Polonnaruwa: Rain and Ruins

We had a simple breakfast at 6.30am and our driver, Raygar (I must have got his name wrong as this isn’t a Sri Lankan name, but he never corrected me!), who also owns the hotel, met us at 7am. It looked like it was going to put with rain all day, but we decided to soldier on regardless, and stopped to buy umbrellas on the way. We definitely hadn’t expected to encounter much rain this trip!

In the end, the occasional monsoonal downpour soaking us to the skin was all part of the fun and atmosphere of the day. We were back at the lodge at about 3pm after a huge day of exploring stunning ruins – sometimes alone, sometimes with busloads of Sri Lankan schoolgirls in white uniforms, and strangely-dressed overweight selfie-snapping tourists.

Polonnaruwa was ascendant in the 12th century, but was abandoned to the jungle after only a century and rediscovered 100 years later. Photos in the excellent museum, which we visited first (and where we bought US$30 tickets), showed the huge contrast between the overgrown ruins when they were discovered and the restoration today.

After an unsuccessful attempt to control the order of viewing, we gave ourselves up to Raygar’s experience, and it turned out we did the 4km of ruins pretty comprehensively from the most southern (the image house and monastic living quarters and 3.5m high statue at Potgul Vihara) to the northernmost (the Tivanka-patamaghara, a large monastery building with some fading but beautiful frescoes and a tall headless Buddha, all under a huge metal shelter.

After the Potgul Vihara, Raygar dropped us at the Royal Palace and other buildings of the Citadel. As we mounted the steps to the pillared but now roofless Council Chamber, the heavens opened and we got our first complete soaking, despite our ridiculously small umbrellas. But it was also exciting and fun. Likewise in the solid ruined walls of the Palace nearby there was no shelter, but it was enjoyable to splash unconcerned through the puddles, and the only disadvantage was how difficult it was to take photographs.

The next stop was the spectacular ‘Quadrangle’, a large terrace hosting various shines that was the religious heart of the city and where the fabled Buddha’s Tooth relic was kept for a while. The aforementioned hordes of schoolgirls wandered the site, and eventually the rain stopped and they trickled away and we could concentrate on our photography again (though they did make good human scale figures in some photos!)

The highlight of the quadrangle was a circular relic house called the Vatadage, but all the structures were fascinating, and it was pleasant to walk barefoot through deep puddles on the ancient stones. 

It poured again as we drove north through some light woodland and stopped at the Rankot Vihara, a 55m-high red-brick dagoba, fourth largest after those at Anaratapuhra, though less gracefully shaped (a bit flattened).

Next stop, the Gal Vihara, an incredibly beautiful and impressive group of Buddhas carved out a huge granite outcrop. The reclining one is 4m long, a standing one next to it, seemingly stepping out of the clinging confines of the rockface, is 7m tall, and there were also 2 seated Buddhas, one a giant and a smaller one behind a wire grill.

We then went to the northernmost monastery previously mentioned, stopping at a stone pond sculpted like successive lotus leaves, and on the way back checking out the Demala Maha Seya, another huge dagoba, this one unfinished and partway through the long process of restoration.

Raygar was ready to call it a day but there were a few things we had yet to see, so after some confusion we stopped at the Gal Vihara carpark again and walked south this time – first to a well-preserved white dagoba called the Kiri Vihara, then on to the incredible Lankatilaka Vihara, a towering shire housing a huge standing headless Buddha, that was like something out of my sword-and-sorcery daydreams.

As we explored one final monastery ruin, the skies grumbled and darkened, but instead of rushing for cover we just enjoyed the tension and its explosion into another downpour that gave us one last soaking as me returned to the cor, down stone steps instantly transformed into gushing waterfalls.

Back to the lodge, stopping on the way at a tourist trap outdoor restaurant which was OK (we were very hungry by this point) and a wine shop where Raygar bought for the hotel and I bought some travesty of white wine made with bananas (I neglected to read the label). The latter immediately went down the sink after being tasted later.

I paid Raygar 25,000 instead of 15,000 as we stayed out a lot longer than originally agreed, and we relaxed in our room – me spending quite some time writing up the last 2 full days in this diary.

Then I had a quick nap – unfortunately l’ve developed a very sore neck which is turning the tinnitus up a notch – then we had dinner downstairs. The food is very average (just noodles tonight) but filling, so we’ll go somewhere better tomorrow night.