Mihintale & Kandy (Dec. 16)

The last day of my 4 day Cultural Triangle trip brought us to Mihintale and very briefly in Kandy. I think I liked Mihintale the best out of all the places we went. My perspective might have been skewed by the gorgeous weather that we were finally experiencing, not a rain cloud in sight. It was nice not having to lug an umbrella around for once.

The first thing we saw was this lion shaped shower. The face is broken, but it housed a tap mechanism and the nozzle, and the water would flow down pipes in the hill above, and fill the tank, and when desired, spray from the lion's mouth. I want something like that in my house.

There's a giant assembly hall that was used as a cafeteria for the monks that could not beg for alms during the rainy season. Here giant boats (think gravy, not navy) were filled with food that the monks could eat, buffet style. This is the rice boat, and there's a curry boat as well.

Giant squirrel. Its smaller cousin that I see everywhere is sort of like a chipmunk.

This is a Five-headed Cobra carved into the wall of this pool. Because of all the rain, only the head is visible, but the pool extends down 6m! When the water level is lower, there are nooks carved into the cave that the monks can use.

After leaving Mihintale, we headed straight for Kandy, which was the last capital of the Sinhalese kingdom. The designation of capital accompanies any place that houses the Sacred Tooth of Buddha. Here is where it currently resides, within this appropriately named "Temple of the Tooth."

Inside there are a number of pictures explaining the story of the tooth and its journey, and one plaque caught my eye. You'll likely have to click it to see it clearly, but even some 700 years later, King Pandu has his PR people working overtime. I was tempted to ask what was originally written, but I thought better of it.

Sri Lanka