Wandering around Polonnaruwa - Part 2

I had to keep moving around in the vehicle to diminish my urge to sleep after the quick swim in the lake and the satisfying lunch because we had a lot more sites to visit before the end of the day. If you’re wondering what I’m going on about, you should probably read my previous post which takes you through the first part of my day in the ancient city of Polonnaruwa.

Our next stop was the Vatadage, not to be confused with the Hatadage and the Atadage! The Vatadage is a circular relic chamber built enclosing a dagoba.  There are stairways on four corners of it that lead up to a seated statue of Lord Buddha. There are intricately carved guard stones on either and a moonstone at the foot of each stairway. 

The stairway at one of the four entrances to the Vatadage

The beautifully carved guardstone and moonstone

A side view of the stone carvings on the stairway

 

We then visited the Atadage and the Hatadage which were relic chambers built to house the Sacred Tooth Relic [a tooth of Lord Buddha]. The Atadage, with fine stone carvings was built by King Vijayabahu in the 11^th century and the Hatadage was built by King Nissankamalla in the 12^th century. You need to remove your hats and shoes when entering these chambers and the other temple ruins, so a word of warning: if it’s a hot day - wear a pair of socks to avoid hopping around the hot stone floor.

The Atadage Relic Chamber

 

A close up of the stand Buddha statue inside the Atadage

The standing Buddha Statue inside the Hatadage

 

The Satmahal Prasadaya, which looks a lot like a seven storied Egyptian Pyramid was what we visited next. Like the Siva Devalaya, it was a different type of building structure compared to the others in the area and is believed to be a stupa built for Cambodian Soldiers who were working under the King. Right beside it is the Gal Potha which translates to ‘stone book’ which literally is a stone book! The 26 foot stone slab has inscriptions that tell us about King Nissankamalla’s reign including his genealogy and the wars that he fought against invaders from South India.

 

The Sathmahal Prasadaya

The inscriptions on the Gal Potha

  

Next, we walked up to the Gal Viharaya [stone temple] which is the most popular site in Polonnaruwa because it shows the peak of artistic achievement in that era. It is a Buddhist shrine that dates back to the 12^th century and has large statues carved out of streaked granite stone of the seated Buddha, the standing Buddha and the reclining Buddha. I was a little disappointed when I saw them though, because they seemed a lot smaller than I remembered. It was probably because I was a lot smaller the last time I visited!

 

The seated Buddha statue

The standing Buddha statue

The reclining Buddha statue

 

The sun was starting to set and we were running out of time to see all of the things that we had planned to during that day so we decided to finish our day in Polonnaruwa by visiting the Kiri Vehera and the Lankathilake shrine. The Kiri Vehera [Milk Stupa] is a milky white dagoba that is the best preserved out of all of Sri Lanka’s unrestored dagobas. Built by King Parakramabahu’s consort, Queen Subhadra, the dagoba is known for its perfect proportions.

The Kiri Vehera

Close to the Kiri Vehera is the Lankathilake Shrine. This 55 foot high structure with brick walls and a colossal standing statue of Lord Buddha is one of the most breath taking Buddhist shrines in Asia. Although only the ruins remain and the head of the Buddha statue isn’t there, you could can’t help but feel enchanted by it. Even the 80’s pop group Duran Duran was impressed as they featured the shrine and a few other parts of Polonnaruwa in their music video ‘Save a Prayer’.

The grand Lankathilake Shrine

The standing Buddha statue sans the head inside the Lankathilake Shrine