The first 24 hours in Sri Lanka

The long line at Sri Lanka Airlines and the duty free shops at Bandaranaika Airport suggest a travel ad for  Sri Lanka: “Come to Sri Lanka. You will be surprised.” The airport line actually moved quickly. 

From left to right all were booked for the same flight to Sri Lanka

And who ever imagined that duty free meant something other than alcohol, perfume, and chocolates? In this case appliances.

Yes. Washers, refrigerators and small appliances are duty
free & there is a long row of shops selling 

On our way to Negombo, north of Colombo, I spotted a glass enclosed religious figure. Negombo has a large Catholic population. We saw quite a few similarly enclosed Christian figures and an occasional Buddha.

We spent our first night in Negombo. It was a dark and rainy night, not at all inviting for exploring. So, it wasn't until we drove out that we saw the nearby Indian Ocean and fishing villages.The fishermen are primarily Catholics (apparently Buddhists don’t fish) – Catholics include Sinhalese and Tamils. After living in Malaysia I had forgotten that most ethnic groups have freedom of religion (in Malaysia all Malays must be Muslim).

Along the roadside a vendor selling buns was parked. When we went back to our car he was gone. We ran into him later as he was making his route. As people heard "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" being played from his van they popped out of their houses to by a bun or a few.

Our destination for the day was the Mihintale Rock Temple where Buddhism was introduced in Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC - 235 years after Buddha's death. The site was abandoned in the 10th century AD when the Cholas from South India invaded. The site housed a large monastic population and even today monks live and mediate in the forest caves. The site has a large staircase of over 1000 steps; we were told that the steps were shallow so that the monks would not trip over their robes.

The refractory had a large "boa.t" In ancient times villagers filled the "boat" with boiling water and trays of rice and vegetables were put on top of it. Currently the monks who still live in the area may go into the village in the morning with an alms bowl. For their lunch villagers will work out a sort of schedule when to bring food so that great amounts of food don't arrive on one day and nothing the next. 

"Boat" was filled with food to feed about 2500 monks

Close to the refectory the rules and regulations for running the monastery were posted on stelea. The rules included a requirement that detailed monthly accounts regularly be made public. The annual report was to be read aloud. This is no longer true. (I wish that we had photographed the translation - lazy googling uncovered virtually nothing about the rules existence and content.)

The posting of the rules (so contemporary American classrooms
with posted rules are following an ancient tradition)

The climb up brought us in contact with local fauna. The site had its share of monkeys, but this is the first tour of historic sites where we saw mating insects and the guinea hens.

Yes, there are two of them

At the end of the climb we came to Ambasthala Dagaba.or mango grove stupa that marks the spot where legend reports that the king and Buddha's disciple, Mahinda, met. In the background is meditation rock.

.

After 1840 steps!

Ruwan, Licensed Guide
ruwan1225[at]gmail.com

Our first stop after leaving Negombo was the Munneswaram Temple. We were there on a rainy Thursday, no touts or beggars. Unfortunately our guide (the travel agency ower) was unfamiliar with the 1000 year old temple. After reading the wikipedia entry we regret that we didn't seek out a guide. Instead we wandered through and took some pictures of idols and murals.

Mother Goddess Durga

The god Ravena

.Ahead of for the next 48 or more hours more cultural sites. More trudging over stony surfaces in bare feet.