Uga Ulagalla is a fabulous estate hotel with luxurious villas that we thoroughly enjoyed. It is not far from Anuradhapura, an immense area of ancient monasteries with enormous dagobas, once home to 11,000 monks.
We loved Uga Ulagalla, from start to finish it was a wonderful place to stay.
After a hot, tiring day we arrived late in the afternoon and were greeted by the smiling hostess who checked us in and went through a lovely welcome ceremony with us involving lighting an oil lamp and ringing a bell.
Then we were whisked to our room on one of the hotel's buggies, passing rice paddies, streams and lakes, all part of the estate.
We had such a beautiful suite of rooms in a villa, right on the edge of the estate overlooking paddy fields.
it had an entrance hall with a large living room and bathroom on one side and a bedroom with huge bathroom on the other.
Outside we had a long terrace with a pool - bliss.
It was lovely to sit on the terrace and spot birds in the paddy fields or coming to drink at the pool.
After unpacking I was straight in the pool then a cold beer on the terrace.
Later a buggie came to take us up to the main building for dinner, preceded by cocktails on the bar's terrace.
The macaques swarmed in the trees and could be a bit of a nuisance at meal times, trying to steal food from the tables in the open restaurant on the first floor.
We had a busy schedule on our trip to Sri Lanka but spent a day at Uga Ulagalla just enjoying the hotel and grounds. I took a horse ride in the morning around the estate which was really lovely. I was accompanied by a groom and Katharina who also looks after the Elephant Research Centre at the hotel.
My horse, Rolex, was very placid, but always tempted by the palm leaves which he loves.
The lakes are beautiful, very tranquil, and we spotted two beautiful colourful kingfishers and a brown fish owl. One of the lakes is a huge man-made tank, 2,000 years old, with irrigation channels.
We went to the new electric fence being built to protect the village from the elephants, and so protect the elephants. 400 elephants and 170 people were lost in conflicts between the two last year.
It was a bit rough underfoot where the mud had been churned up during recent rains and had now dried. It held the huge footprints of Adpo, the big tusker who lives here.
Later we went to investigate the Elephant Research Centre. Katharina explained all the projects they have ongoing to try to protect the elephants. They install electric fences of sufficient voltage to scare the elephants without harming them. After rains they repair village roads, explaining to the villagers that this is only possible through money gained from tourists wanting to see the elephants. They also install reverse osmosis plants to purify water and provide opportunities for the local women and try to educate the people, especially the children, about the elephants and why they react and walk where they do.
Anuradhapura is enormous, the birthplace of Sri Lanka's Buddhist culture and Sinhalese capital for over 1400 years. It was finally abandoned after being burned and looted in 993 AD when the capital moved to Polonnaruwa.
The complex had separate areas for different types of inhabitants such as huntsmen and foreigners and a sophisticated hydrological system with reservoirs and a network of canals.
Among the buildings are monasteries, temples and dagobas - some of them truly enormous.
A sacred Bo Tree was planted next to his palace by the ruler Devanampiya Tissa who had converted to Buddhism around 260 BC.
Ruwan, our driver and sometime guide, hired an extremely knowledgeable local guide for us to explain the site.
We first went to see Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, the sacred Bo Tree, in the Mahamewma Gardens. It grew from a cutting taken from the fig tree at Bodhi Gaya in Bihar, India where Buddha achieved enlightenment, and is highly revered by Buddhists. The heavier limbs of the tree are supported by scaffolding. The original Bo Tree was cut down in the 2nd century BC so this one is very much venerated and the source of cuttings from which all other Bo Trees in Sri Lanka are grown.
We walked to the next site, the Ruwanweli Dagoba, a huge white dome. On the way we passed a long covered space where people were lighting oil lamps and incense and the North Gate leading to the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi.
Close to the North Gate is the Lovamahapaya (Brazen Palace). King Devanampiya Tissa built a chapter house here for the monastic guardians of the Bo Tree. This was hugely enlarged by King Dutugamunu into a nine storey 1,000 room palace roofed with copper tiles giving the palace its name.
The principal building material was timber and not very long after it was built it burned down. It underwent many reincarnations over the centuries, variously going through stages of seven and five storeys All that is left today are 1,600 pillars - 40 rows of 40.2
Ruwanweli is over 2,000 years old. Commissioned by King Dutugamunu in 144BC.It is 103m high, the second tallest dagoba constructed in the ancient world. and the tallest building in Asia when it was built. It was surpassed only by nearby Jetavana Dagoba built in 280AD.
It was restored many times over the centuries then fell into a state of neglect - a billboard nearby shows how the dagoba looked in 1809 before work to return it to its current beautiful appearance began at the end of the 19th century.
Inside the dagoba is a reclining Buddha, though it is quite difficult to see and take photographs of, because it is behind glass.
Ruwan ferried us between the various parts of the enormous site otherwise it would have taken much longer to see.
Heading for the northern Abhayagiriya Monastery we stopped briefly to see Thuparamaya, the oldest Buddhist Dagoba in Anuradhapura and believed to be the first built in Sri Lanka. It was begun in the third century BC, originally in the form of a paddy heap called Dhanyakara. It has been much restored over the centuries but retained its original shape until renovations of 1862 changed it completely to a bell shape.3
Abhayagiriya Monastery is spread out over a wide area and in the fifth century housed 5,000 monks. The facilities included lodgings, a kitchen, and a refectory.
The monks had to collect a ticket for their meal from a separate building before proceeding to the refectory.
A huge canoe-shaped vat, 19m long, for rice is situated to one side of the dining area. There is a smaller vat nearby for other food such as curry. The larger of the vats has a capacity greater than the volume of 5,000 alms bowls.
Water was provided via water channels after passing through a charcoal filtering system.
We walked to the nearby Elephant Pond.
This massive man-made tank is 159m long, 52.7m wide and 9.5m deep4 and is fed through underground channels from a nearby reservoir. It was used as the monks' bathing pool.
Its name probably derives from its huge size.
Further north is the Ration House where the monks were issued with a ticket so that they could collect food in the refectory.
Nearby is the Burrows Pavilion, the entrance porch to a Bodhi Tree Shrine, restored by Mr S M Burrows.
Carrying on north we came to the Ratnaprasada (7th-10th century AD), or Chapter House, where the monks gathered twice a month to confess their sins.
In the 10th century Abhayagiriya inscription it was said that the Ratnaprasada was a five storey divine mansion. The present structure was built over the original structure constructed by King Kanitthatissa (164-192AD).
On to another monastic complex to the north and its famous moonstone.
The most impressive building at Abhayagiriya is the dagoba, built in the first century BC and renovated a thousand years later. At the base it has a diameter of 106m and rises to a height of 75m, though it would originally been higher as the spire is damaged.
Almost 3 million bricks were used in its conservation in 1997, many millions more must make up the whole of the building.
East of the dagoba is a serene Samadhi Buddha dating from the 5th to 6th centuries. It sits within a Bodhi Tree shrine, one of four at Abhayagiriya, and is said to be the most exquisite in Sri Lanka.
I bought hyacinth flowers as an offering to the
Samadhi Buddha.It is thought that there were once four Buddhas at this shrine. Though the square pit where the Bodhi Tree was planted has been discovered, the tree itself is long gone.
Half a kilometre east is the 6th century Kuttam Pokuna - Twin Ponds. One behind the other their total length is 75m, both 17m wide. They were used as a bathing place by the monks.
A rather longer drive took us to Basawakkulama Tank with a fine view towards Anuradhapura with four dagobas visible, rising above the trees.
Basawakkulama Tank is a man-made reservoir supplying Anuradhapura with water for almost 2500 years.4
Back through the countryside to our final visit, Jetavana Dagoba. This was the main feature of Jetavana Monastery, built during the reign of King Mahasena (272-303AD), and was the tallest brick building in the world at that time and the third tallest of any building after the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre in Egypt. More than 93 million bricks were used in its construction.
In common with most ancient buildings, it has been renovated and developed many times. When it was renovated in the twelfth century it was 120m high. Now, with its broken spire, it is 73m high.
