3/6: Kandy's Mountain Temples

After just touring the delightful Peradeniya Botanic Gardens in Kandy, we hired Ranjan, a tuk tuk driver, to take us into the hills surrounding the city to tour some of the devales or shrines dedicated to deities. Ranjan said the rate for the Three Temples Loop would be LKR3,000, about $15, for the extensive drive and that would include returning us to downtown Kandy. That seemed very reasonable to us since there was no public transportation available to possibly visit each devale and temple. 

Colorful murals decorated many walls along the road.

Embekka Devale, dedicated to the worship of the Hindu deity Mahasen, was constructed in the 14th century although it was obvious that many changes had taken place since then.

Before entering the beautiful temple, we took the time to admire the carved wooden pillars that depicted swans, eagles, wrestling men, and dancing women.

Even the door handle was elaborately detailed.

We'd arrived shortly before a large group of elementary school students who tried to practice their limited English peppering us with questions as we left the drummers' hall!

In the village across from the temple, this man had carved some beautiful pieces that were very similar to what we'd just seen on the pillars. If they hadn't been so heavy, we would have bought one in a minute. But Steven and I were still figuring that we had another almost four months to go on our trip to Asia and the Middle East and sure didn't want to lug such a heavy souvenir for all that time. Little did we know of course, that we'd be heading home in just ten days from then because of the coronavirus! We instead selected the much lighter carving of the sun he'd done after learning it was intended as an entrance sign. It looks perfect now up in our hallway and reminds us of our visit to Embekka.

As we drove next to Lankatilake Temple, Ranjan pointed out the fields where rice and lots of herbs were grown. He added that cinnamon plants were planted at higher elevations.

This was but one of many roadside shrines we saw that day in the hills above Kandy.

The 14th century temple, located on a rocky bluff, was considered the most impressive in the region. We had to leave our shoes at the entrance before walking through the gate.

We were very surprised when we read that the temple was divided into two halves: one half was Buddhist and the other was Hindu! 

What we later learned from Ranjan as we couldn't understand what was what, was this seemingly minor entryway only was actually Hindu but the rest of the temple was Buddhist. The Image House was the predominant structure in any Buddhist place of worship.

Once we walked through the curtain at the prompting of the guide or perhaps the caretaker, he showed us the baked clay walls and roof that were 1300 years old. 

Never did we expect such a stunning temple inside beyond the second curtain! As we walked around with two other tourists who were from France as so many were we'd already noticed in Sri Lanka, we saw lots of highly decorated Buddhist statues.

The caretaker pulled the curtain aside to reveal another statue.

Stone elephant figures adorned the friezes all around the temple below the statues.

The throne was carried around the town at the annual festival in September. 

After leaving the lush interior of the Image House, we spent quite a bit of time wandering outside to gaze at the temple literally located on the rock. Decorated with mostly sculptured elephants, it originally had four stories but the masonry structure collapsed so only the ground floor remained. 

Another shrine on the temple grounds:

Ranjan kindly showed us the main gateway carved out of the rock on the eastern side of the temple by which many pilgrims made their way up to the temple. Remember, everything was constructed atop this ONE rock - just amazing!

Ranjan next showed us one of the largest inscriptions in Sri Lanka that we had also missed and was also carved into the rock. Carved in medieval Sinhala and Tamil languages in the 14th century, it provided information about the founder and chief architect. It also stated that paddy lands, cattle, and buffaloes were donated for the temple's maintenance. The inscription also mentioned those who opposed the donations would be born in hell and as dogs, crows, and pretas, whatever the latter were!

Thank goodness Ranjan was willing to show us around after we'd given it our best shot and were totally confused as to what represented the Hindu and Buddhist portions of the temple plus pointing out us all that we'd missed! I really appreciated that, at no point, was there any pressure in terms of rushing to see the next sight unlike drivers we've hired in other countries.

Our next destination was Gadaladenya Temple, another 20 minutes away, and situated on a magnificent rock by the side of the road. The Buddhist temple with the Hindu annex also dated from the 14th century and was built by King Buwanekabahu, the fourth ruler of the Gampola Kingdom. The first thing we saw was the main pagoda which had four small pagodas of the Buddha around it with eight statues of elephants.

As we walked into each pagoda entrance we saw vividly painted frescoes and Buddhas.

Across from the pagoda was this fellow who sold paintings of the temple and other religious sites we'd be visiting in the next few days as well as providing tourist information and acting as the ticket taker!

The temple was also built atop a massive rock just like the one at Lankatilake. We were so fortunate that it wasn't uncomfortably hot as we had to walk around shoeless out of respect.

In front of the temple was a moonstone and, on either side, were mythical animals called Gajasinghe with the head of an elephant and the body of a lion. At the doorway were two famous pillars with even more carvings. It was protected by scaffolding and a tin roof to prevent the temple from further erosion from rain.  

The temple's Image House was decorated with very beautiful stone carvings of famous Kandyan dancers whose designs were taken from an Indian architect named Pallawa. 

A magnificent gilded seated Buddha was at the center of the temple.

I wondered about the origin and age of the elephant tusks and what they represented.

Several small pools surrounded the temple and pagoda which contributed to the peacefulness and serenity of the site.

In the late afternoon, we headed back to the city of Kandy located only about 15 kms away but, with rush hour traffic, it took longer than the distance would indicate. Ranjan chose to go down the wrong side of the road to get there faster as did most other tuk tuk drivers. I guess they figured the 'rules of the road' only applied to car drivers! I asked Ranjan what was the speed limit for tuk tuk drivers and he said 45-50 kph but it sure seemed like he went a lot faster than that on the mountain roads. Thank goodness Ranjan was the only tuk tuk driver we had in Sri Lanka who had a boom box in his vehicle. Steven and I could have done without the 'pleasure' of listening to reggae music for several hours as we drove through the countryside and back to Kandy!

Gail and Denis: You'll no doubt also notice if you are also lucky enough to visit Sri Lanka next year the absence of traffic lights in the country. Instead, there were traffic cops at major intersections to direct cars and willing tuk tuk drivers.

Another seated Buddha shrine in Kandy:

Next post: The Temple of the Tooth that night, the main reason most people visit Kandy!

I am also trying to finish up writing posts from our trip last fall to Ireland and the United Kingdom. Here's a link to my latest post about what we thought of surprisingly glorious Glasgow, Scotland:

https://bergersadventures7.blogspot.com/2020/04/928-discovering-glorious-glasgow.html

Posted on April 23rd, 2020, from springtime in Denver. Steven and I hope you stay well, hopeful, and connected during these troubling times.