Thank-You Sri Lanka

Now that I have a moment to sit down (yes, 4 o’clock on Saturday is the first time I’ve sat down.) I figure I should let you all know about my trip before I forget it! (As much as I love to tell you guys what’s going on, I use this blog to remind myself of what I did as first and foremost…).

Sri Lanka was.. Wonderful. As mentioned, we couldn’t believe how clean it was. After being in India for a while, I didn’t realize how accustomed I was to the piles of garbage, the bad smells, the beggers… everything. In Sri Lanka, you kind of realize what a parallel universe that you’re in. I still can’t stop marvelling over how clean it was.

We used Colombo as our home base, travelling out from there every couple of days. Colombo is the capital city, with all the embassies and government situated there. They really didn’t get any of the tsunami, just a little bit of flooding, the majority of damage was done to a separate coast. Our hotel was just a 5 minute walk from the ocean, you could smell the surf and hear the breakers as you got within a few blocks. It was nice to be by the water again.

Colombo is fairly modern, they have great (so great) shopping. Which usually isn’t my number one cultural activity to do when visiting a new country.. But I think shopping may actually BE a cultural activity in Sri Lanka. Because there were a lot of people shopping.. a lot of the time. We spent 3 of our 5 days in Colombo. It was a vacation after all.

The first trip into the interior that we took was to Kandy, getting higher into the mountains/foothills. We first went to an elephant orphanage at Pinnewalla, which the pictures below are of. It was a pretty amazing facility. It was nice to see a culture that reveres at takes care of their animals. Here in India you seem to get the first, and not the latter. The orphanage is pretty modern, they have a large number of elephants in a fairly huge park that are protected from poachers etc. There was one elephant that was 65, blind in both eyes from being shot at by poachers.. and about the size of a small house. Another was missing half of one of his front legs from stepping on a landmine. It was pretty amazing to see an organization that would take care of them like that. The others were a hodgepodge of mothers and babies and other family members.

They really are huge animals, and you can see that if they really wanted to hurt you – they could. But they manage to be so gentle with their babies, with each other, and with you when you’re near them – it really is beautiful. I walked towards one to feed him bananas, and as I got closer, he wrapped his trunk around the back of my knees to pull me close, until my head was resting against his. He was pressing his enormous head, his completely ancient head against mine as he munched bananas out of my hand. I’d have to say it was a pretty spiritual experience.

After the elephant orphanage we drove to a tea plantation – this incredibly old (100+ years) building with incredibly old tea fields (300+ years!!). It was amazing. I’m not sure what I expected, but when I hopped out of the car by the tea factory, all I could smell was..tea. It was like stepping into a giant sepia coloured photo, that literally clouded your vision with the smell of tea. It was phenomenal.

We got a tour through the factory, where they show the drying and fermenting and mashing of the leaves, and got a lesson in good tea. There are about 6 different grades of tea.. and the really funny thing.. Tea bags are the absolute worst. When they tear the leaves for loose leaf tea, the dust and crap that falls through to the bottom of the machine is the stuff they scoop up and put in your tea bags. Tell that to the next English person who says they know tea. Because unless it’s loose leaf – there are probably some pebbles and dirt in those tea bags.

We walked up to the top of the tea factory, and with the smells of the tea being slowly dried and fermented, we had an amazing cup of tea. Served in old, thin, worn china, with just a little sugar - it was the best cup of tea I’ve ever had in my life. So we proceeded to buy a couple pounds (!!) of it, and you’re all welcome to a cup when I get home. Needless to say - India has nothing on Sri Lankan tea. You never hear anything about it, you always hear stories of Indian tea. But with a straight face I can tell you - Sri Lankan tea takes the cake. And the tea biscuit.

From there we went to the "Temple of the Tooth" in the centre of the town of Kandy. A Buddhist temple built to house.. You’ve got it.. Buddha’s tooth. Apparently, while being cremated (as all the painting depict, I’m not making this up) somebody ran in and grabbed one of Buddha’s teeth off of the funeral pyre. *smile* So this temple purportedly houses the tooth. You’re not allowed to see it, but it’s kept in the centre of the temple.

There was a suicide bombing at this particular temple in 1998, and if it gives any idea of the devastation, it was just re-opening this year. 4 Tamil Tigers (a Sri Lankan terrorist group) walked in with something like 400kgs of explosives strapped to themselves and blew themselves up. From what I’ve heard, read, and been told first hand, they’re incredible terrorists. (If you can use those words in conjunction.) Stories too gruesome to be told here - if that’s any indication.

Needless to say, the restoration was incredible, and extensive. Luckily, most of the damage was done to the front entrance - the actual temple is centred in the middle of the building, and is built of wood. If they had gotten any farther than they did, the devastation would have been complete and irreparable. The temple was interesting, even though our guide appeared to put an interestingly Catholic spin on the Buddhist philosophy. ("Live a bad life, straight to hell. Well, then you come back as a dog. But straight to hell." ) It was interesting to see - but not necessarily a "must see".

Our next trip out of Colombo was taken a few days later, when we went up to Sigiriya Rock (Lion’s Rock) and then to Dambulla.

Sigiriya Rock is... amazing. It’s this gigantic rock that rises out of the jungle, shooting straight up like it was plonked down as a table for the gods. It has a palace on the top, constructed for a prince in hiding. The legend goes that this Prince (not a full prince - by the King and a...ahem..concubine..) was upset that he would never inherit the throne, that it would go to the full blooded prince. So he killed his father, entombing him in the walls of a castle being built. Fearing retribution, he fled to Sigiriya Rock, building a palace at the top. When his brother came looking for revenge 18 years later (I guess they weren’t as hot headed back then...) he climbed down to lead his troops into battle on an elephant. Attempting to out manoeuver his brother, he led his elephant accidentally into a bog, where he became stuck. His troops deserted him, and he killed himself. Moral of the story? You know who your true friends are when your elephant gets stuck in the mud.

So this rock, which served as a palace and refuge in the 5th century, is now a world heritage site. You can take the 377 metre winding climb up to the top, taking in some truly amazing sites. Along the way there are these fantastic frescoes, painted right onto the side of the rock - from the 5th century! All of the paintings are of very busty, very topless women. The colours are absolutely stunning, it’s hard to believe that they were painted in the 5th century, and have been exposed to the elements for 90% of their existence. There were originally 500 paintings, and only 22 survive after a religious vandal destroyed the rest. What so many years of wind, rain and sun could not destroy, one lunatic did.

After the paintings, there is a "mirror wall" - which is really amazing. It’s a wall, buffed shiny, that 5th century visitors to the castle would leave their impressions of the paintings and the scenery etc. It’s incredibly important, of course, because it shows the evolution of the Sinhalese script and language. It’s pretty much a 5th century guest book. It’s amazing. Of course, people often fail to see the value in such historical monuments - therefore there are a lot of "Danta loves Andupura" scratched in there. But ever since it became a UNESCO sight, there is a 50,000 rupee fine and 6 months in jail for even THINKING about touching it.

After the long and somewhat frightening trek up between the lion’s paws (at some points it appears as though the stairs were put in in the 5th century.. When in reality, they used a series of ropes and sometimes what appears to just be a series of treacherous ladder-like foot holds...-wouldn’t you hate to be out of milk??) we reached the top. It really is worth the climb, to imagine the ruins at the top at the palace they once must have been. The view is truly incredible, to look out over the jungle and the start of the small mountain range and the water gardens below. It’s amazing. You can stand where they think the kings throne once sat and imagine what he saw all those hundreds of years ago.

Post climb, we went into Dambulla to see the Caves. (Literally, deserve a capital. I have no idea what else to call them.) There are 5 caves up in the mountain, with these amazing painted ceilings and hundreds of Buddas within. Statues, lounging Buddas.. It was awesome. I can’t imagine what an archeologist would think when he found such a treasure. Definitely along the lines of "jackpot."

It was really a neat place to see. Unfortunately, you can see the rate of deterioration is really high, despite the fact you can’t even take flash photography of the statues. (That, and it’s kind of spiritually uncouth) The Definitely need to start some form of restoration and preservation - or it might not be around for much longer. (Okay, I just looked up how old they are.. I guess they’re holding up pretty good for being created around the 1st Century BC. )

After that - we headed home. To Colombo, and then the next day back to Delhi. It was a really phenomenal trip - and Definitely opened my eyes to a lot of things. For instance.. The most striking difference was the cleanliness. Both Sri Lanka and India are developing countries, but statistically, Sri Lanka is a lot poorer than India. Even with decades of civil war Sri Lankans are generally better educated, (92% literacy compared to India’s staggering 64%). The cities are better organized, the people are kinder, there are fewer beggars and visible street people. The waterways are clean - (so clean in fact we regularly saw people swimming and playing!) The population is high (19 million), but the relative size of Sri Lanka is fairly small comparatively. Now - here comes the stickler - Sri Lanka is 75 Buddhist.. And India is 80% Hindu.

Could it be that religion is at the crux of the incredible divergence of these two countries? Hindus believe that once something leaves your hand and touches the ground - it’s garbage, and for somebody of a lower caste to take care of. That would definitely answer the pollution quandary. Buddhists believe in the understanding, if not outright acceptance, of everyone - leading to a far lower incidence of secular violence. To take care of those less fortunate - less beggars, less street people. Hmm.

Hindu’s believe that everything in your life has been predestined for a long time. That your lot in life is not yours to change, but to accept, to be a good person and to hope for, essentially, a better life next time. And that if you have a bad life now, it’s because you’re doing penance for a previous life. There is no chance for advancement, for living outside of your predestination. It is a culture that does not say "how can I make life better, easier for my children?" But one that says "What life they have is the one that is predestined, and it is not my place to help them out of poverty, disease and illiteracy."

Buddhists, on the other hand, believe that everything is, and always will be, within your grasp. That every choice you make is your choice alone, and it is your duty to strive for a good life, no matter the circumstances. They value education and acceptance and cleanliness. Of course, the wheel of life is prevalent in the Buddhist religion, that you will be reincarnated as something less if you do not live a good life - but that even if reincarnated as a dog, you must strive to do the best you can in that life as well - to excel and to be wise and learned and kind.
It’s true that this may seem incredibly similar in some respects - but to be honest.. The difference is staggering.

Perhaps the greatest difference we saw was in the ritual of prayer. Hindu’s pray for what they do not have, for the grievances that have befallen them, not that they got a new car, a new home, but that they did not get a bigger home, a better car. That they are sick, and why, oh why, are they sick. Buddhists, on the other hand, seem to pray to give thanks. Thanks for a good job that they got, the nice home, the new baby. They pray to say thank you, instead of to ask. It was refreshing - and appealing.

So then, thank you Sri Lanka. It was an amazing trip, and I can’t wait to see you again.