Today was the day that we explored Anuradhapura, the ancient
city where Buddhism was established in Sri Lanka in 300BC. The city no longer
exists; it is simply ruins that are being restored. The city was destroyed by
invaders from South India. At one time there were thousands of monks living in
this city. Buddhist build what are called Stupas in India and Pagodas in Burma
and are called Dagobas in Sri Lanka. These can be enormous in size, as you can
tell from the pictures. They are made of solid brick painted white and are formed
in the shape of a giant Bell. Inside
of them might be placed a relic believed to be from the Buddha, or other
valuable. Buddhist walk around these structures three times to pray. There are
literally dozens of the massive structures located here. In reminds you of the
Pyramids in the sense that a huge amount of people must have been involved in
building these giant structures.
In the ruined city of Anuradhapura there is an incredibly
important Bodhi tree. The Sri Maha Bodhi Tree, is the oldest documented tree in
the world. It was brought to Sri Lanka as a sampling from the actual tree that
Siddhartha sat under when he achieved enlightenment. Needless to say this is a
major destination for Buddhist pilgrims. Men in white robes, the direct
descendents of the people that originally planted the tree, are the guardians
of the tree. To this day the sons of these men will have the job of protecting
the living tree. The profession has been passed down with in the families for
over 2000 years. That is job security.
We were lucky to have an exceptional local guide. When you
visit these cultural sites, that as westerners we know so little about, it is
critical that you get a great guide. Our guide today was fantastic,
knowledgeable, spoke wonderful English, and was deeply devout. Interestingly in
the prayer halls they would have the likeness of Hindu Gods like the Blue God
Vishnu. Hinduism and Buddhism borrowed much from each other. During the rule of
King Ashoka, India was a Buddhist country, but there are very few
(comparatively) Buddhist left in India.
This led us to the Question of the Day: What does a
Buddhist Guide do when there is a bee in the tour car? A primary teaching of
the Buddha, is that you can not kill living things. When we returned to our car
after seeing a Dagaba, there was a bee in the back window near where Cathy and
I were to be seated. We pointed out the bee and exited the car. The damn bee
wouldn’t fly out the open doors. The driver, the guide, and the guide’s boss,
all knew they would loose major Buddha points if they killed the bee, but they
did want to get it out of the car. I am not sure what would have happened if we
weren’t there, but they managed to capture the bee and remove him from the car
so he could fly off, thus gaining some merit.
We now have an established routine as night approaches. At
5:30pm we walk out to the nearby lake and wait for the wild elephants to appear
to bath and drink water. We wait with a few other guests, occasionally asking
each other: “Seen any elephants”? After an hour of waiting, and seeing no
elephants, we accept the fact they don’t need a drink, but we do. We traip back
to the outside bar, I order a gin and tonic (no ice) and Cathy orders wine. We
wonder if the story of the wild elephants coming for a drink between 5pm and 6pm
is just the hotels way to get guests to enjoy a quite hour looking at birds and
nature and a beautiful sunset.
A note on the weather. Cathy keeps looking in the local
paper for weather forecasts. There are none. The weather is basically very hot
and humid or raining. We have gotten the Very Hot and Humid. Very Hot and
Humid: so hot and humid it doesn’t even pay to take a shower, for you will be
hot and sticky 5 minutes after you dry off. Tomorrow morning we check out of
the hotel and head to our next destination, Polonnaruwa, the capital built
after the destruction of Anuradhapura.
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