Up well before our alarms once again, we enjoyed a gigantic hotel breakfast buffet designed to appeal to American, European, Chinese, and Sri Lankan guests. This is a big hotel, and easily more than half of the guests here are Chinese tourists and business people. It was difficult to find a seat in the dining room, but we ate well.
We began the day with a drive around the city, stopping briefly at the city hall — a building designed to copy the White House and Capital of Washington, DC — and the Independence Monument, which will be the focal point for a big celebration soon, on February 4, Sri Lankan independence day. We had a lengthy explanation of the various symbolic features of the monument, as well as an historical sketch of some of the events in late British colonial history leading up to an independent Sri Lanka.
Other sites included the largest school in the country — a somewhat upper-crust private “college” for grades 4-12 attended by the children of many government officials and top business people. It also happens to be the alma mater of our tour leader, because his mother worked at the national bank, or as he explained it, the “federal reserve” of Sri Lanka. We also saw a horse-racing track and grand stand built by the British, now renovated into a shopping mall and rugby stadium.
The home of the country’s president was on the list, as were the newly built national theater and art center, a Chinese-built business and convention center, and a number of embassies and other spots.
We then drove to the outskirts of the city where we visited a training center for Buddhist monks. The building is relatively new and rather impressive, but the head monk currently has only 4 students — all young boys aged 9-14 (who could have passed for several years younger). The boys greeted us with refreshing cold, wet wash clothes and an herbal drink. They were excited to show us examples of the few items that a monk is allowed to own — a rice bowl, bowl stand, razor for shaving, winter and summer robes, a sleeping mat, and a book of Buddha's teachings.
We then removed our shoes and went inside to meet the abbot. He is a rather impressive person, mid-40s, who has earned degrees at universities in both Britain and Canada. His English is excellent (English is one of three official languages of Sri Lanka, and the primary language of government, but many ordinary people speak only a little). He speaks softly, but with an air of authority.
The monk wanted to hear about each of us, and went around the room asking our names, where we live, our families, etc. Interestingly, our tour leader had not asked us to introduce ourselves to one another as a group, so this was also our opportunity to learn new things about our fellow travelers. He then gave a bit of background about Buddhism. He finished somewhat abruptly when some very loud drumming began just outside — the community was being called to the mid-day ceremony, and we would all be participating.
Our first task was to each prepare a lotus blossom by folding back the petals and removing the stem in a particular way we were shown. The finished, opened blossom was then set afloat in a small bowl of water on a tray, and we solemnly marched upstairs, single file, to the reliquary where we presented our “offerings,” in turn, to the monks. We then returned downstairs and lit small votive candles, and carried these on trays once again, but this time to the main meditation hall. Again we lined up and presented our candles, but before doing so we each lit a stick of incense and placed it in a bowl of sand in front of the Buddha. I apparently didn’t have mine lit long enough before shaking out the flame, because it immediately went out and did not smoke. Sorry, Buddha!
We took our seats on cushions in the meditation hall, and received instruction from the head monk regarding how to sit and how to hold our hands in the ceremony. Then he and the young boys began the chant. It wasn’t exactly a Lutheran Kyrie, but there were some similarities to Gregorian in how it all functioned.
The next task was feeding the monks. We had done something similar on our Ancient Kingdoms trip to southeast Asia a few years ago, But instead of just a ball of sticky rice for breakfast, this was the main meal of the day as prepared by men from the surrounding neighborhood. The monks filed by us silently, each with rice bowl in hand, and we each had a dish or two we were responsible to dish up. Each monk would indicate with a hand signal when he had received enough, and then he moved on. We learned that young boys can be picky eaters, even if they are monks.
After the monks finished eating, we returned to the abbot’s room for a meditation lesson (very relaxing, but I did not achieve enlightenment), and further teaching about Buddhism. Finally, it was our turn to eat. The men had prepared a soup and a couple additional dishes for us, in addition to the remainder of what we had served the monks. It was every bit as good as the previous evening’s buffet.
The monks seemed to feel it was important for us to have a group photo with them, and we obliged, then put our shoes back on and returned to the bus. Nearby, we visited a much older and very elaborate Buddhist temple and stupa. Here, too, shoes were forbidden, and the grounds were mostly loose sand.
The place was quite busy with locals visiting to pray, and also with a crew of men doing the annual temple cleaning prior to a major festival coming up next week. We had never seen a
Buddha statue get dusted before. A very long-handled mop is required, apparently.
Returning to the hotel for a bit of rest time, the first order of business was getting into the bathtub for a foot washing!
At 5 p.m. we drove down to the old city of Colombo, near the seaport docks. Many of the old colonial buildings are in the process of renovation. For quite a few years, during the Tamill Tiger rebellion, the area was unsafe. Buildings were left vacant and decaying. Now the Sri Lankans are reclaiming this heritage. The old Dutch Hospital, built in the late 1600s, is now a shopping mall. Several British buildings are being turned into hotels, restaurants, or shops.
A couple folks stayed in the old city to eat at one of the tony new restaurants. We felt we’d already had two big meals, and opted to return to the hotel for a small snack and to get ready to check out and hit the road the next day. Our surprise was that, by some error, the hotel computer system had “checked us out,” and all members of our group were soon gathered at the front desk in the lobby, complaining that their room key cards wouldn’t work. We finally got into the room to settle in for the night.
We began the day with a drive around the city, stopping briefly at the city hall — a building designed to copy the White House and Capital of Washington, DC — and the Independence Monument, which will be the focal point for a big celebration soon, on February 4, Sri Lankan independence day. We had a lengthy explanation of the various symbolic features of the monument, as well as an historical sketch of some of the events in late British colonial history leading up to an independent Sri Lanka.
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| National Theater |
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| Independence Monument |
The monk wanted to hear about each of us, and went around the room asking our names, where we live, our families, etc. Interestingly, our tour leader had not asked us to introduce ourselves to one another as a group, so this was also our opportunity to learn new things about our fellow travelers. He then gave a bit of background about Buddhism. He finished somewhat abruptly when some very loud drumming began just outside — the community was being called to the mid-day ceremony, and we would all be participating.
The next task was feeding the monks. We had done something similar on our Ancient Kingdoms trip to southeast Asia a few years ago, But instead of just a ball of sticky rice for breakfast, this was the main meal of the day as prepared by men from the surrounding neighborhood. The monks filed by us silently, each with rice bowl in hand, and we each had a dish or two we were responsible to dish up. Each monk would indicate with a hand signal when he had received enough, and then he moved on. We learned that young boys can be picky eaters, even if they are monks.
After the monks finished eating, we returned to the abbot’s room for a meditation lesson (very relaxing, but I did not achieve enlightenment), and further teaching about Buddhism. Finally, it was our turn to eat. The men had prepared a soup and a couple additional dishes for us, in addition to the remainder of what we had served the monks. It was every bit as good as the previous evening’s buffet.
Buddha statue get dusted before. A very long-handled mop is required, apparently.
Returning to the hotel for a bit of rest time, the first order of business was getting into the bathtub for a foot washing!
At 5 p.m. we drove down to the old city of Colombo, near the seaport docks. Many of the old colonial buildings are in the process of renovation. For quite a few years, during the Tamill Tiger rebellion, the area was unsafe. Buildings were left vacant and decaying. Now the Sri Lankans are reclaiming this heritage. The old Dutch Hospital, built in the late 1600s, is now a shopping mall. Several British buildings are being turned into hotels, restaurants, or shops.
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| Old Dutch Hospital |
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