Sigiriya in focus for World Tourism Day
 

BY DERRICK Schokman

THE Ministry of Tourism will celebrate World Tourism Day, September 27, with several events at Sigiriya, a hot-spot in local tourism. This World Heritage Site has the oldest surviving landscape garden in Asia.

Prior to Sigiriya the Mahavamsa tells us of two gardens in Anuradhapura. The oldest historic tree in the world, the Sri Maha Bodhi, was planted in the Mahameghavana garden in the 3rd century BC, where it is still venerated.

The Mahameghavana was also the site for the Maha Vihara, headquarters of the first nikaya in this country.

The Nandana Garden, renamed Jotivana, gave its name to the biggest stupa in the island - the Jetavana built in the 3rd century AD in that park.

The Water Gardens of Sigiriya, created in the 5th century AD, were famous for their extensive use of water in ponds, cisterns, streams, fountains, island pavilions, and the intricate manner in which the water was supplied via underground conduits and surface channel to these places.

If you look down from the summit of the rock, you will see the cental pathway that bisects the gardens, going straight down from the slope at the base of the rock to the Western rampart.

The gardens were laid out in a grid pattern using the central pathway as the main axis in an east-west direction.

In the higher regions of the slope there are traces of pavilions and ponds, and the restored Octagonal pond.

Lower down is a long narrow brick-walled terrace, which contains the miniature water gardens.

On either side of the path in this terrace are winding shallow channels made of limestone slabs.

They were meant to carry streams of water, giving the impression of movement in an otherwise static landscape.

There are also two cisterns, one on either side, and four fountains which you will be surprised to learn still function during the raining period.

On either side of this linear terrace there were two island pavilions, connected to the land by rocks and boulders. Only traces of the pavilions can now be seen among the trees on the two islands.

The pathway finally leads you to the piece-de-resistance of the water gardens - a large rectangular precinct surrounded by brick walls.

Within this precinct is a square pool divided into four with an island in the middle, which must once have had a large pavilion. The pools could have been used for bathing.

The underground conduits bringing water to the square pool are said to be still functioning.

The ponds are connected by a cross-path to a rectangular extension on either side.

In each of these extensions there are traces of buildings (evidenced by the base stones and pockets for timber supports) surrounded by ponds.

Very briefly that's it - the excavated and conserved remains of the water gardens of Sigiriya.

They may look a little bare and forlorn now.

But you can imagine how beautiful they must have been in their heyday with decorative pavilions and mandapas in the cool environment of the ponds, and the shade of systematically planted fruit and ornamental trees which provided an ecological balance and contributed a natural charm to the built environment.