Travels in Sri Lanka: Sigiriya and Dambulla: Courtly Ladies, Sleeping Buddhas

Still in Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle, we reached the city of Sigiriya, another site of an ancient civilization that scholars can't date with much precision, but think was at the time of King Kasappa who ruled in the 5th century.

Going up on a steep rock adorned with lion's paws, we come across a ledge, inside which is hidden a site of wonder: delicate frescoes of courtly ladies bearing fruit, their half-naked bodies sensuous, their expressions self-contained and enigmatic. The colors are very well preserved, unlike the famous Ajanta Cave outside Mumbai, dating back to the same time, which the Sigiriya frescoes are said to emulate. No one quite knows who these ladies are supposed to be: apsaras (celestial dancers), King Kasappa's concubines, or aspects of the goddess Tara, a female form of the Buddha--in proof of this last point, their faces are remarkably similar.

And, at the nearby town of Dambulla, another enigmatic place: the Royal Rock Temple, which features several caves filled with Buddhas in various poses, dating back from the 1st century as a place of worship but with paintings and statues updated in the 18th and 19th. The most impressive of these is a true sleeping chamber, dark and low-ceilinged, with one colorful reclining Buddha looking particularly cosy on his pillow. As with the Buddhist portions of Ellora and Ajanta in India, these serene images draw you in and make you want to stay in their quiet, comfortable darkness.

But the less serene inhabitants of Sri Lanka await...