Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="rochel1977" data-source="post: 18677353" data-attributes="member: 371">Anaradhapura, Buddhist stupas, and monkeys <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m217_DSC_7934.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Now we're made it to Anuradhapura. This is part of a giagantic Buddhism complex... many square kilometers of temples, shrines, stupas, giant buddhas, and so forth. It is also one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, having been lived in for about 2500 years and counting... current population 60,000. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m218_DSC_7982.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Piper gives an offering at the temple... she bought the flower from a vendor outside, as did most of the other offerers. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m219_DSC_7995.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> This is Astro, putting out her hand beneath the oldest planted tree in the world. It was planted in 288 BC, from a seedling from the original Bodhi tree in India, and has been continually cared for since then. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m220_DSC_7966.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Oldest tree! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m221_DSC_8021.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Walking down one of the streets in Anuradhapura, this procession started coming toward us. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m222_DSC_8028.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> I love that hair! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m223_DSC_8065.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> The procession continued. They were carrying a long orange thing, which some people there were calling 'the flag. It is huge... there must've been 200 people carrying it. Several hundred meters long at least. To the front is a giant stupa. It's been sealed closed for 2300 years. Apparently no one at all is allowed to go inside of it. The procession went around it. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m224_DSC_8072.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Astro/Heidi/Finner/Piper all watch. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m225_DSC_8082.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Next thing I know they're carrying it themselves! <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m226_DSC_8091.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m227_DSC_8110.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m228_DSC_8159.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Walking around the stupa. The path is always clockwise, to keep your right hand toward the stupa. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m229_DSC_8174.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> ... and back to the front. The fabric just goes on and on. Many of the people are carrying food, lotus flowers, or other offerings. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m230_DSC_8218.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> After the flag is rolled up, this second group started from the opposite direction. The people in front are sweeping the path. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m231_DSC_8227.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> I tried to figure out what was happening, but unfortunately our guides were not a lot of help. The local guide had left by this point, and our driver-guides didn't seem to know the whole story. One thing about Annaradhapura though: it is one of the major centers of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Every year there is a big convention for new Buddhists (and those interested) in the area. Perhaps 50,000 people come and camp on the grass for a week while learning Buddhism, visiting the temples, and so forth. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m232_DSC_8256.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Drums in the procession. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m233_DSC_8272.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Now a lot of monks. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m234_DSC_8281.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> The monks are dressed in orange. We saw a lot of them throughour Sri Lanka... riding on mopeds, catching tuk-tuks, etc. One was tormeting a cat with his cell phone's ring tone (which he programmed to be a dog bark, and rang it over and over). <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m235_DSC_8308.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Thumbs up from the monk's helper. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m236_DSC_8292.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Meanwhile, Finn and Astro are hanging out with the police. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m237_DSC_8329.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> These are some sort of offerings they're bringing in. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m238_DSC_8350.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Lots of offerings of marigolds. Reminiscent by color of Mexico, and Dia de los Muertos? <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m239_DSC_8403.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> This dagoba - Thuparama - allegedly contains the right collarbone of the Buddha. It is the oldest dagobe in Sri Lanka (2300 years), and was originally covered in an outer building which has since fallen down (leaving just the supports). This is the one featured on the cover of the Lonely Planet book which we used a lot. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m240_DSC_8419.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> This guy was selling buffalo-milk yogurt ('curd') and honey ('treacle') from his bicycle. I turned down his offer and immediately regretted it. We tried to track him down later but no luck. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m241_DSC_8512.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> We're now at the largest stupa at all of Anuradhapura, Jetavanarama... 100 meters tall originally, which put it at the third-tallest building in the world, after the pyramids. It is not white, but that's because the plaster has come off and hasn't been rebuilt like the rest. It happens also to be overrun with monkeys. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m242_DSC_8558.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m243_DSC_8583.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> And these are violent monkeys! It's a buddhist temple, guys! Chill out! What's with the aggressive behavior? <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m244_DSC_8678.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m245_DSC_8423.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Aww... well, that's rare! Outrigger canoes on the ocean <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m246_DSC_8501.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> We've driven the four hours from Annaradhapura back to the outskirts of Colombo. One more day left. We're on the beach in Negombo (just north of the airport) and find monks on a boat! Interestingly, these kids are really young... like I think the youngest one was 7. My understanding is that they go to religious school from this age (these all did), and that religion is a major part of their education, at the expense of breadth. From my short conversation with them, neither they nor the adult monk with them seemed very well educated. They reminded me -- more than I would have thought -- of young religious zealots-in-training in the US, e.g., the Christian fundamentalists at bible summer school in the Jesus Camp movie. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m248_IMG_0632.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> And our final afternoon... these guys were out on the beach with their catamaran parked. I'd seen these boats on our first day in Sri Lanka and had been pining to go out on one ever since. So it didn't take much of a push for Piper and I to talk them out and head out. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m249_IMG_0575.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> The boat is basically a long, thing fiberglass canoe, with a single wooden outrigger, and a large sail. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m250_IMG_0614.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> And that's Piper on the outrigger. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m251_IMG_0574.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> That's the outrigger crashing into a wave. This is our captain in the fancy pants. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m252_IMG_0593.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> And Piper standing between the boat and outrigger. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m253_IMG_0596.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Check out that sail! The boat had a crew of three (plus the two of us)... one guy's job was to use a cut-off water scoop to splash salt water onto the cotton sails, presumably to make them more air-tight. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m254_IMG_0616.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m255_IMG_0622.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m256_IMG_0623.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> These guys don't own the boat themselves, but work for the owner (who we never saw). They tried to work a deal with me: "But please sir -- I tell you, if you have $1500, you could buy a boat, and we would work for you every day. It would be much better than working for this man." <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m257_IMG_0635.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m258_IMG_0671.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> After Piper and I got back, Heidi was quick to jump on as well. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m259_IMG_0674.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Heidi jumped ship and did some swimming. <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m260_IMG_0679.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> <img src="http://www.eaubergine.com/images/SriLanka_Dec13/thumbnails/m261_IMG_2282.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> And then... back to the airport. We're on the ground here in Dubai, about to do the 7-hour flight back to Johannesburg. We missed (by two hours) watching the world's largest fireworks exhibition over Dubai for New Years Eve. </blockquote>

Verification: Asuwa dahayen wadi kalama keeyada?

Top Bottom