Colombo and more

WEll, something is screwy with my memory card because I'm back in Chennai and a computer that was able to read it before is not able now. When I get home I'll post the rest of the photos, by then I'll also have some of the Taj hotel in Mumbai.

The train ride from Unatunawala to Colombo was wonderful, I took the slow train, 4 hours rather than waiting 2 hours for the fast train which was 2 hours, I got in at the same time and the fact that the train stopped all the time meant it slowed down enough for me to get some great shots out of the wide open windows, and it was nearly empty, most people probably opting for the later fast train.

Sometimes the train was so close to the water I felt like I could reach down and touch it, but mostly there was a highway and some land between. I saw an aray of lovely houses (and some not so lovely) most of the ones I was interested in, older more traditional styles, because they were old,were also well covered by shady palms nad thus hard to get a clear shot of. There was also a lot of Tsunami ruins along the way, foundations of houses with fragments of peoples spaces, tile walls, etc. There were some tracts of land that were empty aside from these foundations, as if it were haunted land, or maybe more likely, land disputes. The man who owned the guest house I stayed in in Unatunawala said that land is very valuable and that there is a strong mafia that also controls and tries to grab land, he has had trouble with some that he owns.

Colombo is a big beautiful city that has been a famous port for eons, but was not officially a city until the British were there, afer the Portuguese and Dutch. Most of it seems to date from that time and it seemed in some ways like a scaled down verson of Delhi. The Brits love their traffic circles with roads radiating out from all directions, which makes crossing the road, even in the much less densely populated country of Sri Lanka difficult and there never are right angles or roads that really head in solid directions which was a challenge for my fragile sense of direction even with a good detailed map.

There are a lot of beautiful mansions still standing, particularly in the area I was staying, Cinammon Gardens, which was the most exclusive neighborhood to live in, if you were British or a wealthy Ceylonese. Many are now the emgassies or other important edifices and most have high walls around them for security, making it hard to see much less photograph. And old photo of the area shows low walls and when I met with the head of the Fulbright program, he said you used to be able to see into everyones proud front gardens. I loved the charming smaller bungalow that was still the "Ladies Friendly Soceity" which was in my book Cinnamon Gardens, about the area in the 30's, for single ladies who came to the city to work.

The one older area wiht the narrow dense market streets had been badly bombed in the 90's so most of the buildings were awful modern things.

It was a nice few days of long walks and pleasant places to eat, a very nice and compared to India, laid back place, but I'm back here now, feeling very much at home. The show gets taken down tomorrow and Im off to Ahmedabad the following day.

SO, check back now and then adn I'll post the photos when I'm able to.

Catching up with photos from previous postings

Click on any image to make it larger!
At the end it seems to cut off older entries, but I believe you can click "older posts".

This is the sequel to the other photo I posted earlier of the Elephant and the bus. This happened to a bus I was on also, but it happened too fast, and I was a bit too shocked, to get out my camera. Luckily the woman whose window he chose gave up her roasted corn without a fight, I would not argue with an elephant!

Beautiful stupa in Anaradhapuram

Anuradhapuram, like the church steeple in other parts of the world, the Stupa is always so dramatic on the sky line in Asia

old and restored stupas togther in Anuradhapuram

Anaradhapuram, look at that scaffolding, it didnt look too secure to me, there were people all over it, looking like little bugs in the distance

Look at the men in the center of the stupa repairing it, I can't tell you how hot it was and they were completely covered with clothing and it didn't look too secure to me

Buddha Samadhi in Anuradhapuram. I love the woman sweeping the shrine early in the morning, I'd like to say, as in Angkor Wat in Cambodia, before the hordes of tourists arrived, but unfortunately that is not the case in under-touristed Sri Lanka

this was a Buddhist ceremony I was lucky enough to come across in Anuradhapuram, I don't know Buddhist rituals as well as Hindu ones, so I'm not sure what they were doing, but it was impressive and the drumming was terrific

Anuradhapuram was an elegant leafy city.

Polonowara, Buddha images in a ruined temple

Parinirvana, The death of the Buddha with his faithful servant Ananda at Polonowara. Its beautifully restored, but its a shame that there is a structure over it now.

Polonowara, standing Buddha in ruined stupa

stupa in the ancient ruined kingdom of Polonowara

view from Sigiria, you can see the huge Buddha in the background

Sigiria where I climbed to the top to see the ruins of a place, nice piece of real-estate!


street shrine for Shiva in Chennai, its these little shrines I stumble on all the time that I love the most about India, the only thing you are missing is the intoxicating smell of insence and often there is music playing, Shiva shrines are identified by the trident, shiva's main symbol

detail of shiva shrine

This is Cholomandal artist colony and residency that was started in the 60's south of Chennai on the east coast road. Its recently undergone a lot of renovation, this is a view of the grounds and the new state of the art gallery on the right, I hope to stay here someday.


Cholomandal visiting artist quarters

This is my new friend Shailesh who lives at Cholomandal and one of his very interesting paintings dealing with Yoga. Shailesh organizes that gallery exhibitions at Dakshinachitra and did a great job with our show. He has a vibrant personality and it would be great to get him to UConn someday on a Fulbright.

Georgeous Galle and Paradise Beach in Unatunawla

Unatunawala, the paradise beach town I'm headed to tomorrow, just a few minuites southeast of Galle

Galle New Town, which looks like a typical Indian city, but I did find the fastest email, I'm sitting on the 4th floor of one of the buildings you are looking at

from the balcony of my room at Mrs. Khalid's guest house, looking out at the ramparts of the town wall that largely saved historic Galle from any damage during the Tsunami though all the towns on either side were nearly destroyed.

Old Dutch Church, the graveyard at this church was fun to look at, a lot of the graves are in the church floor

Old Dutch church that is now a Mosque, there is a substantial Muslim community in Galle


streets in Galle

A beautiful street in Galle at sunrise

Finally the pleasure of fast email! This morning at dawn I took a short ride to Unatunawala, the beach town closest to Galle and wandered around the cresent shaped beach and up to a white Buddhist temple on a hill, you can just see it at the far end of the photo. I had breakfast at a beachside Italian cafe, read a few newspapers with increasing news about what seems to be the final days of the Tamil Tigers after 30 years of civil war. I then checked out a few possibilities of staying here for my last two days before going to intense huge Colombo on Monday afternoon. There are many more tourists here than in lonely Galle, but a fraction of the amount that a typical Indian beach town would have at this time of year. It can't be that this is an undiscovered paradise (there are nice beach towns east of this and all along the coast but this is reputed to be the nicest and its proximity to Galle make is even better for those who want more to than roaming around the beach) it must be people feeling that Sri Lanka is not yet safe or memories of the Tsunami. They said it was nearly wiped out, but with help from the many Europeans who come here all the time, it was rebuilt more quickly than any other part, and I must say, again, compared to the Indian beach towns that develop uncontrollably, its very tasteful with nice architecture but they certainly are not thinking of another possible Tsunami, as some places are built so close to the water I had to walk into the waves to get around them.

Owners of the hotels I visited were nearly begging to give me a room, dropping the prices as I hesitated, only because I wanted to explore more options. I opted for a beautiful old historic bungalow on a narrow lane leading off of the beach, it was cooler, shadier and cheaper even than my room in Galle. I move in tomorrow morning, Saturday. The room is huge with mosquito netting, and a generous balcony and the other rooms in the house are common for all. I met a nice man having breakfast who said he has been here for weeks and comes often, that it is a very hard place to leave, I can see why. When I get into the "beach town mood" I also get into roaming around all the little shops, some tacky, but some, like in India, with beautiful fabrics and clothing and many many choices of places to eat.

Galle is just gorgeous, I love wandering around,there are lots of interesting shops to pop in and out of and one beautiful building after another, and I like painting on my balcony, but the sidewalks roll up about 8pm and last night I had a sumptuous meal at the beautifully restored mansion, the Galle Fort Hotel, on a large verandah protected from the street by elegant louvered shutters, I sat there for two hours sipping an ice cold local beer and having the fusion Asian food the place is known for and aside from two white and gray spotted kittens who were begging for my prawns (I did share) I was the ONLY person at the place, it just feels too weird. I'm now also the only one in my guest house and the young man who runs it is starting to treat me like family, but "will you be home for lunch" is maybe a bit too much like family, one thing I like about traveling alone is a sense of personal privacy.

Galle reminds me a bit of Dutch Cochin and Portuguese Goa in India, but at the same time is very different. I do look forward to Colombo, after a few days on a beach, I'm always ready to be back in a city and there seems plenty to do there, I regret I'll only have 2 1/2 days but I must get back to India to take down the student show and then on to Ahmedabad to be a visiting artist at my friend Sharmila's university.

Stupas and elephants in the bus

A little "fixer-upper" in Galle, by next year this will most likely be a boutique,


Stray elephant looking for a handout in the bus


Old Dutch Building

I decided the best place to be in the midafternoon heat was in a pleasant internet cafe with a fan, even my room with its generous balcony overlooking the ancient city wall of Galle (prounounced Gaul) and the ocean beyond is too hot at this time of day. However I'm having quite a challenge putting up photos, some won't recognize the memory card, or the electricity gets cut off etc. It may be better in Colombo.

So anyway I'll describe things and hope to add photos later.
After my day seeing the old temples around Kandy several days ago, I hired a driver to take me to some wonderful caves that although they were ancient, the statues of the reclining Buddha and paintings were all 19th century so though not as old as I had thought (not like the Ajanta or Elora caves in India which were covered by forest for hundreds of years) they were still very beautiful and dramatic with the paintings and statues particularly the enormous reclining Buddha.

From there we went to an enormous geographical site, a huge rock that had ruins of a palace and some old wall paintings on the way up, it was quite a climb but I made it which surprized me as I was feeling weak still afer my cold departed. I was then dropped in one of the two ancient cities I wanted to visit, Polonorupa the smaller of the two, and rented a bike the next mornig to see ruins of an old kingdom, there were ruins of palaces stupas and huge Buddha statues. The combination of not having ridden a bike, an exceptionally hard seat and the heat was slightly distracting in terms of hoping to get into the "zone" of this ancient place. However, unlike many monuments in India where the maddingly persistent hawkers can drive you mad (or just away from the site) the distraction by hawkers or "guides" is minimal, the monuments are very well maintained and policed.

I had a pretty skanky hotel room (thanks Lonely Planet!) so headed off that afternoon after seeing the ruins on a local bus two hours away to Anuradhapuram which was a beautiful leafy city as well as having breathtakng ruins, stupas, Buddha's. You could just imagne what it looked like hundreds of years ago when 5000 monks roamed around the shady leafy paths. These ruins were much more spread out so I hired a driver to take me to the major spots for the morning and then wandered around myself in the afternoon, treating myself to lunch at one of the beautiful Raj era hotels, on a breezy verandah. It seemed that I was the only one there, indeed tourism is slow here aside from beach tourism. Locals here do not think that the war is really over but that the militants will somehow regroup.

I was up at 5 am and on an 8 hour train ride to the far south coast to Galle. Its a bit like Stonington in that its a penninsula that juts out into the ocean from the mainland but has fortified walls, some put there by the Portuguese some by the Dutchand some by the British. The whole walled city is a Unesco world heritage site while the new town outside of the walls and across from a huge cricket field, is a typical chaotic Indian town, though Sri Lanka lacks the enromours population of India and the incessant traffic, its still pretty densely crowded.

The walled town is quite large and is still a "living city" and I've enjoyed wandering the narrow streets discovering treasures of old Dutch colonial buildings, churches of various demoninations some with old graveyards, including one that has been made into a Mosque, and there are wonderful shops. There are many new hotels opening up which provide nice places to eat and enjoy a drink at night. The local people are very friendly and always say hello, particularly when walking the rampars early in the morning. The touts are another thing, but there are not too many fortunately, because I already had an arguement with one who would not seem to just let me enjoy walking around myself. You get a bit worn down by the "madame" "Hellooooo" "what do you want, where are you going, what are you looking for, just come and look in my shop......." as I just like to wander on the sreet and in my own head, but then, its a part of tourism in India and Sri Lanka (not so at all in Thailand, Cambodia or Viet Nam) so might as well accept it rather than get annoyed though it certainly tests my patience from time to time.

I'm staying at Mrs. Kahlid's beautiful guest house, where I have a generous wooden porch to myself off of my spacious 2nd floor room, my neighbors a nice Austrialian couple left this morning and if I'm lucky I'll continue to have the balcony to myself for the next 3 days while I'm here. There are endless interesting guests houses to choose from. I painted there for several hours this morning. Its an old restored house, so you can dine in the family living room, the two brothers who seem to be the main caretakers are very pleasant and are usually on the couch on the computer. I had dinner there last night, its by reservation and the other couple were travel writers from Brazil who are traveling for a year all over Asia. This morning I had breakfast and interesting conversation with the Austrialian couple who are very experienced travelers. (Its so great not to have to apologize for George Bush anymore!!) I also met a very cheery American couple at dinner in Anuradhapuram, they shared my table, and as the beer was not cold, they had a bit of a bottle of Shirmnoff left over and when we finished that, I had my newly bought bottle, mixed with fresh lime soda. So I have not been totally alone but I have to say Im usually glad that these encounters are brief because I really get into a very hermetic state when I travel (when I'm not with my buddy JC that is)

There are several nice beach towns close by and though I will probly take a bus or overpriced rickshaw to walk there when it cools off later in the day, I like my hotel and think I'll enjoy staying put for a few days and I do love the architecture. From here I go back to Colombo which we passed through on train and made me glad I have only 2 days there but to be fair you never usually see the best parts of town from the train and I just bought a novel from a Sri Lankan author about Cinnamon Gardens the neighborhood that I'll be staying at, so will read up and the explore.

Today my horiscope in the local paper said that my travels would interfere with my educational mission, how accurate since when school starts next week I'll still be in India!

Last days in Chennai, new days in Sri Lanka

Kandy lake with view of the Temple of the Tooth

Temple of the Tooth, Kandy

This is downtown Kandy, showing both new and very old buildings

Lankatilake temple, 13th century, this is a back to back temple, Buddhis on once side, Hindu on the other

It was a Buddhist holyday and many women were dressed in white, these women asked me to take their photo, so I obliged!

Tree shrine in the neighborhood I lived in in Chennai, I love how the trees are painted, this shrine is active day and night

Hi, I am in Sri Lanka now, but wanted to put up some photos from my last days in Chennai, as well as my first here. But, I discovered that its taking a whopping 7 minuites for each image to load, now I have a lot of time on my hands, but this tests even my patience. On my last two days I enjoyed again walking around my neighborhood and that of my favorite temple area early in the morning, but this time taking photos of small neighborhood or street shrines. I'll post more if I find faster service later.

I love the little roadside shrines in India amost more than the larger formal ones. There is always a certain amount of doubt if I should photograph or not, the photographer's dilemna, wanting the shot, but not wanting to exploit anyone, or be insensitive. In the large temples there are notices of where you can and can't photograph, so its easier, and I often just wait to see what other, particularly Indian, tourists are doing. there is no particular rule, mostly you can't photograph the core image in a shrine, but somtimes if you ask the priest, its ok, my friend Michael has hardly ever been turned down and you always give a small donation at the shrine anyway. In other cases I ask, or I take my camera out and hold it, allowing anyone to see that I have it and if anyone sees, they have time to tell me not to take a photo. In some small or mid-size temples, there is a caretaker family and from my experience, for a donation, they are more than happy to let you take as many photos as you want.

It was a beatiful flight to Sri Lanka, down the east coast of India, until you start to see the western coast of Sri Lanka, Colombo where the airport is near is in the middle of the east coast. I'll be there my last 2 1/2 days, its a large city, but the Fulbright director there who I've been in contact with, got me a room in a nice b&b in an old house in what sounds like the nicest parts of town, near the embasies and museums and university, because he said there were definately areas in Colombo that I should not even consider going to. (of course these were the very areas I was headed as that's where the discount hotels were, smartly this man organized it for me) plus he said the old woman who runs the place would gladly have a drink with me and watch Obama's innaguration, that's a must for me.

I headed straight up and inland to Kandy, in the hills, its the sacred city of Sri Lanka, where the temple of the Buddha's tooth is. Its formally called the Sri Dalada Maligawa) You can see that view by the building with the gold roof. The story is that the tooth was rescured from the flames of the Buddha's funeral pyre in 543 BC and smuggled to Sri Lanka in the 4th century AD hidden in the hair of a princess. It has huge importance in Sri Lanka as whoever has the tooth aparently has the right to rule the Island. The Portuguese said they stole and burned it, but the Sri Lankans said that that was a fake, and that even the one in the temple today is a fake and the real one is buried somewhere for safe keeping. There are only certain times of day to see the box the tooth is in, aparently you really get pushed along. Ironically I was in a bank being annoyed at how long it was to cash my travelers checks when this was happening so I missed it, but I saw the outside doors and the orange clad monks locking things up. I think I'll live my life ok without having seen it, the building and grounds were beaitiful. Today was a special day for Buddhists, so the place was mobbed and there were women wearing white all over. At one of the smaller temples a group of them asked me to take their photo which you see.

Some of the photos look pretty gloomy, but it was just hazy, with an antomospheric sky, and the haze was welcome for when the sun came out today, it was really hot. Occasionally there was a spot of rain, which stopped completely of course, since I bought an umbrella, my worthy sacrifice, it always works! The center piece of Kandy is a very large lake and the city clusters mostly to one side of it. I did put a photo of that, my hotel is exactly on the opposite side of the temple on the lake. For a modest $13.00 I have a large clean room with hot water, and large double doors that open onto a narrow balcony with a view of the lake. There is a very larger verandah at back where breakfast is served. Like many houses in the tropics, the original bungalows, which there unfortunately do not seem to be much left of, have very large open porches, and high peaked ceillings. I also have one photo of a street in the rather chaotic grimy part of "down-town", I believe the one I put up was of a new building on one side and a very old one on the other. There are some pretty old buildings, mostly hotels like "Queens" and "Old Empire" there is a lovely pub on a generous verandah in one with wicker chairs, I enjoyed a beer and steak there the other night. (I needed a wee break from Indian food.)

Today I took a trip to visit three 13th century temples out in the countryside, the ride was beautiful and each temple was pretty spectacular. The large white one you see is the Lanktilake Temple, which interestingly was two temples back to back, one Hindu and one Buddhist, I've shown only one side at present. Its pretty natural to see a mingling of Hindu and Buddhist imagery, not so Hindu and Muslim!

Tomorrow I hired a car to get to my next destination and on the way stop at two important sites, some cave temples with old paintings and an intersting geological site that was a palace, then to Polonnaruwa, one of the two ancient cities I'll visit, the other is about two hours from that one, Anuradhapura, then from there back to the coast at the old Dutch city of Galle, which will be the first place I'll probably have faster internet. Its intersting being here as the 30 year civil war with the Tamil Tigers agains the Sinhalese Sri Lankan army comes to an end!

Everyday I also get some painting done, its been lovely but I miss you all!

Blessings and stray dogs in Kanchipuram

This kolam must have been made by children as it seems like cartoon bunnies!

Kolams and traditional Tamil Bungalow, the Kolam is put on the threshold of the home at dawn and soemtimes at dusk with rice flower, walking over it brings the blessings of the Goddess of good fortune, Lakshmi into the house. These are usually seen most frequently in South India

Women making their kolam, people are very gracious about being photographed!

stray dogs at dawn only me, the dogs (gods also) and the chai wallas

This is the bathing tank of a small temple I came across on the way to the larger temple, I loved the reflections in the pool, south Indian temples are known by the red organge stripes

The gopuram of the temple I was searching for suddenly loomed in the distance, but it was covered by thatch, it must be being painted

I came across this ceremony bring the icon (murti) of Vishnu back into the temple

Traditional tamil house, they are much larger inside than they look from the outside usually with multiple coutryards and high ceilings for the heat

House and kolam





Click on any image to make it bigger, I tried to put some on larger today, but it takes nearly 5 minuites each, but then, I pretty much have all the time in the world here, I've even started walking slowly. The images are a little out of order, I thought some had loaded that didn't so it starts with houses, goes to temples and bakc to houses. (and stray dogs, who are more timid than they look, if I bark at them they run off with their tail between their legs)

I just had two lovely days in the 2nd holiest city in India after Varanasi, Kanchipuram. There are 5 major famous temples there, some very ancient,and others you stumble into all the time, just as beautiful, it reminded me of being in Seville Spain where you fell out of one church into another this time following the tall temple towers unique to South India,(gopurams) rather than steeples. The setting is nowhere near as grand as Varanasi on the Ganges, I'm not sure why it became such a sacred center, its a busy dusty small flat town, but pretty walkable compared to Chennai which is the most unwalkable city I've ever been in, though I keep trying as its better than haggling with rogue rickshaw drivers. Tomorrow I'll see if I can photograph or scan and post a great political cartoon in todays Times of India, they are complaining about the current political party leaders, the caption was "when Pak (Pakistan) attaks, they run to Mama (the US) but soon it will be Obama"

I was sure impressed by the temples but even more by my love of vernacular architecture, the lovely little Tamil bungalows, many orginal, some "improved" in unfortunate ways, but most still intact. They look like they would be very low roofed, but inside the ceilings are high, and they are very long, and full of interior courtyards. Some are broken into two side by side parts after a large main room open to the sky, for joint families, and the kitchen is large enough for several women to cook for their families at the same time. I found two houses that were open as museums so had a chance to see the floor plan, unfortunately I didn't get photos inside, but in one view, there was a house taken down next to one (they are like rowhouses) so you can see the length nad how the roof line goes up and down for the courtyard roofs. Doors are never closed so I tried to photograph some so you can see all the way through.

I was up at dawn to day to walk to a temple, it was only me and the stray dogs, some chai wallas, but got lost in a maze of little streets and saw women putting down their kolams in front of their very charming bungalows, (did you know Bungalow is an Indian word by the way, somes from Bengali house, the distinct type of roofline a bungalow has) anyway, soon word got around and people came out to pose with their works of art on the threshold. I got quite lost, but luckily kept the rising sun to the east and finally found someone who spoke English who could direct me to the temple which was a few miles away (I am a walker in India, the only way to see things) and amazingly I prounced the name well enough to be understood, then along the way more directions and finally I saw all the tour busses, pilgrims wearing black lungies, and the dramatic temple tower silouhette (gopuram) that I have a photo of, though it was covered with thatching as it is being painted. I have one shot of the temple well, with orange strips, reflected in the water, its where people bathe and bless themselves. I was very fortunate to witness the returing of the temple deity (this was Vishnu's neighborhood, the other temples closer to the town center are all for Shiva) the deity is carried by groups of Brahmin priests of all ages, and they are chanting and banging drums, then they stop every now and then to prostrate themselves. In South India for some reason, non-Hindus are not allowed into the inner sanctum, but there is plenty else to see.

The next time you hear from me I'll be in Sri Lanka, can't wait!

Exhibition Reception at Dakshinachitra

I had the opening of the show of Hanuman and myself and the student work at 11:00 today, very well attended and I was particularly delighted by the attendance of Adam Grotsky and his wife, the new head of the Fulbright in Delhi. There was the usual lighting of the lamp to innagurate the show, then tea followed by a talk I gave on American artists who are inpsired by India. Dakshinchiatra is a class act, they really worked hard for the show nad there wree two articles one in the times of India, under Hot picks of the Week. I'll see if I can put some photos up. Tomorrow I leave for the temple town of Kanchipuram, a 2 hour bus ride, but Deborah Thiagarajen's secretary (Deboran is the American woman who is the head of Dakshinachitra) arranged for me to be met by a man named Ashoka who runs a heritige hotel, so nice to have that all arranged for me. They really take care of their visitors. After trying to phone Sri Lanka for many days, I finally seemed to have broken through the varous country, city, codes, 0 or no 0, and reserved what sounds like a swell room with balcony overlooking a lake in Kandy, where the temple of the Buddha's tooth is, up in the mountains. I'm excited to explore new territory! I've only been gone three weeks, but it feels so much longer and I'm feeling a bit exhausted, India will definately do that for you, but there is so much to see and one does not just want to sit around, so I keep going.

Unfortunately I cant post any photos of the opening because I took them on the wrong setting and have to have the special photoshop program to open them, too bad!

K