'Brown Shrike', Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

We saw this 'Brown Shrike' - Lanius cristatus - also called the 'Philippine Shrike' at the edge of the Sithawake free trade zone, Avissawella, Sri Lanka. I used a Fujifilm HS20 EXR with a 30X zoom to capture these pictures.

The Kelany Ganga at Aswaththe, Puwakpitiya, Sri Lanka.

The peace and serenity of the gently flowing waters of the Kelany Ganga is seen in this photo. This river can become a raging muddy torrent after rains in the central hills of Sri Lanka.

The Kelani Ganga at Aswaththe near Puwakpitiya, Sri Lanka.

People bathing in the river at Aswaththe, Sri Lanka.

The Demmodara railway line loop, Sri Lanka.

The descent from Bandarawela to Badulla is very steep. The railway line takes a loop around a mountain. It circumbulates the top of a mountain and passes through a tunnel in the same mountain below the first circuit. This is the famous 'Demmodara loop'. You can see the top of the mountain where the railway is making its first circuit in these two pictures which I took on a trip to Badulla.

Two 'Moon stones' - 'Sandakadapahana' S, Kelaniya Vihare, Sri Lanka.

The stepping stone is quite common at the entrance to quite a few 'vihares' in present day Sri Lanka. The 'Moon-stone' was an object of veneration for the adherents of the 'Mahayana' sects in the early days of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. It represented the progressive advancement in the circles of existence till the center of Nirvana was reached. This object of veneration was symbolically degraded as a stone to step on, by the Theravada purists, according to the Mahayanists. But it still survives as an aesthetically pleasing piece of stone sculpture. I saw these two pieces at the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara being stepped on, by devotees on the way to the inner sanctum.