Sri Lanka simply stunning

Sri Lanka’s famed cultural triangle serves up a bevy of World Heritage ancient treasures in the heart of the island, writes Mike Yardley. 

Sri Lanka has loomed large on my bucket-list for quite some time. I’ve just ventured to the teardrop-shaped island nation — nicknamed the Pearl of the Indian Ocean — for the first time, and it smashed my expectations. Over the course of a week, I savoured Sri Lanka’s colourful cities, vibrant cuisine, ravishing landscapes, astonishing World Heritage treasures and glorious wildlife. It was the latter that left me goggle-eyed in wonder.

After sampling the city buzz of Colombo, we drove east for several hours to Dambulla, home to the spectacular Dambulla Rock Temple. Sri Lanka has a long history of the presence and practice of Buddhism, and this sprawling cave complex is quite the treasure-chest. The Dambulla temple is not only one of the oldest sites for Buddhist monasticism, but it has served as a pilgrimage site for 22 centuries. The massive cave temple complex is unique in Southeast Asia because monks carved the caves out from rock, towering 160 metres above the surrounding plains. There are more than 80 caves across the site, but the major attractions are spread over five caves which contain statues and paintings of Buddha and his life.

They’ve been in continuous use for over 2000 years and the five caves huddle under a vast overhanging rock, carved with a drip line to keep the interiors dry. Progressively enhanced over the centuries by a multitude of kings, the temple complex remains the best-preserved ancient edifice in Sri Lanka. There are over 150 Buddha statues, hewn out of the rock, throughout the caves, including the 14m-long reclining Buddha. Hindu deities are also represented. One cave has over 1500 paintings of Buddha covering the ceiling, which flawlessly follow the contours of the rock. The sheer magnitude and intricacy of the craftsmanship is enthralling. If you’re visiting at twilight, the fading light attracts hundreds of swooping swallows to the caves’ entrance, which temporarily disrupted my Zen-like state!

A short drive from Dambulla brings you to Polonnaruwa, which served as the ancient capital city 800 years ago, before the Sinhalese kingdom shifted its power base to modern-day Colombo. Back in the day, Polonnaruwa was a thriving commercial and religious centre, before being abandoned and consumed by the jungle. It’s like a mini-Angkor Wat. Now it is a restored World Heritage site and liberated from the jungle, and the glories of that age are readily apparent in the archaeological park.

It’s a delight to explore with hundreds of ancient structures — tombs and temples, statues and stupas — in a compact core. The Quadrangle alone is worth the trip. Situated at the heart of the ancient city, the Quadrangle features the most important cluster of religious shrines. Its centrepiece is the flamboyant Vatadage, a superbly decorated circular shrine with a huge Buddha statue at its heart. It is considered by many to be the most ornate building in Sri Lanka; I was particularly struck by how the outer walls are carved with friezes of lions, dwarfs and lotuses. It’s drop-dead gorgeous.

As much as I enjoyed admiring the antiquities of this lost city, I was constantly distracted by the hordes of primates. So was Disney. Celebrated in Disney’s Monkey Kingdom movie, Polonnaruwa is home to a flourishing monkey population, living among the impressively preserved ruins. It’s the best place in the country to get up close with Sri Lanka’s three diurnal primates: the purple-faced leaf monkey, the toque macaque and the absurdly delightful tufted grey langur. They are all full of mischief, fearless and know how to work a room. The Smithsonian Primate Research Centre has helped make this site a conservation sanctuary for these cartoonishly beguiling creatures.

But before sweetly surrendering to more wildlife spectacles, there was another blockbuster ancient rock kingdom to explore. The shortest-lived but the most extraordinary of all Sri Lanka’s ancient capitals, Sigiriya Rock is a blow-your-hair-back experience. Better known as Lion Rock, this massive monolithic column of granite rock and its flat-top summit thrusts 200m high from the earth. It was turned into an ancient rock fortress 1500 years ago by King Kashyapa, who chose Sigiriya as the site of his new capital. It’s staggering to reflect on how such grand-scale engineering and design works were achieved, so long ago. He decorated the rock walls with 500 frescoes, and built a pleasure palace, accessible only through the mouth of a massive carved lion, with its head crouched between his paws. How very James Bond! Sadly, the lion’s head has been lost to the passage of time.

The king was anxious to have a protective lair, given how offside he had become with his subjects. As it was, this crazy king who had overthrown his father to acquire the throne, and buried him alive, lost his life in a battle against his brother, several years later. We wended our way up the 1200 steps of passageways cut into the rock face between those monumental pair of lion paws, carved into this landmark, at the base of the stairway. (Thankfully, the British rebuilt the access stairways last century, so they are structurally sturdy.)

En route to the top, a short detour leads to the magnificent Cobra’s Hood cave fresco gallery, with semi-naked paintings of the king’s maids in waiting and women of the royal court draping flowers on mere mortals. Some historians claim Kashyapa had 500 women to pleasure him! Jutting out from the rock, the Mirror Wall displays ancient transcripts that closely match the modern-day Sinhalese language. It was polished to perfection as the king often posed and preened himself as he walked past it, plus it reflected the painted ladies from Cobra’s Hood. After much puffing, we reached the top. The palace ruins can be seen on the lofty summit which have eroded over the passage of time, but it’s conquering this climb that is the real thrill.

Fanning out from the rock fortress, lush water gardens and bathing ponds accentuate the scenic appeal of this World Heritage site, as does the surrounding jungle. These are Asia’s oldest surviving landscaped gardens. Another staggering feature are the Boulder Gardens, including an amphitheatre, where the king would hold audiences. An enormous boulder was cut in half, horizontally, to form the amphitheatre. How did they do that 1500 years ago? Following the king’s death, Lion Rock was used as a Buddhist monastery for many centuries, before being abandoned and swallowed by the forest. It was rediscovered in 1831 and reclaimed from the jungle. Sigiriya Rock is beyond comparison.

For a complete change of scenery, I enjoyed a spectacular stay at Udawalawe National Park. This revered national park is one of the best places to see the Sri Lankan elephant, the biggest of all the Asian elephants. There are roughly 600 elephants here, in herds of up to 50. We took a captivating late afternoon safari ride, zipping down the red dusty roads of the parkland to marvel at the wildlife. I was staggered to learn that the average Sri Lankan elephant guzzles down 200 litres of water a day!

In addition to housing these mighty, swoon-worthy animals, the park is also home to mongooses, jackals, water monitor lizards, lots of crocodiles, sloth bears, wild buffaloes, various snakes, spotted and sambar deer, plus the elusive leopard. We ticked off much of the checklist, including a close-up view of an enormous python, but the elusive leopard did indeed elude us.

I bedded down at the Grand Udawalawe Safari Resort, next to the national park. The artfully designed and spacious rooms featured beautiful hardwood flooring and sublime artworks depicting the wildlife of Udawalawe. It’s a popular spot for touring cricketers — including the Black Caps,whose previous stays are memorialised with giant signed cricket bats.

The lagoon-style outdoor pool was just the antidote to the deal to the heat of day. As was the case across all our hotels, the lavish buffet breakfasts featured a tantalising array of local curries. Kukul mas curry (chicken curry), parippu (dhal curry) and polos (green jackfruit curry) were my favourites. I am adamant that a belly full of curry is a surefire way to make your body more resilient to the rising mercury! The increase in your body temperature from eating spicy food makes you feel cooler by reducing the difference between you and the surrounding air. That in turn, induces sweat, helping to cool the body down when the perspiration evaporates. It works a trick!