SRI LANKA: POLONNARUWA

After our exhausting climb of Sigiriya Rock, we crawled wearily into our wonderful air-conditioned, guide-driven car and were once again grateful for Sanjay, who took over and let us collapse in the backseat. The rest wasn't nearly long enough, however, as it was just an hour to our next destination: Polonnaruwa, the second oldest kingdom in Sri Lanka after Anuradhapura.

Along the way we saw two very different elephants walking next to the road. First, there was this poor elephant with a heavy chain looped around his neck and foot and a circus-like cloth draped across his back:

A bit further down the road we saw this wild elephant walking alongside the highway:

No shackles, no embarrassing drapery:

. . . just a plain ol' elephant. Which one would you rather be?

Polonnaruwa is a large complex of stupas, Buddhist monasteries, and Buddhist temples (a lot like Anuradhapura) and our third UNESCO World Heritage Site in a two days. Its heyday was rather short-lived, less than 200 years, ending when the city was abandoned in 1293 after a series of weak rulers and invasions. Like other ancient cities (think Machu Picchu), it was then quickly engulfed by the surrounding jungle and was more or less buried until it was excavated and restored in the 20th century.

At the center of the ancient city is the Royal Palace, which is believed to have stood seven stories tall and to have comprised 1,000 rooms:

Some of the trees surrounding the palace look like they may have been here 800 years ago.

Nearby is a geometric pool possibly used for bathing by the royals:

Foundation carvings on one of the nearby buildings include monkeys on top, lions in the middle, and elephants on bottom. Lions haven't inhabited Sri Lanka since 37,000 BC, but they are a very popular image, and are even included on the national flag.

More combinations of lions, monkeys, and elephants:

The base of the above carving is a series of elephants with tusks (even though only 2-3% of elephants in Sri Lanka these days have tusks):

Next up: the Sacred Quadrangle, a compact group of ruins surrounded by a square stone wall:

The signs below remind visitors to "behave well within the premises and remove shoes and hats before entering" and caution that no photographs be taken "with backs towards the statue." In other words, no selfies with the Buddha:

This is the entrance to Polonnaruwa Vatadage, one of the most sacred spots in the ancient city.  It is believed to have been built to hold the Relic of the Tooth (yes, one of Buddha's actual teeth, which has been moved to a location we visited later during our trip) OR to hold Buddha's alms bowl:

It has a perfectly preserved moonstone at the entrance:

I can't believe people are allowed to walk on it. Perhaps it is a perfect reproduction of an ancient moonstone:

Either way, it has exquisite carving:

Inside the structure is a meditating Buddha. I think that small stupa behind him is what used to hold the relic:

I love this stairway leading to . . . ? It's not hard to imagine a palace on this spot:

There is lots of restoration going on. I'm sure it will never end:

Another temple with a standing Buddha at the far end:

One of my favorite buildings in Polonnaruwa is the Sathmahal Prasada, a seven-story stepped pyramid with entrances on all four sides. No one really knows what its purpose was, but it is the ONLY stepped pyramid in Sri Lanka. What really struck me about this building, however . . .

. . . is its resemblance to a structure in Tikal, Guatemala:

Picture from Wikipedia

One of the most iconic structures in Polonnaruwa is the red brick Rankoth Vehera, which, at 164 feet high, is the fourth largest stupa in Sri Lanka:

In Sinhalese, the language of the region, ran means gold and a kotha is the pinnacle of a stupa. Vehera is another name for a stupa or temple. Once upon a time this finial must have been covered in gold:

Yep, that's Bob in his favorite yellow shirt that seems to be in about 50% of our travel photos for the last five years:

This must be a school group as all the girls have beautiful matching dress:

With all the restoration work going on, a clay brick "factory" can come in handy, but what is that white spot in the hole?

It's one of the ubiquitous street dogs. When I say they are everywhere, I really mean it:

Next to the Rankoth Vehera stupa is the largest monastery complex in Polonnaruwa. In includes a cremation area marked by small stupas, along with terraces, hospitals, ponds, and cells for the monks:

No monastery is complete without a toilet:

I love the dragon (crocodile?) head poking out of the wall, almost like a gargoyle on a Catholic cathedral:

This spigot crocodile has a war going on with a tree, and I think the tree is going to win:

Aha! Here are the intrepid adventurers in their exotic travel get-ups:

The name of this stupa is Kiri Vihara. "Kiri" means "milk" in Sinhalese. When the building was discovered, the white plaster was still intact:

My most favorite spot in all of Polonnaruwa was the Lankatilaka shrine or "image house." The exterior walls are covered in spectacular intricate bas relief carvings:

This is a side entrance, not nearly as spectacular as . . .

. . . the front entrance, where two rounded turrets on each side give the building a cathedral-like appearance:

The walls behind those turrets are 13 feet wide and used to be 55 feet tall.

A long corridor between the two walls leads to the spot where the crucifix would be in a cathedral, but in its place is an enormous 46-foot-tall headless Buddha. It was a *gasp* moment.

Wow, it's going to be hard to top THAT.

Sanjay had been driving us from place to place, and we still had one more place to go in Polonnaruwa. On our way there, we walked down a nicely paved path that conveniently offered a place for Bob to rinse out his sweat-wiper rag. The tap is labeled "Drinking Water," but we weren't about to test it:

At the end of the path, we were reminded to behave ourselves:

On the right is an enormous lily pond:

. . . and next to the pond is Gal Vihara (aka "Rock Monastery"), a shrine carved into the granite rock face of a cliff and the most visited spot in Polonnaruwa:

It is a good place for a monk sighting:

On the right end of the shrine is a massive reclining Buddha--more than 46 feet long--carved into and mimicking the shape of the rock:

To the left of the resting Buddha is a huge standing figure (almost 23 feet tall) that is either the monk Ananda or Buddha, depending on whom you ask:

In the center is a cave with a small (4 feet tall) seated Buddha inside. (There was an extra charge to go closer, which we elected not to pay as we had a pretty good view from behind the wire fence--except for this spot.)

To the left of that is a 15-feet-tall meditating Buddha surrounded by carvings of buildings. I love the flow of the rock across his arms and abdomen:

We made our way back to the parking lot to find Sanjay, passing this sign where "the" should be "with." It's an understandable error, but a humorous one:

MOVIE

At some point during the week, Sanjay recommended the movie Monkey Kingdom. He told us it was filmed in Sri Lanka. It wasn't until I watched it on the plane on our way home that I realized we had seen it in the theater in our hometown when it first came out. However, when I watched it on the plane, I realized I had been to many of the places shown in the movie. Most of it was filmed in Polonnaruwa!

It was also more meaningful the second time around because we had seen so many macaque monkeys, the stars of the show, while we were in Sri Lanka.