Buddhist Levitation

In between meetings and other work and seeing family, I don't have much free time, but I had a few hours to kill Saturday morning so decided to go for a walk (Well, admittedly, I was looking for the Qatar Airways office to change my flight but got lost, and then once I realised this decided to get 'more lost').

This then, is the eccentric Sambodhi Chaithya Dagoba in the Colombo Fort area, and just a short walk from my hotel. It is an apparantly irrational Buddhist Temple placed high on stilts (like you do). On top of a huge arching tripod is the dazzling white and bell shaped Dagoba also known here as a stupa. One of the arches straddles the Chaithya Road, on a bend just before the entrance to the Sri Lankan Navy base. It was reportedly built this high near to the main Colombo Port so that it could be seen and act as a landmark to all shipping arriviung and departing.

To enter this stupa you have to remove your shoes and hat and climb all the steps to the bridge link across at the top. Inside the temple are a series of wonderful frescos painted all around the inner face of the stupa 'bell'. These depict the life and enlightenment of the buddha in Sri lanka. Buddhism was adopted here in the 4th centtury BC. Wow.

Over the years, I have seen most of the important world heritage sites around the country (and there are many spectacular ones), but for some reason I am not sure about, I must have overlooked this one. It is a wonderful temple inside, and so reflective watching all the devotees circle the cetral Buddha and placing flowers. I felt like Gulliver in the land of Lilliput though, towering over everyone.

Years gone by if you walked the streets of central Colombo as a sole tourist you would get hounded to death by hawkers and various other ne'er-do-wells out to over-charge or rip you off. Happily, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore, and apart from a thousand tuc-tuc trishaw drivers stopping to offer me anything from personal architectural tours to traditional Ayurvedic massage, I was left to my own devices.

If you have never been and you get the chance to come to this wonderful country, you should come. Post war and post Tsunami, the place and people are on the up.