Stilt fishermen at sunset. Weligama, Sri Lanka, 2014.
Elephants were a common element in Sinhalese heraldry for over two thousand years, and remained so through British colonial rule. The coat of arms and the flag of Ceylon Government from 1875 to 1948 included an elephant, and even today many institutions use the Sri Lankan elephant in their coat of arms and insignia. An important cultural symbiosis has continued to exist between the elephant and humans for over two thousand years. No religious procession was complete without its retinue of elephants, and many large Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka had their own elephants. Tissamaharama, Sri Lanka, 2014.
The Lankatilaka temple history runs back to the Gampola Kingdom era. King Buwanekabahu IV has built this temple in 1344 AD. The King's Chief Ministers Senalankadhikara was entrusted to carry out the construction work of this temple. The South Indian architect Sthapati Rayar has designed this with a blend of Sinhalese architecture of Polonnaruwa period and of Dravidian and Indo Chinese style is the opinion of late Professor Paranavitana. Considered to be a Gedige type of Polonnaruwa architecture, this temple which was of four stories earlier, is constructed on the uneven surface of the rock with a granite based foundation. The plan of the temple protrudes to the four sides like of a cross. What is seen today is the Ground Floor and part of the First Floor of the earlier temple though the temple seems to have three stories. This temple is an example for the Buddha and God worship prevailed during Gampola era. Gods Vishnu, Saman , Vibhishana, Ganapathi, Skandhakumara and Kumara Bandara have been worshipped here. Kandy, Sri Lanka, 2014.
