Polonnaruwa page

This covers our visit to the site at Polonnaruwa.  It is described as more mentally accessible than Anuradhapura as it is geographically smaller.  It also seems to be less used for active worship (and either more ruined, or less restored).

This first image appears to be the subject of a major academic stoush between those who believe it to be the statue of a King who was a strong believer in the value of agriculture (thus holding a ploughshare) and an opposing school who believe it to be a monk holding a scroll.  At present the 'King' school are in the ascendant.

Before being trashed this building was a stepped 7 story edifice.

A dwarf: they are a very common motif in the stone carvings.

A balustrade

A guardstone for the end of a balustrade.  Note the 2 dwarfs at the feet of the main character.

I believe this was a shrine for the Tooth when it was held here.  At least three such shrines were built on the site (by successive kings).

These are flowers offered to the Buddha. This is a particularly dense collection as the buddha in question is particularly important (and there were a whole lot of pilgrims nearby listening to a famous monk.

 This is part of the crowd listening to the monk.  They were predominantly elderly females causing some thought to be given to whether they were the Sri Lankan equivalent of the CWA!  At one point a laugh went up and it appeared that this was because a combination of the demography, lunch and the warm sun was causing a few folk to listen with their eyes shut.  The monk spotted this and passed a remark on the matter!