Sri Lanka, Kandy,
capital of the last Sinhalese kingdom
Regardless of the timeline! This is Kandy, the former capital of the Central Kingdom, the last on the island to have ceded to the British Empire. It remains that of a fervent Buddhism for the Buddhists of the world.
But we must first say a few words about our irremovable guide-driver, about his exceptional conduct. Because it is he who brought us there.
Sri Lanka,
our memorable driver, and not quite a guide
By our very deliberate choice, each visit was done in one day, including the round trip, from our accommodation in Hikkaduwa.
Except for the first two, the following ones were driven by the same venerable (but only 67 years old) Buddhist figure. Long white sarong and shirt on a stocky body, bald and swarthy head, fierce jet-black eye, without glasses, wearing flip-flops but also often barefoot.
The most memorable was the one where we led to Kandy: 4 hours one way and almost 5 hours on the way back, since it was inevitably necessary to spend in the complicated suburbs of Colombo. In both cases, the departure and return take place at night, that of the morning on the outward journey, and in the evening on the return.
We remember that in these latitudes, egalitarian Ecuador makes the length of the day roughly the same than that of the night ; this falls particularly early, before 6 p.m.
We will also learn on the way back that in Sri Lanka, the road kills an average of 7 people per day.
The exhausting driving "gripped" of our driver deserves in any case a few words, in the absence of illustration by the image; it would have been neither respectful nor worthy to film it in full difficult action.
For him it seems let the driving be a kind of modern torture, despite the protection of the beautiful little white meditating Buddha, fixed on its black dashboard.
Apart from the large and recent highway which runs quite far along the west coast towards Colombo, all the other roads, well paved and maintained, are tirelessly winding, without sidewalks crossing the villages.
But our driver had to have a first phobia, that of turns, especially when they turn right.
With driving on the left and the driver's seat on the right, one tends in this precise case to take the secant as short as possible.
He negotiated it by slowing down and tightening the rope, which he encroached on widely. He He would then hang on to the wheel as if he were suddenly driving a heavy truck without steering assistance (not the secretary, but the power steering), grasping the steering wheel with both arms high elbows.
As has been said elsewhere, any overtaking, even any crossing is only done here after having honked the horn, which in itself is not a problem.
But for him, it was necessary that in addition all the conditions of absence of other traffic are met. So much so that it took a few minutes even to overtake a tiny tuk tuk.
It is surely to the benevolence of the Buddha that we had to leave unscathed from a few city crossroads, at night, in the rain, dazzled by the headlights, in the improbable appearances of vehicles and the tangles at roundabouts made even more incomprehensible because of our habits as "right-handed" drivers ...
We concluded in our own heart that in fact, he saw badly at night, and that the practice of the freeway was for him so new that he still did not get used to going so fast, in his yet modern Mazda of the fleet of a company local tourism.
In calm traffic, our friend's average speed on these roads was such that we weren't even taking a risk when he let go of the steering wheel to join his two hands in prayer, crossing a Buddhist altar.
Sometimes with our agreement he would stop to go make a very modest offering or make a devotion of a few minutes.
On the other hand, on the highway, all new (E01 opened in 2014 between Colombo and Matara) and which offers 2 lanes on each side, our patience was strained.
For a speed limited to 100 km / h, very carefully it never exceeded 80 km / h, oscillating like a breath between 75 and 85 ; except one evening when, in a hurry to get back to the hotel before the restaurant closed at 10pm, we ordered him to speed up; there, record broken, we came close to 95 km / h !!!
But the worst is his second phobia, driving on the highway.
On the right lane (let us remember, the slow lane here is the left lane), he began by moving slowly to the level of the right rear of the vehicle to be overtaken; with all the more care as it was bulky.
Then he tried to fit in in what seemed to him a goulet, a funnel between the central slide and the right edge of the machine to be passed.
For long minutes, he tried laboriously to initiate the doubling. Tempt is the word, he hesitated so much on several occasions.
Then finally, after a few successful attempts, deliverance came, after a longer time that his speed exceeded barely that of the vehicle to be overtaken ...
Until the ordeal of the next doubling.
In the inevitably nocturnal part of the journey, he positioned himself comfortably on horseback between the two lanes, or far enough off the slow lane (the one on the left). There, he suffered without flinching the calls of headlights and untimely blasts of horns from the drivers ... normal, touched by certain buses or heavy goods vehicles whose wake so close made our car wobble in the doubling sharply.
The use of low beams seemed to him just as unknown: always or almost full headlights.
But considerate and discreet, little talkative, he watched over his burden of tourists, swinging his head sideways like the Siamese dancers to signify his disagreement, when we happened to take a little freedom from its indications.
Hats off to this endearing "artist", all inhabited by an intense inner fervor, that of his philosophy-religion. We send him a very cordial hello !!
Sri Lanka,
a dispensary for young elephants in Pinnawela
It is with him that, 30 km as the crow flies west of Kandy, at breakfast time, we finally reach the banks of a vast river in the middle of coconut palms: a dispensary, also called orphanage for young elephants in Pinnawela .
Just before the arrival of these animals.
All still young, some smaller and in bad shape, their heads bristling with down, sometimes abandoned by their parents and collected here, they are advertisement by a kind of trumpet and are framed by mahouts in green uniforms.
And here are the large animals which come, at the foot of the terrace of a hotel restaurant, to take with relish their first bath of the day in the water of the Oya river, which in places is a little torrential.
A real treat to see them lie down in the water, looking for the jet that the staff sends them with a pump, spraying each other with their trunk.
Higher up, a sign praises the recycling of elephant dung; large balls of thick fibers which reflect their herbivorous diet. They've been making paper and other miscellaneous products there since 1997.
While previously, a young couple comes to pose in traditional costume to mark their recent marriage in this context.
In the neighborhood, we can see, under a kind of large courtyard, the perimeter of which is surrounded by very sturdy bars. metal fixed to poles, to feeding young elephants.
On the ground, are sealed in the wet concrete of solids rings where animals can be chained. The ones we will see will not be this time.
The crowd is large, especially the children, stuck to the barriers, and a few sparse tourists fleeing the sun in the absence of a parasol.
There, in the dark shade made by the roof, we can clearly see two or three adolescent elephants, that is to say in the strength of their youth, greedily absorbing the contents of 2-liter glass bottles. with big pacifiers, in the barely contained clamor of the crowd.
Forced show, without much attraction if not the multitude school children dressed in white, watching seriously the games of suckling elephants, from the stepped slopes that border two dimensions of the courtyard.
Higher on the gentle crest of the relief, other elephants are herded into a fairly large natural space that evokes a zoo. One of them skillfully sprinkles water with his trunk.
Others farther on "graze" the dry branches deposited there, or else the grass on the ground.
Note that the water pumps used here are from the Solex brand ; our Solex ?? Nothing is less certain since the brand seems specific to Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka, Kandy,
a garden of spices and medicinal herbs,
hardly worth the detour
In the very conformist course devoted to the average tourist, here is now, by approaching Kandy, a garden where tropical plants are carefully cultivated. Their taste, medicinal and culinary virtues , dietetic, dermatological, ... are highlighted, to excess.
The only real attraction is the pleasure of walking in the shade of the shrubs when the sun hits hard.
The presenters of this small state park, craggy on the slopes of a modest relief, do not hesitate to insist heavily, awkwardly on the shutter medicinal, touting and selling by-products at tourist prices, shamelessly asserting their almost miraculous character without saying a word about their drawbacks or the negative effects which are nevertheless fairly well known. Here is the panoply of oils and balms, pastes, creams, shampoos, laxatives, aphrodisiacs ....
We recognize in any case the usual species, pepper, cinnamon, vanilla, pineapple, jackfruit, cardamom, bottle-rinse, lemongrass, sandalwood ... but also unknown fruits of original form.
For example, this small fruit (?) Enveloping a kind of nucleus with red waxy filaments; who evoked the refinement of certain Asian art objects.
Sri Lanka,
Kandy in the green setting of its mountains
Sri Lanka,
on the way from Hikkaduwa to Kandy
On the long, very serpentine road from Colombo to Kandy, between the green mountains whose peaks intertwine, in Kadugannawa, you can hardly see the National Railway Museum which exhibits along the route the flagships of old locomotives.
Further on, along the same road, snippets of everyday life are illustrated: a rudimentary bench in the middle of a heap of empty coconuts, a Muslim grocery store, a stall selling fresh corn fritters, an old man in the antique bicycle to Pilimathalawa, some old women under parasol.
Summits and slopes lush are built of dwellings and small sparse buildings quite prosperous.
At their foot, modest Buddhist temples are scattered around.
The old town of Kandy is gradually revealed.
The sun is at its zenith and despite the moderating effect of the altitude (500 to 600 meters on average), the air conditioning in our Mazda fully plays its role, especially since we have to take bypassed paths to avoid a traffic blockage, the cause of which will remain unknown.
Our driver even asks passers-by to find out how best to reach the city's very famous Buddhist temple.
Finally an entrance to the city where large 19th century buildings display an assertive colonial style.
A Muslim scans the street with his long red beard.
And here we are finally at the entrance of the very famous temple of the Tooth of Buddha in Kandy.
Sri Lanka, Kandy,
the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic ... (of the Buddha)
For the history of this sacred relic, we refer to the usual information; she At first glance, it seems more of a legend than a plausibility. Let us leave the subject to experts and exegetes.
Let us know in any case that the possession of the tooth of Buddha has long remained a sign of legitimacy for the holding of power, before English colonization and as long as the independent kingdom of Kandy has survived.
Basically, like Granada during the Reconquista was the last Arab-Andalusian bastion in Spain against the Christian kings, the kingdom of Kandy remained the last independent Buddhist kingdom of the island before being absorbed into the British Empire.
The only difference, notable, it is that the Sinhalese kings had not conquered the island but were the inhabitants at the origin.
The city and the kingdom existed from 1592 to 1815, that is to say more than two centuries.
But symbolically, the relic preserved here, which came from India, gives Ceylon, Sri Lanka a special role for Buddhists around the world, a central role and continuity of an almost palpable heritage.
This can be witnessed by seeing the diversity of pilgrims who come here to pray.
Originally built in the 1st third of the 18th century, on the site of the oldest buildings - now no longer there - already intended to receive and house the relic, which has been attacked several times (example: the Tamil attack of 25/01/1998), more or less destroyed, set on fire, each time the temple has been rebuilt or restored identically.
the Patthirippua (this very harmonious octagonal pavilion illustrated opposite which is now a library) and the moat were added at the very beginning of the 19th century before the disappearance of the kingdom.
After taking off your shoes, you cross a sort of long passage in a pit under a large vault decorated with frescoes (seen below towards the exit), like a purifying crossing (or a burn-in pit for disbelievers) before going up the steps which access the entrance to the 1st level of the temple.
The sun is so strong that the dark slabs to be crossed from the shoe locker room are hot, and you almost have to run to reach the shade. Marlène does it twice because the heat in the ground is so intense.
You enter the temple grounds through a sort of park, right against buildings of typically Western architecture from the colonial era, including a brick church.
This peaceful coexistence, here for example between a crenellated bell tower and an immaculate stupa, underlines the serenity of the place, despite the effervescence of Buddhist visitors who buy lotus petals, or whole lotuses and incense sticks, to go to make them. offering and praying in front of the high altar in the beautiful neighboring building.
At the foot of the entrance gate step, a large half-moon stone on the ground, fairly soft to the touch, traditional. This is the " s andakada pahana ".
It is found, less decorated in other smaller temples elsewhere.
The arch , called " torana " is surmounted by typical decorations in which specialists recognize (but not us) the mythological animal of this region of the world, the " makara ", an elephant's trunk beast, which has the teeth of the crocodile and a fish tail; almost our griffin.
Perhaps the head from which the tusks start (?) Is the cornerstone in the frontal center of the portico above the "torana"?
We find this bestiary as well in Buddhism as in Hinduism.
Sandakada pahana
Torana
Makara (?)
NB- The moonstone example opposite on the right is not the one of Kandy Temple.
From the top of this kind of terrace before entering the temple, we overlook the site where stands out what seems to be the oldest enclosure, made of patinated dry stones, and offering a profile with longitudinal moldings worked with a beautiful nobility. It's through these walls that we came, where some venerable buildings are being restored.
The crest of the interior and exterior walls surrounding the moat is decorated with a so-called "wave" white pattern that is said to be typical of Kandy. It is also found, for example, along the shores of the lake. In the niches, lanterns made from empty coconuts were once placed as an offering.
This more stripped-down motif is often used elsewhere on the island.
Once through the portico, you reach the lower floor, that of the prayers, by a sort of short corridor whose vault is comparable to that of the entrance.
There, a vast wooden gallery, superbly decorated, welcomes all the pilgrims seated on the ground or standing, around a central place closed by barriers with light and elegant colonnades painted with delicacy in the colors of the Buddhist flag. A battery of electric fans ventilates the space. The decoration reproduces, from what we have been able to learn, the Buddhist symbols, with large painted panels in the background, the whole constituting a remarkable and delicate shimmering harmony.
It's outside that kind of altar that the innumerable lotus flowers offered by pilgrims accumulate.
A few meters away, another wooden portico is decorated with elephant tusks, and other statues of the animal, but the perimeter is this time delimited by fine, perfectly polished golden columns.
It is said that this is where the box containing the famous sacred tooth is located, behind the back wall hanging (photo below).
We find on the outside the same golden barrier, at the foot of a few steps under a vast awning of very advanced wood supported by decorated pillars.
Another marvel is the refinement and delicacy of the ornamentation of the visible, lower part of the large awning.
Between the time that is counted to us in this unique day of visit and the maze of the temple, our memory of the organization of the latter seems in retrospect uncertain.
In any case, we remember the flights of stairs leading to a perfect serene Buddha, elsewhere old wall paintings reconstituted in a puzzle of great elegance which we have reproduced in integrity the whole nearby, the lightness of the columns and the partitions, interior wooden shutters that form the upper floor a kind of moucharabieh, and which add a finely airy touch to the decor, from the probable entrance to another temple whose portico reproduces in the form of brightly colored hangings that of the main entrance, but also from the intense fervor of the pilgrims (see the slideshow opposite ).
We regret in hindsight that we did not even have time to see some other wonders like the group of inner stupas, the alignment of other meditating Buddhas, ...
The temple, illustration by N. Chevalier,
April 18, 1870
Sri Lanka,
a garden of wonders in Peradenyia
However, our wonder did not reach its height: we move with the quiet haste which is that of the culture of the country towards the very famous Botanical Garden of Peradenyia (which would originally mean "the plain of the guavas"), in the suburbs near Kandy (5 to 6 km).
He signs up in a rather tortured meander of the Mahaweli river which happens to be the longest river on the island; the rain is threatening.
On the way we walk along the shore of Lake Kandy, then the high walls of an ancient enclosure. We understand that the walls are high and that watchtowers border them : it is the prison of Kandy.
We glimpse in passing what appears to be a cricket stadium, then pass two large statues of Buddha, one of which dominates in its dazzling majesty the summit of a mountain threatened by a sky of a sinister slate; the other is protected by a high canopy to the size of the statue.
But above all, we hardly notice with what enthusiasm the families "in their Sunday best" move towards the temple ... or the garden.
Rule
the exception
Over almost 60 ha, the garden frustrates visitors in too much of a hurry than we have been.
Hay, therefore, from the orchid garden, the garden of spices and medicinal plants (but we had our dose elsewhere for the latter), groves of giant bamboo, papyrus flowers, rubber trees and hibiscus, monkeys and butterflies!...
Fortunately, we will contemplate, captivated, almost fascinated, the superb perspectives of some portions of the garden, the vast paths punctuated by ponds, the imperial row of royal palm trees which seems to open a perspective on a dream world, and the giant trees whose stature and height can only be measured in the presence of the Lilliputians all dressed in white, swarms of schoolchildren who come roam its alleys and its very vast lawns where they play to make a few cricket passes.
Arrived at the entrance of it, for all intents and purposes, our very attentive and almost imperturbable guide lends us two huge umbrellas, which in fact we will hardly have use, despite a sky that will remain low and some lukewarm spray.
Even if the first origins of the garden appear around 1370, whose approval grows at will of kings who succeed one another, it was only after the final capture of Kandy by the English that the foundations of the current garden were laid, from 1821 by Alexander Moon who devoted it above all to coffee and cinnamon plants.
It was officially founded in 1843.
Certainly, this must be seen as the rather rare conjunction of several favorable factors. : the tropical latitude, the altitude which moderates the effects of the latter, the rainfall (200 days per year), the diversity of species from all over the island, and the icing on the cake, the British know-how, as evidenced by the less its name: the "Royal Botanical Garden".
In the post-Victorian era of "the empire upon which the sun never sets", in this carefree last quarter of the 19th century, the imperial and royal cousinades lead princes, emperors, kings and other presidents to come here to plant their shrub; by asserting their originality by the decorative potential of it.
Thus parade, each with his shovel, in the part of the garden called "the great circle", the Prince of Prussia, King Edward VII, the Tsar of Russia, the King of Greece, the Emperor of Austria, and of course in 1901 the Prince of Wales and his "cannonball tree".
Later, it will be other heads of state or celebrities who will engage in the same symbolism effort, Indira Gandhi, Tito, Youri Gagarin ...
If there are imposing statues of the Buddha in the country, we can surely talk about some of the trees in this garden of vegetable colossi, by their height, even if they do not reach that very old sequoias, but also by the astonishing and vertiginous column of trunks, like celestial elephant legs or the roots of an ancient temple rising towards Olympus.
It is in particular the Queensland Kauri (Agathis robusta), with its gray and smooth trunk.
And again by the formidable entanglement of the branches that we will only see from a distance.
Elsewhere, here is the immense blooming of the branches of the sacred Buddhist tree, the Ashoka, which means "painless" in Sanskrit because of its medicinal properties.
But does it also mean "without sorrow" in reference to Buddhism which frees from human constraints? He offers an almost perfect pyramidal symmetry to the eye, above its powerful trunk.
But is the photo opposite really that of an Ashoka ?
Sacred because it is under such a tree that the Buddha would have been born, in Lumbini in India (illustration below).
Another shoots his elegant and powerful trunk through its branches in heavy dark tufts (below); it is the Durian, whose large fruit with a very thorny shell gives off a foul odor but goes well - they say - with delight in Asian cuisine.
The Tang department store in the 13th arrondissement of Paris sells them in abundance.
One of the trees planted by the Prince of Wales, future King George V of England himself (he had to be content with a shovelful of earth without even disengaging himself) is characterized by its almost spherical fruits. For this reason, it is called the "cannonball tree".
Another curious one is the coconut palm, whose enormous dark and shiny seeds can weigh up to 30 kg. Here the weight is such that as a precaution the tree has been propped up.
Originally from the island of Praslin in the Seychelles, it is he who delivers his famous fruits called "coconut-buttocks" because of their very suggestive shape.
We will only see the heavy and voluminous seeds in the season of our passage.
But in our constant haste, we'll bypass the famous tallipot palm, emblematic of Sri Lanka, whose disproportionate leaves have in the past had multiple and amazing uses (German illustration below from 1913).
Then, from flower beds in alleys, from pools to pergolas, the schoolchildren (it is said that 5% of Sri Lankan schoolchildren come every year to visit the park) play or listen attentively to their teacher, move away and emerge from the shade of the thickets, breathe deeply the diversity of species, without yet realizing the inestimable nature of their little adventure.
But this is how memories are created and anchored.
Perhaps they will be marked by this harmony between verticality pure and the smooth curve of two trees, neighbors like a loving couple, from the perspective, at the end of an alley of this little almost secret rotunda which is a tribute to the first English gardener, George Gardener, the aptly named.
Other giants seem to lean benevolently over these improvised cricketers, or to welcome under their protective cover. the school kids.
Yet now, the hardest part of this rich day remains to be done: the return, which will be a real chore for us with our famous driver.
Even if we have shortened the visit program by declining the discovery of a tea making after picking. Phew !!
The only real solution: to organize this visit over at least two days, especially when, like us, we come from the extreme southwest of the island.