Spent a short weekend in Coorg with Kashi and Sunitha (Arpana's cousin and sis-in-law). Coorg is a small mountain region outside of Mysore. Know for coffee and pepper. Visited Sunitha's friend Leela who owns and runs a 600 acre farm. And yes, that is an elephant on the back of a truck. Also note coffee bush in bloom - very fragrant flowers - smells like - yes you guessed it - coffee!
The first image is of "Seema Malaka Buddhist Temple." Modern temple built by an architect Geoffrey Bawa. The other images are from a temple called, "Gangaramaya Temple."
The Galle Face Hotel is the oldest of the "Grand Oriental Hotels." There is a lot of character in both the architecture and the employees. Our room overlooked the "Green" which becomes a promenade on sundays. The doorman photographed has worked here for 70 years. He recently celebrated his 90th b'day.
Ancient Sri Lanka was famous for collecting monsoon rains in reservoirs and then redistributing them to crops for the rest of the year. They also made water filled pleasure gardens, like this one, that was situated right behind our rest house.
3rd Century B.C., saw the first worshiping of Buddha at this location.
First photo is that of a "moonstone" a typical entry stone to temples. Last picture is of the original temple where the tooth relic remained for 1400 years. Water seemed to play an important role and you find many water tanks around.
This is the oldest known tree in the world. It is a sapling of the original tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment. The sapling was brought to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century B.C. This tree supplies saplings to temples throughout the island and the world. We collected leaves from the tree.
Largest Stupa in Sri Lanka is 55 meters high (180 ft). It was built by a king who was inspired by watching a bubble float on water.
Tissawewa Rest House was originally the home of the first British Governor of Sri Lanka. Set close to a huge reservoir with lots of wild life, yet civilized enough to have an excellent kitchen. Food here was wonderful. You pay more for air conditioning but its well worth it.
Entrance of the cave and typical offerings made to Buddha in second picture.
These are man-made caves, hand carved starting in the 1st century B. C. The best work was done between the 12th and 17th centuries. One of the reclining Buddha's is 50 meters long all carved out of one stone.
These are truly impressive frescoes painted onto the wall and ceilings of the cave temples. The last photograph shows the feet of a reclining Buddha. Note the gold on his toes.
