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The Sigiriya Royal Gardens. Analysis of the Landscape Architectonic Composition
Abstract and Figures
Besides the efforts that are of descriptive and celebrative nature, studies related to Sri Lanka’s historical built heritage are largely to view material remains in historical, sociological, socio-historical and semiological perspectives. But there is hardly any serious attempt to view such material remains from a technical-analytical approach to understand the compositional aspects of their designs. The 5th century AC royal complex at Sigiriya is no exception in this regard.The enormous wealth of information and the unearthed material remains during more than hundred years of field-based research by several generations of archaeologists at Sigiriya provide ideal opportunity for such an analysis. The present study is, therefore, to fill the gap in research related to Sri Lanka’s historical built heritage in general and to Sigiriya in particular. Therefore the present research attempts to read Sigiriya as a landscape architectonic design to expose its architectonic composition and design instruments.The study which is approached from a technical-analytical point of view follows a methodological framework that is developed at the Landscape Design Department of the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology. The study reveals that the architectonic design of Sigiriya constitutes multiple design layers and multiple layers of significance with material-spatial-metaphorical-functional coherence, and that it has both general and unique landscape architectonic elements, aspects, characteristics and qualities.The richness of its composition also enables to identify the landscape architectural value of the Sigiriya, which will help re-shape the policies related to conservation and presentation of Sigiriya as a heritage site as well as the protection and management as a green monument. The positive results of the study also underline that the methodology adapted in this research has devised a framework for the study of other examples of historical gardens and landscapes of Sri Lanka, which will eventually provide insight into the typological aspects of the possible Sri Lankan tradition of landscape design.
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... They can take many forms from simple written messages to elaborate drawings and are considered either as acts of vandalism [3] or admired as a from of art [4]. They exist since ancient times [1,2] and can carry political, social, artistic or any other message. Graffiti are primarily associated with different subcultures such as hiphop youth or street art movements. ...
... This is manifested across cultures and covers simple inuksuit built by Inuit peoples for navigation and as a point of reference marking routes or sites, to scribbled messages on the walls of ancient buildings denoting ones presence and appreciation of the site. The later form can be seen for example on the walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem scribbled by the crusaders and pilgrims (see left side of Figure 1) or on the Mirror wall in an ancient village of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka (see right side of Figure 1) featuring over 1800 pieces of prose, poetry and commentary written by ancient tourists between 600AD and 1400AD [2]. ...
Since ancient times travellers and tourists were carving or writing their names and messages on historic landmarks. This behaviour has prevailed to this day as tourists try to leave their marks at places they visit. Such behaviour, today often seen as vandalism, is particularly problematic since the society tries to preserve historic landmarks while graffiti often leave indelible markings. One solution to this problem is to allow tourists to write digital graffiti projected on historic landmarks and other public surfaces as an additional tourist offer. Projection of digital information on walls does not leave permanent marks while still allows authors to “physically” mark the place they visited. In this paper we frame our vision and highlight the approach we plan to pursue within the context of this topic.
... This historical graffiti was not created merely at the beginning of the tourist boom in the 19th century but also many centuries earlier, e.g., in times of the Crusades in Jerusalem (Kljun, Pucihar 2015). They were also left behind by subsequent generations of travellers visiting the same place over centuries (as examples, we may mention the so-called Mirror Wall, Sigiriya, where inscriptions from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries may be found [Cooray 2012], or Persepolis in Iran [Bhati, Pearce 2016: 92]). There are also multiple other locations, having been famous attractions in the centuries gone by, that were subject to marking at all places frequented by tourists, but are relatively less popular tourist destinations today (Fig. 1). ...
Chylińska D., kosmala g., 2023. The 'I was here' syndrome in tourism: The case of Poland. Quaestiones Geographicae 42(2), Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Poznań, pp. 53-69. 5 figs, 3 tables. abstraCt: Tourism appropriates tourist attractions and takes possession of them, marking them both physically and symbolically. Tourists visiting attractions tend to create distinctive marks, usually characterised by some significance in terms of self-identification, on the places and monuments visited by them, and this could be regarded as a symptom of a specific 'I was here' syndrome; in the present study, the authors examine the prevailing practices of marking attractions in tourist spaces, as also the marks themselves. We endeavour to identify the nature of the phenomenon and the consequences for both the attractions and the subjects managing them. The survey carried out involved several chosen sites in Poland, all of which are characterised by a recognised historic status in the realm of public space as well as a clearly identified sociocultural or legal value, which by definition imposes the requirement for adhering to a certain behavioural code when within their precincts and towards them, and excludes other kinds of behaviour. These attractions are all subject to different forms of institutionalised control, which, however, fails when it comes to safeguarding them from the practices of marking undertaken typically by tourists; these occurrences have become a routine phenomenon, which is unsurprising given the fact that the rituals of the contemporary mass and mediatised tourism have made this kind of tourist behaviour common, albeit on a lower scale than previously expected.
... Also, a chronological placement of the garden landscape design of the Sigiriya WHS about other royal gardens found in the world timeline ( Fig 5) is another comparison. Source: (Cooray, 2012) Visitors are often interested as well as curious to know the initial appearance of the heritage monuments or sites, which are in ruined states at present. The heritage professionals and digital solution developers are collaborating in accomplishing this requirement by conjecturing the possible monuments based on scientific evidence (Fig 7-8). ...
‘On-site interpretation’ is a critical success factor in conveying the significance and multiple heritage values of a cultural heritage site to the visitors. The initial assessment done on the current status of the on-site interpretation at six Cultural World Heritage Sites (CWHS) in Sri Lanka under this study, unveiled the need for a ‘Value-based interpretation strategy’ and integration of ‘appropriate’ digital interpretation techniques with the existing techniques. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to explore the potential digital interpretation techniques and their applicability, aiming at enhancing the level of on-site interpretation of Sri Lankan CWHS. The data gathered through thirteen in-depth interviews with respective professionals, on-site observations, a literature survey, and a survey questionnaire of 505 respondents, were analyzed against 24 criteria, categorized under six themes (Site condition, Legal and Regulatory concerns, Technical and Financial feasibility, Content preparation, Implementation, and Sustainability), which were developed as the theoretical framework for the present study by referring the literature. It was determined that ‘Augmented Reality (AR) enabled Mobile apps’, a combination of Mobile apps and Mobile-AR technology, are feasible and appropriate for all six CWHS. This study recommends a dedicated app for each CWHS, enriched with Mobile-AR modules (virtual tour guide, virtual markers for visitor navigation, virtual reconstructions, AR filters), Comparisons to world context, Customizable itineraries, Side-tabs of heritage values, User engagement features, etc., to provide a tailor-made and innovative visitor experience in complying with the value-based interpretation strategy. In addition, the study presents a set of recommendations for the proposed apps under the themes of ‘Content creation’, ‘Organizational adaptability’, ‘Policy changes’, ‘Partnerships and Promotion’, and ‘Post-Implementation Evaluation and Extended Uses’ for a successful future implementation. The composite outcome of the present study could be followed as a reference model in enhancing the level of on-site interpretation at the CWHS of the country but not limited to.
... It has been reported that Greeks have constructed water wheels to grind the wheat for preparing flour, to saw timber and also to power their textile mills. The ancient Sri Lankan kingdom Sigiriya is also known to be the world's oldest water garden and they have built a series of gravity-fed fountains using some sophisticated hydraulic technologies over 1600 years ago and some of these fountains are still functioning today ( Cooray, 2012 ). The ancient Sri Lankans are also well known for their use of hydraulic technologies in aspects such as agriculture ( Dharmasena, 2010 ) and irrigation engineering ( Gunasekara, 2004 ). ...
Undoubtedly, the whole world has been forced to increase the use of clean/renewable energy sources particularly due to the alarming environmental concerns that have been caused by fossil fuels based emissions/pollution and also with the predicted depletion of those fossil fuel reserves. Over the last few decades, the global fossil fuel consumption has been increased significantly (i.e., 136,761 TWh in 2019 which is a 45% increase since 2000) with the rapid industrialisation of many economies and also with the increase of the energy intensiveness of the domestic lifestyle. Hence, switching to renewable energy sources is a current key global priority to restore the balance of nature. Of the renewable energy reserves, hydropower has been one of the major sources which date back to 1770s. The efficiency of hydropower turbines is highly affected by the performance of their runner wheel as it serves as the main unit that is responsible for extracting the energy from the flowing water. Hence, this research aims to investigate the design and optimisation approaches for a runner wheel of a Kaplan turbine. Initially, a detailed theoretical design was carried out for defining the main features of the runner and it gave a theoretical efficiency of around 94%. Usually, theoretical designs are based on numerous simplifying assumptions and hence these designs might provide an approximate solution only. This fact was established as the CFD model implemented for the exact same theoretical design achieved only an efficiency of 59.98%. Hence, CFD was used to further analyse and also to modify the theoretically proposed design where the effects of the inlet/outlet tangential velocities of the blades, pressure distribution across the runner, and the number of blades were evaluated and modified to improve the energy extraction capacity of the runner. The CFD results showed that the original theoretically designed runner could be optimised to reach an efficiency of 93.01% with carefully performed modifications. Overall, the inlet and outlet angles of the blades presented a significant impact on the Kaplan turbine's power generation performance. Eventually, a comprehensive comparison of the theoretical, CFD-theoretical and CFD-optimised designs are presented with possible recommendations for improving the power generation efficiency of a Kaplan turbine.
An architectural feature called the Mirror Wall transformed Sigiriya, Sri Lanka in the 7th century. Between the 7th and 13th centuries, visitors inscribed their experiences onto this wall, telling stories of how the landscape had been planned to curate their experiences, although indirectly. This visitor record represents the set of practices for a new literary language made from spoken Sinhala. It required visiting the place, evoking mental images of its features, and representing those images in a highly regulated poetic text. Going to Sigiriya was a rite of passage for many—and an important historical event. It consolidated both an emergent literary community and its designed landscape through textualized response. Studied all together, this architectural location made to look like a mirror, its setting, and the visitor responses can alter our ideas about Sigiriya’s gardens.
Bundelkhand is a region in central India demarcated on the basis of uniform socio-cultural practices. During the later eighteenth and early nineteenth century, a peculiar garden-style developed under the patronisation of the princely states in Bundelkhand. The gardens of Bundelkhand have a characteristic typology and identical gardens can be seen all across Bundelkhand. These walled gardens consist of an outhouse (kothi), a temple, well, stepwell (baoli/bawdi), irrigation channels (milai), and memorial structures. Their distinctiveness illustrates how regional styles flourished despite the influence of the Mughal, Rajput and Colonial styles which otherwise dominated the Indian garden landscape in this period. Following the authors’ previous papers on the typology of Bungali gardens, the present paper compares them with the other established garden types in India: Mughal, Rajput and Colonial. The comparison is helpful to understand the development of regional garden style, sometimes influenced by other typologies, yet which developed into an independent type.
In ancient Java, pangolin was a symbolically loaded animal. Its representations in Old Javanese literature and visual art are, however, rare. The pangolin is mentioned four times in the Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa, composed between the middle of the 9th and the first quarter of the 10th century CE. A pangolin is also represented in a narrative relief of Caṇḍi Śiva, in Prambanan, and a very large skeleton of pangolin was found interred under the Caṇḍi Nandi standing in front of the Śiva temple. This article tries to make sense of this sparse evidence, interpreting the pangolin of the Javanese court imaginaire as a military, apotropaic animal and a demon slayer. The natural characteristics of the pangolin, such as its scaly skin, and especially its diet, based almost exclusively on ants and termites – insects standing for adharma and demonic qualities in pre-Islamic Java – made pangolin a powerful “consumer” of demonic śakti – and hence an apotropaic animal.
The special feature of the ancient civilization of Ceylon was its irrigation works. Two different systems of irrigation were adopted. The water was impounded in reservoirs from which water was gradually released to the paddy fields, and in other cases the rivers were diverted into long excavated channels which conveyed water to more distant lands. This paper compares the parameters of a few selected ancient reservoirs with present-day design criteria. Reservoir construction largely depended on the invention of Bisokotuwa or the sluice. It is believed that the mechanism of the sluice was introduced to the world by ancient engineers of Ceylon. In any case there can be no doubt that the credit for its development and the extension of irrigation reservoirs on the island is due to some of the rulers of Ceylon.
An ancient irrigation technology based on natural drainage basins, namely, ’tank-cascade’ systems, in a tropical monsoonal environment is analysed on the basis of available information. An attempt has been made to identify the causes that led this system to persist over long periods of history. It is thought that some equilibrium of the cascade system with nature and the prevailing social organization that supported to maintain it, constituted the main raison d’etre. In this context, particular attention is drawn to the possible existence of a resource management system in which necessity for coordination of different components of the cascade was built into the system so that a self-regulating mechanism became eventually established.