Lost in Translation #24--Sri Lanka

Thank God they're being protected.  My shoes are so vulnerable.

near Samadhi Buddha, Anuradhapura

This isn't so much mistranslated as it is hilarious.

Sigiriya

So, now, wait--is it hornets?  Or wasps?  Or is it both?

Sigiriya

Wont you to, please?

Kandy

The English on the sign below is questionable, no doubt.  But it's the Arabic that's a complete disaster--not only is it written backwards but the letters are not at all connected, rendering the entire thing illegible.  Sometimes this happens when you type something in Arabic and put it into certain programs like Microsoft Word.

It's difficult to explain just how ridiculous this is in English but it would be like if the sentence "The dog ran fast" were written like this--
.    t    s    a    f    n    a    r    g    o    d    e    h    T

near Kegalle

Sri Lanka--Best of the Rest

In chronological order, a collection of my twenty favorite pictures from Sri Lanka that didn't make it into my other posts:

1.) Offering at Jetavanarama Dagoba, Anuradhapura

Click to keep see more from around Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka--Animals

A collection of my favorite pictures of adorable animals in Sri Lanka:

Click to keep looking at cute fluffy creatures!  Dogs! Cats! Monkeys! Goats! Elephants! Weird chicken things!

Sri Lanka--Elephants

Sri Lankan wild elephants still roam throughout the country.  Though their numbers dwindled especially during colonization, Sri Lanka has done an admirable job in their attempts to preserve the habitat for this still-endangered animal.  Besides just being found in certain areas of the wild, however, elephants also play an important symbolic role in religious functions and are featured in many Buddhist and Hindu ceremonies; many large temples even have their own elephants.  

But what happens to an elephant after it's retired from working in a temple?  Or is pushed to the brink in the logging industry?  That's where a place like Millennium Elephant Foundation steps in.  

For a fee that goes to caring for the elephants and also supporting a mobile veterinary service, you can hang out with the elephants.  Below, I'm bathing one little guy.  I mean, one massive guy.

Here's an actual little'un roaming at the foundation.

Hello to you too, sir.

We also checked out Pinnewala, an even larger organization devoted to saving abandoned or even orphaned elephants.  Here's them heading back home after their daily bath.

That's, like, a lot of elephants.

Sri Lanka--Hill Country Temples

I'm just going to throw it out there: Kandy, Sri Lanka > Kandi, the bad singer



While everyone loves an early 00's pop-hop jam, Kandy has a little more substance to offer than Kandi.  Exhibit A through C: the three incredible temples we visited in the countryside surrounding Kandy.

Lankatilaka Temple

This Hindu-Buddhist temple was originally built in the 14th century and features some impressive inscriptions and paintings.  During our time wandering the grounds, groups of smiling Sri Lankan kids were running all around and coaxing us to play.  

Embekke Devale

Another 14th century temple, this one features incredible wooden carvings and ornate wooden pillars as well.

 

Arriving at Embekke is magical: you drive down from a hill into a valley of rice patties, only to emerge finally at the temple.

Gadaladeniya Temple

Luckily, after Mihintale and Sigiriya, I was used to standing on rocky outcroppings.  Gadaladeniya, precariously perching high above the surrounding rice patties and countryside, was also built in the 14th century and includes some impressive Buddhist and Hindu imagery.

Sri Lanka--Kandy

How can you not love a city named Kandy?

You just can't.  ...Unless you don't love candy.  And then you're just some kind of monster.

After spending time in an area proud of its status as one of Sri Lanka's great ancient capitals, we made our way south into Hill Country to an area proud for another noble reason -- that of being the final Sinhalese capital, successfully resisting European colonialism three centuries longer than the western coast. 

Kandy is Sri Lanka's second city, and its proud and long-standing cultural traditions and religious importance means the town is ever-bustling with Kandyans and pilgrims alike.  The city is rimmed by picturesque tea plantations and forests, and colorful houses dot its rolling hills. 

The centerpiece of Kandy, though, is Kandy Lake, a huge man-made lake in the center of the town with a shoreline just over two miles around.

We made our way first to the Temple of the Tooth, the sacred space where Buddha's tooth -- said to have been taken from the fire of his funeral pyre -- is held.  The beautiful structure is part of the royal palace.  And what palace would be complete without a badass moat?

It is believed that all able Sri Lankans must make the pilgrimage to the site once during their lifetime.  The interior, with ornate wood carvings, is packed with visitors and pilgrims.  ...Except in this one picture that I snapped when almost everyone was miraculously out of the shot.

We spent much of the afternoon just strolling along the perimeters of the lake.  I felt a little too British Colonialist-chic in my khaki pants, but what are ya gonna do?  At least I didn't carry a parasol.

Oh, and we ate a lot of delicious Sri Lankan food, too.  That drink that looks like sludge is wood apple juice.  What the hell is a wood apple?  Good question.  It looks a little like a molding coconut.  Fortunately, its taste is its main selling point.  Though I can't perfectly equate it to any other flavor I've experienced, I decided that if an apple, raisin, and brown sugar had a baby, it would be a wood apple.

At night, we checked out some Kandyan dance, as the area is known especially for its elaborate dance traditions.  I sure as hell couldn't do that.

Or that.

We also checked out the impressive Peradeniya Botanic Gardens.  Though the history of the site dates back as far as the 14th century, it was (of course) those crazy Brits who really established the gardens and its huge array of trees, flowers, and plant life.  The garden is famous for its world-class selection of orchids.

 Below, a Sri Lankan couple sitting together on what must be a Whomping Willow.  

 Look at that huge flock of birds!

Or maybe don't look.  That's actually thousands upon thousands of fruit bats.

Awesomeeeeee.

 I think that tree below needs one of those metal stakes you put in your garden to make sure your tomato plants don't fall over.

Kandy=candy.

Sri Lanka--Dambulla

Caves are awesome.

Caves carved into a rock towering hundreds of feet above the ground featuring over 150 ancient Buddhist statues are, um, even awesomer.

We arrived at Dambulla caves as the sun lowered in the sky.  The surrounding countryside, like everything else thus far in Sri Lanka, was exquisite. 

The caves, one of Sri Lanka's eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites (we visited half -- Anuradhapura, Sigiriya, Dambulla, and Kandy) sit high above the ground, carved out of the sheer rock face.  Below, the beautiful area just outside of the caves.

Their construction, quite simply, is unbelievable.  Built some two thousand years ago, the area contains over eighty caves, five of which are highlighted as the main caves of the Royal Rock Temple, pictured below.

Inside, intricate cave paintings and Buddhist statues abound, including this 15-meter long reclining Buddha.

Good luck finding shoes your size, man.

It was just outside here that I saw a monkey chase a woman who was bringing a flower for offering.  I wanted to help her out but I learned my lesson from my mango incident earlier in the day.  I'm pretty sure that 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' is happening in Sri Lanka and we just don't know it yet.

...And won't until it's too late.  DUN DUN DUNNNN.  

Sri Lanka--Sigiriya

Climbing Mihintale felt like a hell of an accomplishment.  

...Then it felt like child's play less than two hours later when we arrived at Sigiriya, the site of an ancient monastery and fortress that just so happens to sit atop a 1200-foot magma plug left over from a long-ago eroded volcano.

Damn.

The climb has you scurrying up rickety scaffolding overhanging nothing but the hard ground hundreds of feet below.  Luckily, the views are stunning and help take your mind off the fact that you've dangling precariously over the side of a chunk of hardened magma.

Also, during the ascent, there's plenty to encourage you that this harrowing journey upward has, in fact, been completed many times before and isn't necessarily going to lead to an untimely plunge.  Below, fresco paintings halfway up the rock date as far back as 1500 years.  So, like, at least somebody was able to bring a paintbrush and some Crayolas or something.

Also along the way are some terraced gardens that once housed buildings.  So people actually used to live here!  Successfully!  Without falling!

The final nail-biter is the incredible Lion's Paw.  Today, a modern (albeit still rickety) stairway and plank system leads to the summit.  But fifteen hundred years ago, the stairs were carved right out of the side of the mountain and led through an entire statue of a lion, ending through the mouth.  Though only the paws remain, the remnants of some of the stairs are still there, and let me tell you -- if you wanted to make it to the top a millennium ago, you better have had small feet because those "stairs" were little more than little chunks cut out of the rock.  Yikes.

Here's a close-up of one of the paws:

But like Mihintale, the summit makes the nerve-wracking climb worth it.  Below, the ancient foundations and large man-made pond:

And, of course, the breathtaking views:

Sri Lanka--Mihintale

Mihintale, a small village just to the east of Anuradhapura, is one of the most religiously important sites in all of Sri Lanka.  It's also one of the most idyllic -- as we drove in, a local primary school was conducting a footrace on the main street of the town leading towards its ancient sites.  Barefoot kids ran through the poorly-paved streets -- numbers pinned haphazardly on their back -- their friends giggling and cheering them on.

As far as visiting the religious sites goes, I'll say this -- those eight and nine year-old kids running in the footrace were wayyyy more fit to visit the sites than I was.  Only after climbing hundreds of stairs is it possible to see these magnificent wonders.  ...And then hundreds more are necessary to see the rest.  The picture below was taken after already walking up the majority of the steps towards what was only the first of several higher landings.

But upon arrival, it's all worth it.  Below, Kantaka Chetiya, a stupa over two millennia old.  Just next to it is the oldest inscription in all of Sri Lanka.

The natural surrounding of hilly Mihintale are just as breathtaking as the ancient sites.  It's difficult to tell from the picture above but Kantaka Chetiya sits on an outcropping high above everything surrounding it.  Check it out:

But Kantaka Chetiya is not the highest point in Mihintale.  There would be many more stone stairways to go to reach some of the other stupa.

The stairs weren't the only challenge -- along the way, a monkey snatched a mango right out of my hands.  It was probably pretty stupid for me to be carrying a brightly-colored fruit in my hands as I was walking past trees with monkeys swinging from branch to branch, but I was hungry, yo.  ...And I didn't even egg the monkey on, which is totally something I would do.

We also had to stop a bunch to pet a lot of adorable stray dogs.  Obviously, it was all quite traumatic (I stopped to pet cute fluffy animals so long that my skin could have gotten mildly sunburned!) but we finally made it over to Ambasthale Dagoba, the spot where the king of Sri Lanka was supposedly converted to Buddhism in the second century BC, thereby spreading it throughout the country.

With sweeping views of Mihintale and the surrounding countryside, we stayed atop the landing of Ambasthale Dagoba as long as our pale skin --and the packs of mischievous monkeys -- would let us.  

Fortunately, that was long enough to take in beautiful sites like this.