Sigiriya and Dambulla Cave Temple

On Sunday after breakfast in the hotel, we made our way to Sigiriya, which used to have a palace on top and was afterwards used by monks as a monastery. This is the rock itself.

This picture is in the boulder garden, where the monks used to meditate under the rocks. The cut along the boulder is a “drip line” and kept rain from running down the rocks and into where the monks were meditating.

There is also a wall of paintings (even they call them frescos) also that could be seen from the gardens below. It is a “wet painting” meaning the paint was put into a wet surface, rather than on a dry one, which meant you couldn’t paint over it or wipe the paint away if any mistakes were made. In this picture, you can sort of see the outline of a third hand that couldn’t be un-painted on the chest.

This is the “Lion’s Paw” and the “Mirror Wall”. The wall was polished and would reflect the sun back out into enemies eyes or, on the inside, would show reflections of the people walking along it.

And finally, a view from the top!


On the way to the next stop, we visited a wood shop, gem shop and batik shop where they gave demonstrations of how they made their crafts and then took you through stores. The demonstrations were interesting and I bought a couple of souvenirs.

After that we went to the Dambulla Cave Temple. There was an interesting balance of people there to pray or sight see or both. It was amazing to me that the color was still there after over a thousand years. You had to take your shoes off to go into the temple, and luckily I had read about it before going as the stones are very hot, so tourists were recommended to either bring or wear socks.

 

Then it was time for lunch, buffet style. This is rice, cabbage, a spicy vegetable and some chicken. It was very delicious and fresh fruit for dessert. When we arrived there, a family of about 10 Chinese people were just finishing their meal and the daughter of two of them was playing with the son of the family who ran the small restaurant. It was very cute. And at the end the husband of the restaurant told me his wife had made all of the food and that her hair was very long. She undid the bun and it reached the floor! She said she had been growing it for 12 years and that it didn’t bother her even in the heat because she always keeps it tied up. She also was able to tie it up by making a large bun and looping the hair back over itself so she never needed to worry about having something to put her hair up with.



The long trek was finally over, and we started on the long car journey back home. I think it was a hugely successful weekend.