Colombo, Sri Lanka - April 24

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reclining Buddah



temple



monk at the temple

Although we were worried about the weather today after yesterday’s downpour, we woke up to relatively clear skies. We visited a Buddhist temple today and although we have visited many Buddhist temples in the last month this one was unique. There seemed to be more actual Buddhist worshipers here than there had been in other temples. The Buddhist temples are more like complexes than just stand-alone buildings and this one was no different. There is a main temple but this main building is the centre of an outdoor worship space. The worshipers here offer water, flowers, burn incense and pray. As usual we have to take our shoes off. This temple is different from the Thai temples as shoes have to come off outside the entire outdoor complex rather than just the temple. The complex has sand throughout.

Buddah at temple



monks



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Our main destination for the day is Sri Lanka’s elephant orphanage. Although this is 80K down the road, it takes about 2.5 hours to get to with a 10 min ‘comfort’ stop. There isn’t exactly what you’d call a highway here. By the time we approach the elephant orphanage we are in the thick of the jungle. This jungle is full giant thick lush vegetation – exactly what I think of when I think of jungle. Plus this area of Sri Lanka is very hilly which makes the jungle seem to go on forever when you look into the distance.

Apparently Sri Lanka’s elephant population in the 70s had dropped to less than 1000 when this orphanage was established. This orphanage is for elephants that have lost habitat, been injured mostly from farmers shooting them or have lost their parents.  Now Sri Lanka’s elephants number around 6000. As we arrived at the orphanage we walked down to the river where we are told the elephants are bathing. What that meant was that there were about 60 elephants hanging out in a river with a handful of mahout handlers. Then the handlers started shepherding them up the river bank and straight up a main street of the small village – unbelievable. It ended up being a bit more zoo-ish than I had hoped, but not really that much. Just as we made it back to the bus at the end of our visit the skies opened up and it just poured.