When you go to another country, one of the things you just gotta do is go to the temples and historical sites. So, we did. We visited temples, ancient palaces, and an ancient wonder of the world, called Sigiriya.
During these little stops, Presanne (our driver) would get a guide for us. The guides he picked out for us to hire were so knowledgeable! They taught us so much about each of the places that we went. Each time we got there and he suggested a guide, we hesitated. But each time we did, it was definitely worth it! One time, we declined getting a guide. But Presanne, knowing we were all teachers, felt like it would really benefit us. So he paid for the guide. Once again, extreme hospitality. And a guide who has our best interests in mind.
One of our stops was to the ruins of the ancient palace. We sat on the king's lounge, danced on the entertainment stage, dove into the pool, and sat on the king's "throne."
It's fascinating to see the ways different cultures honor their gods. I've seen Buddhist temples in a number of countries, and each are different. The Chinese use a lot of bright red hues in their temples. Thais use gold, everywhere. In Sri Lanka, most of the temples (at least the ones we saw) were stark white, which really stood out against the blue sky. Inside the temples, however, where the actual Buddha statues were, they were quite colorful.
We typically had to take off our shoes before going onto the grounds of any of the temples. And in the heat of the day, that meant our feet almost burnt... many a times. After we finished these temples, Presanne suggested we visit some others, but we declined, hoping to save our feet for the other strenuous walking we knew we would be doing later on the trip.
One of the temples that we went to later during the week was further up in the mountains. This temple was carved out of some caves. If I understood correctly, the statues were carved directly out of those rocks! It was fascinating to see all the Buddhas in these caves, so different than the brightly pained ones elsewhere, but nonetheless beautiful.
The hard part about visiting temples is that we see hundreds of lost people, searching for meaning and life in a false god. They offer sacrifices, say prayers, walk on the hot pavement multiple times, hoping to be seen by their god. It reminds me how important my job is, teaching young children the truth. So that they, in turn, can share with their families, who worship in this way.
A special thanks to Jon and Janna and Lauren for their fantastic photo skills on this trip. It would not be as well photographed without them.
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