In Sri Lanka, there is nothing called 'Night Life' (may be it exists in Colombo, but the areas that we toured - there was none). After Lion rock exploration in Sigiriya and that ummilicious lunch, it was almost evening and we did absolutely nothing but having dinner and sleeping.
Day 02: Polonnaruva - Medieval Capital City
2nd day early morning we started for Polonnaruva - Medieval capital city.
The glory of Anuradhapura was destroyed by the south Indian invaders compelling the Sinhala monarchs to establish the capital in a different location Pulatthinagara - modern Polonnaruva. The architectural features, sculptures, paintings and writings on stones have its own identity. Polannaruva type influenced not only by Buddhism but also by Hinduism as well. The UNESCO declared Polannaruva a World Heritage SIte in 1982.
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| Site map of World Heritage City of Pollanaruva |
At the entrance, there are ruins of Hatadage, details of Hatadage is shown in the below image:
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| Description of Hatadage |
In the left hand side of Hatadage, there is Vatadage which is in much better condition till date.
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| Vatadage from outside |
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| Description of Vatadage |
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| Vatadage from outside |
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| Inside of Vatadage |
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| Stone sculpture at Vatadage |
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| One of the four Buddha statues of Vatadage |
Where many things of Vatadage is still recognizable, sadly in Hatadage there is only ruins. These old temples are evidence of Buddhism influence.
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| A temple inside Ancient city of Polannaruva |
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| A temple inside Ancient city of Polannaruva |
There are two Siva temples inside the city, which show the influence of Hinduism. Here I tried to capture only few major things, apart from these there are many items lying there with their own rich history.
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| Royal palace inside Ancient city of Polannaruva |
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| A Stupa inside Ancient city of Polannaruva |
There is a rock temple of the Buddha in the Ancient city of Polannaruva called Gal Vihara.
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| Buddha in sitting position in Gal Vihara |
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| Buddha in sitting position in Gal Vihara |
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| Buddha in standing position in Gal Vihara |
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| Buddha in sleeping position in Gal Vihara |
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| The Code of Disciplinary, Gal Vihara |
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| Gal Vihara - Rock temple of the Buddha |
Here ends our tour of Polannaruva. After that we had our much awaited lunch in a good restaurant, ummm - awesome food. I'm in love with Sri Lankan food.
Day 02: Dambulla
From Polannaruva we went to Dambulla to visit the Dambulla Cave temple and Dambulla Golden temple, both are famous Buddha temple and major tourist attraction in Dambulla. Dambulla cave temple is a World Heritage site, declared by UNESCO in 1991.
It is the largest and best preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. The rock towers 160 m over the surrounding plains.There are more than 80 documented caves in the surrounding. Major attractions are spread over 5 caves, which contain statues and paintings. This paintings and statues are related to Lord Buddha and his life. There are a total of 153 Buddha statues, 3 statues of Sri Lankan kings and 4 statues of god and goddess. The latter 4 include two statues of Hindu gods, Vishnu and Ganesh. The murals cover an area of 2,100 m². Depictions in the walls of the caves include Buddha's temptation by demon Mara and Buddha's first sermon.
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| Lord Buddha inside Dambulla cave temple |
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| Lord Buddha inside Dambulla cave temple |
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| Buddha statues inside Dambulla cave temple |
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| Lord Buddha inside Dambulla cave temple |
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| Lord Buddha inside Dambulla cave temple |
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| The Golden temple of Dambulla |
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| Golden Buddha statue of Golden temple, from the Cave temple |
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| Golden Buddha, Dambulla Golden temple |
Dambulla Cave temple and Dambulla Golden temple visit concluded our 2nd day.
See high resolution images of my Sri lanka trip here in
flickr.
See other parts of my Sri Lanka trip:
Please feel free to comment. All comments (criticisms & appraisals) are welcome. Please do not reproduce the images for commercial purposes without prior permission.
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