“Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 ~Polonnaruwa Ancient City”
Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka’s splendid medieval capital, was established as the first city of the land in the 11th Century, A.D. It replaced a neighboring area called Anuradhapura, which was plundered, made desolate and laid hopelessly bare to the invading armies of South India.
Three Kings dominate the chronicles of the city and the period. The city reached a dazzling, but pitifully brief zenith in the 12th century, and though ravaged by invasion in the centuries that followed, much evidence remains of its old grandeur and glory. The ruins of the ancient city stand on the east shore of a large artificial lake, the Topa Wewa Lake, or Parakrama Samudraya (the Sea of Parakrama), built by King Parakramabahu I (1153-86), whose reign was Polonnaruwa‘s golden age.
Within a rectangle of city walls, stand palace buildings and clusters of dozens of dagobas, temples and various other religious buildings. A scattering of other historic buildings can be found to the north of the main complex; outside the city walls and close to the main road that goes between Habarana and Dambulla.
Polonnaruwa is one of the most historically important district in Sri lanka. This was Sri Lankas second capital city, after the fall of Anuradhapura. The great king Vijayaba 1, who ruled Sri Lanka during 1055 AD to 1110 AD, was the first native ruler of this Kingdom. He defeated and chased away Chola invaders and united the whole country. Still there are large number of ancient ruins, which belong to the Polonnaruwa Kingdom that can be found throughout this area. Due to those archeological treasures, Polonnaruwa old city was named as a world heritage site by UNESCO in year 1982.
Polonnaruwa, belonging to North Central district of Sri Lanka, is mainly an agriculture based district. You can see cascading paddy fields and a well-planned irrigation network in this are. Since Polonnaruwa is located in a dry zone of Sri Lanka, ancient kings have constructed large number of tanks, which collect rain water for dry season usage. Still, to this day, those tanks and canal networks provide water for the irrigation purposes and human use. The ancient city of Polonnaruwa has about 301 acres in total, spreading out to a distance of three miles from north to south and one mile from east to west.
This standing Buddha statue is different from the other standing Buddha statues found in other parts of Sri Lanka. The arms are folded in this statue and eyes are also closed.
There is some belief, this is a statue of Ananda Thero. The sorrow pose is due to the Buddha’s Parinirwana, but since this was done on a Lotus Stage, it is really a statue of Load Buddha.
According to archaeologists, this statue was not made by king Parakramabagu, as it was completed in later history.
Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka’s splendid medieval capital, was established as the first city of the land in the 11th Century, A.D. It replaced a neighboring area called Anuradhapura, which was plundered, made desolate and laid hopelessly bare to the invading armies of South India.
Three Kings dominate the chronicles of the city and the period. The city reached a dazzling, but pitifully brief zenith in the 12th century, and though ravaged by invasion in the centuries that followed, much evidence remains of its old grandeur and glory.
The ruins of the ancient city stand on the east shore of a large artificial lake, the Topa Wewa Lake, or Parakrama Samudraya (the Sea of Parakrama), built by King Parakramabahu I (1153-86), whose reign was Polonnaruwa‘s golden age.
Within a rectangle of city walls, stand palace buildings and clusters of dozens of dagobas, temples and various other religious buildings. A scattering of other historic buildings can be found to the north of the main complex; outside the city walls and close to the main road that goes between Habarana and Dambulla.
Archive Blog Posts of Our Country Visits
About Us
About Us
Hello and Welcome to our Travel Blog Website, We enjoy writing about our experiences and taking photos of our adventuring along the way. Our names are: Daryl and Pen, but Daryl calls me “Bunny.” We met, quite randomly, whilst both… Read More