up balancing ourselves as we bounce along the dirt road. The feeling is one of exhilaration as the freshness of the morning air fills our lungs and we watch as the  bright sun rises rapidly from behind the trees and hills on the horizon.

It’s our lucky day and addition to birds (herons, egrits, wild peacocks, eagles) we see quite a few elephants. First a solo male bull and then a herd of moms and babies having their morning meal, oblivious to us and we are able to get fairly close without disturbing them.

Standing up in the back of the jeep affords quite a good view of wildlife and scenery.

It might not look like much in the photo, but sighting an elephant coming straight towards us, is pretty exciting stuff!

There is one place in the park where one can get out of the jeep. There is a wooden viewing tower allowing one to see for miles across the lake and wetlands.

After a few hours of being in the park we are fully satiated by our quota of elephants and ready to continue our journey further North. Our jeep driver tells us we do not need to go into the town of Darmbulla to catch a bus, but that we can wait alongside the road and the bus will stop for us. No bus stop, but he tells us he will flag the bus down and we can climb aboard.

Waiting for a bus.

A tuk tuk halts in front of the shrine under a tree, and two sari wearing villagers carrying flowers make an offering before going on their way.

Appropriately Ganesh, the elephant god on the side of the road in a small shrine sends us on our way North.

Within ten minutes or so, the bus comes flying down the road…

Our jeep driver flags the bus down and we climb aboard, much to the surprise and delight of the locals packed to capacity on the bus…. They are clearly surprised to see “gringos” coming aboard and make space for us, giving us two seats up front. And we are off…

What an amazing combination of experiences in Dambulla: Buddhist ancient art in caves and wild elephants roaming in a nature park! 

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