Mahiyangana Raja Maha Vihara

The stupa at Mahiyangana. These guys are stringing lights on the stupa for some upcoming celebration. How would you like their job, climbing up those bamboo ladders with rungs tied on with some kind of twine?

A grand Bodhi tree in the Mahiyangana grounds. A truly peaceful spot in the shade of this tree.

Mahiyangana also has a bit of that carnival atmosphere made for tourists. This temple elephant was chained up so snug that he could hardly move, but while I was there it was time to give him a break and his handler released him and walked him to a drink and bath and then off elsewhere. In this shot, the elephant had just walked right up and stood face-to-face with me, sniffed at me a bit, and then turned and walked off. It doesn't show here, but he is actually very large: his eyes are about the level of the top of my head. Though very peaceful, facing something that big at just five feet away left me quite awed.

Kudimbigala Forest Hermitage

In the center off in the distance you see two large rocks; atop the right one a small pimple is the main stupa of Kudimbigala Forest Hermitage.

The Hermitage is mostly a collection of caves spread out through the hills and forest with a central area where some ruins are said to date from a pre-B.C. century.  Since many ruins in Sri Lanka date from the 3rd - 1st century B.C., it seems fairly reasonable.

There were previously around 300 monks living in the forest, but during the war many people moved out of this area as the LTTE was killing civilians and monks.  With the lack of local support - conventional monasteries depend on a local lay population donating basic needs like food, robes and medicine - all the monks left except for this one monk.  He is 87 years old and although he is barefoot and I'm wearing sandals, when he starts guiding me through the forest, I need to step lively or get left behind. He does have one lay person with him who helps tend some of his needs, like cooking the food and arranging things with lay people. They say with the war over, people may now return to the area and with lay people in the area to support the hermitage, perhaps monks will return.

The view from the stupa at the top of the hill is particularly nice, showing the surrounding landscape and the eastern shore of Sri Lanka in the distance. The view from the hermitage back to that hill shows the stupa and, to the right, a natural reclining Buddha with his head on the left. The lay person is particularly happy about this natural statue.

Buddhangala Rajamaha Viharaya

Buddhangala Hermitage is a slightly remote monastery in eastern Sri Lanka. I met an interesting monk there, a retired Sri Lankan Army Major General. After he lost his wife, raised two daughters alone and finished his Army career, he returned to a calling from earlier in life. Swapping his Army uniform for monk's robes and contributing his own money to Buddhangala, building the reclining Buddha statue and improving the monastery buildings, Ven. Buddhangala Ananda Thera moved in.

The modern reclining Buddha statue.

The old stupa.

I was fortunate to spend some time with Ananda Thera. You can still see the confidence of a General, but it is wrapped in a distinct calm. He asked me why I came to Sri Lanka, helped me see some truth around that, and then gave me a very nice Dhamma lesson before I left. Such a treat.

View from the stupa.

Overheard from backpackers at a nearby table...

"You'd be surprised; we fill our day with nothing."

The road ahead

For those who are wondering....

I am currently in Kandy and plan to leave tomorrow or the next day for a tour of Buddhist historical sites in the north central area of Sri Lanka. This area, known as the Cultural Triangle, is generally described by a triangle formed by Kandy, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. The places I have visited or plan to visit are all described at this excellent site, Sacred Island - A Buddhist Pilgrim's Guide to Sri Lanka, which is an online version of the book I brought with me as a guide to my travels in Sri Lanka. Places in that list I have already visited are Buduruvagala, Kirivehara, Maligavila, Sithalpavuva, the Temple of the Tooth, Tissamaharama and Weligama. In addition to the triangle cities, I particularly hope to visit Arankale, Avukana, Dambulla, Sigiriya, and Yapahuwa.

For this stage, since I will be traveling to many locations for relatively short visits at most of them, I will hire a car and driver\guide. One can use trains, buses, taxis and three-wheelers (auto rickshaw or tuk-tuk) and a chunk of walking, but the hired car is not terribly expensive and it is very nice to have a guide and to be able to take whatever side-trips and make whatever stops you feel like. For example, I have been assured that beaches in the Trincomalee area are the most beautiful in Sri Lanka (quite a claim, that). I will also pop in on a friend in Badulla for a small gathering.

I expect to end up back in Kandy in a couple weeks. I will probably stay at least a couple of days at the Mahavihara Maha Prirvena and may drop into the Nilambe meditation center for a while. From Kandy there is a certain train that has an observation car that reportedly provides a particularly beautiful view Sri Lankan mountains and countryside from Kandy to Colombo. Then I will spend a couple days in the greater Colombo area before leaving Sri Lanka.

I had planed to travel next to Thailand and visit a forest monastery, perhaps taking a bit of a meditation retreat; but, Thailand is in a bit of turmoil right now with their political unrest. I'm confident the places I am interested in are safe, but I'm not sure I need to go to a place where the air is so filled with anger and ill-will. It occurred to me that by the time I leave Sri Lanka I will have been two months gone from India so I have the option now of returning there. Plus I have an outstanding invitation to visit a monastery in Singapore. Ah, so many options. Well, let's take the fork in the road when we reach it; meanwhile, I will focus on the path beneath my feet.