Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Story of Sigiriya: History of Sigiriya

The Story of Sigiriya: History of Sigiriya

Ponnamperuma, Senani

Paperback

Art HistoryGeneral AsiaIndian & South Asian History

ISBN10: 0987345192
ISBN13: 9780987345196
Publisher: Nsm Ponnamperuma
Published: Sep 30 2017
Pages: 176
Weight: 1.06
Height: 0.48 Width: 8.00 Depth: 10.00
Language: English

The historical facts surrounding the story of Sigiriya and its builder King Kasyapa is a tale of cruelty, intrigue, vision, grandeur, chivalry, betrayal, and abandonment.

In the fifth century, Kasyapa acquires his throne by murdering his father, who he has plastered up alive into a wall. Tormented by guilt, he abandons his capital and flees into the inhospitable forests of central Sri Lanka. There, in an area dominated by a massive column of rock 660 feet high, he builds his royal citadel, a terrestrial paradise of gardens, pavilions, and ponds. He transforms the once foreboding column of rock to appear like a huge white cloud. Around its girth, he paints an exquisite tapestry depicting semi-nude celestial nymphs. On an escarpment halfway up this formidable rock, he constructs a gatehouse in the form of a sphinx-like lion giving his lair its name, Sigiriya-Lion Mountain. Atop the rock, he builds himself a sky palace of unparalleled beauty to emulate Alakamanda, the city of the gods. Hidden from view, he lives in splendid isolation tormented by guilt and fear, finally coming to a gruesome end. Then his splendid city disappears and is forgotten until rediscovered thirteen centuries later by an adventurous young British army officer on an elephant hunt.

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