Kandy

Kandy was the last capital of the Sri Lankan kings and is the final resting place of the sacred left tooth of the Lord Buddha (which came to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century AD). For Buddhists around the world the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy is regarded as a place of pilgrimage. For people like us, still learning about Buddhism and about the history of Sri Lanka, it was fascinating to see this beautiful temple this morning, observe an important temple ritual and to try to appreciate its significance.

 These wave shaped walls have special meaning for Buddhists: they represent waves in the ocean, dragons and the sky (all difficult and character building to make your way through!)

 Lotus flowers have great meaning in temple rituals .....

 (and the wasps love them) .....

This flower (on the cannonball trees) has great meaning too because when you spread the flowers the stamen has the same shape as a stupa!

 This temple is only a few hundred years old but is beautifully maintained and kept spotlessly clean despite the thousands of visitors and pilgrims .......

 Every year at a special time the tooth relic is transported around Kandy by elephant.... 

 The temple was crowded this morning ....

 We arrived in time for the morning ceremony which I didn't fully understand but which involved people being able to make direct offerings to the tooth relic in its special stupa shaped gold container.

There was a great fanfare of drumming which preceded great crowds of people queuing in the direction of the shrine holding the tooth relic.

 At this point (great excitement) we were able to catch a glimpse of the relic shrouded in an intense golden light .........

 It was crowded and the atmosphere was quite electric, yet also quite calm (apart from the tourists who were all jostling to get a picture in the brief moment we had to view the relic....)

The temple is so beautiful it wasn't too much of an anti climax after our relic sighting to just look at the beauty around us!

 By 10.30am we were on our way out of Kandy to see the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, a good hour's drive away on the road back to Colombo. Pinnawala is an orphanage, nursery and captive breeding ground for wild elephants. It fulfils an essential role in a country where elephants have been victims of mines and bombings in the Civil War and also the victims of attacks from farmers when their farms have been threatened. 

 Twice a day the elephants are hosed down in the river, and then they make their way back up through the village ......

 scarily close to us .....

 .. before they settle back in their "garden" ......

 ... ready for the next routine of life at the orphanage. It was quite upsetting to see the young elephants in the nursery as the only way they can learn to be fed by bottle is to have the them chained up - a very sad sight.

 We were hot dusty and sweaty by the time we got back to our Clove Villa (after another stop over at the gem shop in Kandy). But there was enough time to enjoy a swim and evening G & Ts at this gorgeous villa before another delicious evening meal, cooked by our hosts.