Sunday Post: window
windows in some of the houses in the abandoned village of Sandima in south Western Turkey
Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
weekly travel theme: the Four Elements
Earth, Fire, Air, Water – the four elements – Ailsa’s challenge for this week
FIRE: the chimaera at Cirali in southern Turkey, where flames appear spontaneously out of the ground
WATER: A Japanese water holder
EARTH: close-up of part of Asia’s largest rose quartz mountain, in Sri Lanka
AIR: a skein of geese high in the air
Sri Lanka – Anuradhapura
Another 8am start and we drove to Anuradhapura – a very scenic drive through paddy fields and small villages, with wattle and daub shacks built right next to some much nicer properties.
After all the recent heavy rains much of the flat landscape was flooded.
Our first stop was the ancient Isurumuni Rajamaha Vihara (2nd century BC) with its rock temple and square lotus pond in front of it.
There are carvings of elephants cavorting in the water on the rocks and
just above them is a carving of a man and a horse dating back to C6AD.
We went into the small museum here and I photographed the very famous sculpture of the lovers – he is upper caste and she is lower caste – as well as a couple of other sculptures.
In the reproduction of the cave temple there was a reclining Buddha statue, murals depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha and a fabulous painted ceiling.
Anuradhapura first became a capital in 380BC but was replaced by Polonnaruwa in the 11th century. It is now a Unesco world heritage site. It was and continues to be a major centre for Buddhism. The ruins are spread over a very large area so we only visited the most important ones.
We drove to the Mahavihara, the central part of the complex with relics dating from 3rd century BC to the 11th century AD, and where the Sri Maha Bodhi tree grows;
this sacred tree is the oldest historically authenticated tree in the world. It is in fact not one but several trees with golden supports to hold up some of its branches.
The day we were there was a poya (full moon) and therefore a day of public celebration. People had come from far and wide bringing picnics with them and all the women wore white.
prayer flags
making offerings of flowers
From there we walked along the avenue
passing a diorama depicting the story of how the first Bo tree was brought to Sri Lanka
and then the Lovamahapaya, the Brazen Temple so-called because it once had a bronze roof but today only a few columns remain.
The huge white Ruvanvelisaya dagoba was set amongst trees and grassland and we only viewed it from afar.
The Thuparama was the tallest dagoba in the Anagiri complex and is still being restored.
In the Anagiri monastery complex we saw some well preserved carvings and another moon stone. The moon stones in Anuradhapura differ from those in Polonnaruwa in that “A half lotus was carved in the centre, which was enclosed by several concentric bands. The first band from the half lotus is decorated with a procession of swans, followed by a band with an intricate foliage design known as liyavel. The third band has carvings of four animals; elephants, lions, horses, and bulls. These four animals follow each other in a procession symbolizing the four stages in life: growth, energy, power and forbearance. The fourth and outermost band contains a carving of flames.” (Wikipedia). The bands are clearly visible in this photo.
The last stop of the day was to see the 4th century Samadhi Buddha. It is said that when viewed from one side he appears to be smiling and from the other, he appears to have a sad expression on his face but I have to admit that I couldn’t see any difference in his expression.
monastery remains
Nearby are the twin ponds of Kuttam Pokuna, the finest bathing tanks in Anuradhapura.
I really like these metal votive candle holders
a cannon ball tree
a typical roadside fruit stall
roadside shrine
Daily Prompt: unconventional
Daily Post prompt for photographers: unconventional
It is quite common for girls to box in Thailand but it may seem unconventional in other parts of the world.
Girls boxing against each other in Thailand
Thailand has the highest number of “lady boys” in the world and you come across them in all walks of life. Lily works as a cabaret artiste as does her friend
Lily
Lily and friend
Polonnaruwa
Although he ancient city of Polonnaruwa is nearly 1000 years old it’s in better repair than the younger Anuradhapura which we also visited a couple of days later. It was declared a world heritage site by Unesco in 1982. I particularly wanted to visit Polonnaruwa because there are beautiful Buddha statues here. The complex covers quite a large area and is divided into 5 groups.
We started our visit in the archeological museum which described the history of the city and had interesting reconstructions of what some of the buildings are thought to have looked like as well as a large collection of Hindu bronze statues.
The southern group is approached via a road running along the edge of a huge man-made tank (reservoir) whose name in Sinhalese means sea (because of its size), where we saw many people taking their early morning bath or washing their clothes.
Inside this first group the Potgul Vihara is an unusual structure consisting of a rectangular shape with a dagoba (a Buddhist stupa) at each corner and one in the centre. The central dagoba is thought to have held sacred books.
Also in this area is a 4m tall statue of a male. Various suggestions have been made regarding who he is supposed to be – possibly King Parakramabahu I; one tongue-in-cheek suggestion is simply ‘man holding a slice of water melon’. The statue is unique in its lifelike representation as opposed to the more stylised representations usually found in Buddhist art.
Our guide reached up to pull some leaves off a curry tree and just missed being bitten by this snake. He hadn’t even seen it although we saw it move towards him.
Not much is left of the royal palace which measures 31m by 13m and is said to have had seven storeys.
Parakramabahu’s audience hall is notable for the frieze of elephants, each in a different position, with a frieze of lions at the top of the steps.
Vatadage, a circular relic house, has a moon stone at its northern entrance, which is reputed to be the finest in Polonnaruwa. The design of the sandakada pahana of the Polonnaruwa period differs largely from that of the Anuradhapura period. The single band that was used to depict the four animals was removed, and processions of the elephant, lion and horse were depicted in separate bands. The most significant change is the removal of the bull from the sandakada pahana. The Anuradhapura tradition of placing sandakada pahanas only at entrances to Buddhist temples also changed, and they are found at the entrances of other buildings belonging to the Polonnaruwa period as well. (Wikipedia)
The Gal Pota (stone book), nearly 9m long it’s a huge representation of an “ola” book (the page of ola books are made from palm leaves). Part of the inscription states that this stone, weighing 25 tonnes, was dragged to its current position from Mihintale, a mere 100km away.
standing at the entrance of the Hatadage you can see how beautifully symmetrical the building is
a typical bathing pool
the unusual ziggarat-style building of Satmahal Prasada
The 3 Buddha statues at the Gal Vihara
When this dagoba was discovered it still had some of its original outer layer of lime plaster in place
a headless Buddha statue
The Tivanka Image house contains a thrice-bent statue (this is what Tivanka means) of a Buddha; this form is usually reserved for female statues. There were some beautiful frescoes here, the only ones still extant in Polonnaruwa.
the lotus pond
the King’s council chamber
the lion throne
the royal baths
Cee’s fun foto challenge: the season of Spring
For those to whom the winter seems overlong, here are some of my Spring photos:
Spring always means primroses and wood anemones (also known as wind flowers) for me
a carpet of bluebells
apple blossom
Cee’s post has lots of links to other Spring images
WP weekly photo challenge: pattern
PATTERN is the subject of the Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge
carpet in Singapore airport
a printing block for batik making
Singapore batik
dress fabric for sale in Singapore’s Arab Street
stencilled pattern on an antique Thai door
wormcasts on a Thai beach
Sand dollars I picked up on the beach
food wrappers at a Thai market
reflection of trees
Thai carved wood panel
mosaic glass lamps seen in Thailand but I think they’re Turkish
dress fabric
abstract patterns made by mangrove roots against the sunset
purple spotted green orchid
Angel Wing leaf patterns
weekly travel theme: beaches
Ailsa’s challenge this week was BEACHES
My favourite beach
different views of the beach at Lynmouth, UK
view of distant Porlock bay, UK
Some beaches further afield
evening on the beach at Seminyak, Bali
a vendor of kites on the beach in Bali
a Balinese fishing boat
boats on the beach at Amed, Bali
children’s festival on the beach in Bali
Sunday Post: Mothers day
Jakesprinters subject for his Sunday post is Mothers Day
All mothers, human or animal, need a little love …..
a word a week challenge: mountain
Once a week Skinnywench’s dictionary falls open at a word. The word this week is MOUNTAIN
Mount Batur in Bali
Mount Agung in Bali
mountains around St Ours in south eastern France near the Italian border
Swiss mountain scenery
mountain pastures
Switzerland, Lake Maloja
McLeodanj, home to the Dalai Lama in exile in northern India
the Dalai Lama’s monastery is right in the centre of the photo with what looks like tents on the top of it
mountain scenery in the Himanchal, India
en route to Kumbalgarh, Rajasthan
views from the top of Kumbalgarh fort
flying from the UK to Turkey over snow covered mountains
You can climb some more (virtual) mountains here
