Polonnaruwa

Temple restoration jigsaw puzzle. Hmmm, is it cheating if you number the parts?

The white flowers are used in offerings and are often planted around stupas and temples.

Gal Vihara

Dimbulagala Raja Maha Vihara

Looking down from the top of Dimbulagala. Do all temples have to be on top of a mountain with a laborious climb? Why, yes, I guess they do! BTW, the forest shot is the path to the top of the hill. Can't see the path? Well, it wasn't much more obvious in person.

Other southern temples

Various temples from the Sri Lankan south, or, as they call it, the Deep South. Some of these are hundreds of years old, some fairly new.  They don't have the history or deep significance of the ancient sites, but are still interesting in one way or another.

A feature of Sri Lankan Buddhism is an emphasis on a hell realm where those who have failed to live a virtuous life suffer the consequences. The representation reminds me of some western religions. This large temple starts with a diorama depicting suffering in hell and has a long hallway with picture pairs: the upper picture depicts an offense and the lower picture the consequences.

Sometimes modern can be real cheesey. This setting was heavily commercialized.

While the ancient temples are very traditional and tend to represent a more traditional Buddhism, temples of recent centuries include a lot of Buddhist mythology unique to Sri Lanka and often make heavy use of dioramas and paintings to depict them. They also like a combination where a background painting has figures that pop out of painting into a statue.

Sithalpahuwa

Approaching Sithalpahuwa we pass through an Army checkpoint. A remnant from the war, these checkpoints and outposts are still very common and active. They must have been a bit uncomfortable posts during the war as there is a definite sense of isolation in the wild.

The lower stupa and, I think, the older of two stupas at Sithalpahuwa. This was built it the 1st century CE. Seen from the top of the higher stupa.

The "newer" stupa built 3rd century CE. Oh, boy, another hill to climb!

Buduruwegala

In the second photo are three generations sitting before the statues. I can just hear the voice of the grandfather and see from their gestures and the children looking from grandfather to the images and tell he is telling about these carvings. The main carving before them is Avalokitesvara with his hands in the gesture or argument or debate of the Dhamma. Perhaps the grandfather is not only telling the story of the carvings, but instructing his grandchildren and there are many generations from Avalokitesvara to these young Sri Lankans.