Polonnaruwa - Ancient capitol city ruins

As I've mentioned earlier, Sri Lanka is a history of seven kingdoms, often moving around the island after outside invaders (generally from India) forced one capitol after another into decline.  Kandy, the first city we visited was capitol of the last free kingdom, and that area maintains a pride in this fact.  The city of Polunnaruwa, further to the North East was the second.  It is a UNESCO site and boasts a beautiful, well preserved set of ruins reclaimed from the jungle after centuries of neglect. One of the most impressive, and what drew me to this site, is a shrine of several huge Buddha sculptures carved from a solid cliff face.  If you want more background - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonnaruwa

The ruins are scattered over a wide area, and a very full day of touring would be required to see all of it.  However, in typical form for this trip, we had five hours.  So we got the Highlight Reel.  :)   There are remains of palaces, a huge Buddhist monastary that once housed thousands of devotees, several enormous stupas (buddhist shrines), and temples to Buddha, Shiva, and other Indian dieties.  This reflects not only the kingdom's tradition of marrying Southern Indian princesses, to maintain ties to rival states, but also the general intertwining of Buddhist and Hindu practices.  There are also two different temples thought to have housed the Tooth of Buddha - built by successive kings trying to outdo each other - Parakramabahu and NissanKamalla.   And that one-up-manship is largely what drove Polunnaruwa into decline - overspending on lavish public buildings and temples.  This weakened the state and made them vulnerable to invasion. Thus this beautiful city was only occupied from 1070 to around 1284.

Remains of the palace with the fortification walls.  It was originally 7 stories, first two stone, then wood.

Land monitor, as opposed to water monitor, which they also have here.  This thing is like 4 feet long. 

One of many royal baths, for the ladies, of course...

Lots of shrines here with Buddha sculptures, though the best statuary has been removed and put in the (excellent) on site museum.  Or, I note, the Hindu and other dieties have been moved, but I believe they left most of the Buddhas in place, my guess for religious reasons.

 

This is a Sandakada pahana, also known as Moon-stone, which is a unique feature of the Sinhalese architecture of ancient Sri Lanka.  It is an elaborately carved semi-circular stone slab, usually placed at the bottom of staircases and entrances.  This is supposedly the best example at the site, and it is lovely though my photo doesn't do it justice.  It had been raining heavily the previous weeks to part of it is full of mud.

The Vatadage, believed to be one of two temples built to hold the Tooth Relic. Four Buddha statues are seated around it, each facing the cardinal directions and one of the entrances

Guard stones - there are two at each entrance, I think showing Hindu dieties/warriors that help to protect the Buddha

An interesting shrine, as it is not typical Sri Lankan architecture.  The conjecture is that it was built in a Buddhist style from another nation, maybe Thailand (honestly can't remember now), as a sign of solidarity and friendship.

This is absolutely huge, the trees don't give it much scale, but I'd bet this is over 100 feet tall. Its is a stupa, or buddhist shrine.  After 700 years hiding in the jungle, the British found it still largely intact.  The top pillar had just crumbled down into the center as the top brick gave way, and they restored it. You cannot go inside, it is too sacred, I think only monks can go in there. 

The green moss on this illustrates the difficulty of maintaining a site like this.  We asked if they ever scrub it off, and the guide laughed and said they'd be scrubbing forever, as it would grow back in a matter of days.  Very pretty stuff, it makes things emerald green, but I don't know how destructive it is to the structures. 

Another stupa, with some of its original white coating...

This is actually a water transportation system for one of the pools.  Polunnawura, and many of the old cities, have very complex water movement systems.  The lake, both in Kandy and here, is man made centuries ago as a reservoir.  Elaborate clay water pipes run underground and delivered water for various reasons all over the complex.  Many are still visible and working, you can see and hear them throughout the property. 

A temple of Buddha, where the Buddha is all made of brick.  They have photos of the entire sculpture, but his head eroded away within recent memory.  I'm not sure if restoration on Buddha is acceptable or not, as they have not appeared to make repairs.

Buddha - sadly - no head

This illustrates an interesting cultural point you will notice in the next post of the giant Buddha sculptures.  It is NOT acceptable to take photos with your back to the Buddha, or during a temple visit to ever turn your back to the Buddha.  So this shrine was designed where you come in one side, go to the front, perhaps go behind the Buddha to a prayer nook, and then around the other side and out without ever turning your back.   So these stairs are narrow but very wide, so you can actually go up and down them with your body turned so your back never faces the statue.   Clever stuff.

Big surprise, the Tree Hugger found a fabulous atmospheric creeping fig to capture the wildness of the ancient site.  I think you're supposed to see trees and roots doing Nature's dirty work when you're out in the jungle on an archeology trek.  Just seems appropriate... :)