Golden Sunsets - 50 Years Of Memories Part 13 - 1979

By now, everything is starting to collide in a heady mix of novels, television, film and comics. A book by possibly the worlds's most famous science fiction author gets the top spot - but partly because of a very special place in the South Indian ocean...

1979:

The trivia:

• On 2nd December 1979, Elvita Adams tried to kill herself by jumping off of the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. A freak gust of wind blew her back onto a ledge on the 85th floor and she suffered only a broken hip.
• Anna Williams received a bizarre poem lamenting the fact that she was not at home on the night of  28th April 1979. It turned out to be from the notorious "BTK" serial killer, Dennis Radar, who had been hiding in her bedroom wardrobe.
• Voyager I reached Jupiter and took some amazing photographs of the giant planet and it's surrounding moons. It also discovered for the first time that Jupiter has a ring system similar to Saturn or Uranus, and that the moon Io is covered in active volcano's.

The memory:

Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke

In the 22nd century, structural engineer Vannevar Morgan dreams of building the world's first "space elevator" - a giant tower rising from Earth and tethered via a 'hyperfilament' cable to a structure in geostationary orbit 22,000 miles above the surface. Vehicles will be able to "climb" the cable to take payloads to orbit without the need for expensive rockets - greatly speeding up the colonisation of space. The only problem is, the one suitable point for the base station of the elevator is at the top of Sri Kanda - a mountain on the equatorial island of Taprobane, which is home to an ancient order of Buddhist monks. They are one of the few holy orders left on the planet, after contact with an robotic alien probe known as "Starglider" several decades ago shook the foundations of all religious faith - and they do *not* want to move.

Morgan's struggles with the engineering, political and religious obstacles to his 'Orbital Tower' are contrasted with the story of Taprobane's ancient monarch, Kalidasa. Two thousand years ago the king built his immense palace on the nearby mountain of Yakkagala. Setting himself up as a god he adorned the peak with beautiful images and constructed a vast garden full of fountains - feats that were centuries ahead of their time. The monks of Sri Kanda were vehemently opposed to Kalidasa's works, seeing them as an affront to their philosophy - and they have the same strong outrage towards Morgan and his project. Both men were / are trying to "challenge the gods".

To demonstrate that his technology works, Morgan attempts to run a thin cable from orbit down to ground level on Taprobane , but the test is disrupted by one of the monks (the Venerable Parakarma) , who hijacks a weather-control satellite to create an artificial hurricane in the area. Unfortunately although the sabotage succeeds, it also has the side effect of sweeping huge numbers of butterflies to the top of the mountain - thus fulfilling an ancient Buddhist prophecy - and the monks have no choice but to abandon their monastery. 

The novel then subsequently deals with the construction of the base tower on Sri Panda and the initial trials of the space elevator, which proceed well until an accident strands a group several hundred miles up. Despite failing health, Morgan makes a one man trip up the cable to provide emergency supplies and oxygen until they can be rescued. On the way back down he has a vision of a series of interconnected orbital stations all serviced by elevators - with Earth as the hub of a gigantic "wheel" in space. But before he can return to Earth and tell others of his ideas and guarantee his place in the history of space engineering, Morgan suffers a heart attack and dies.

Far in the future the builders of "Starglider" arrive at Earth and admire the construction of the artificial wheel surrounding the planet. Morgan's vision has come to pass - but in a twist of fate he is not the one immortalised, but his engineering antecedent - the marvel of the space elevator is known as "Kalidasa's Tower "...

That's the cover of my copy of the book up there  - a fabulously moody shot of the entrance to Kalidasa's palace by Chris Moore. From the first page I was fascinated by it's contents. Not only because of the all too real idea of the space elevator (as with much of Clarke's work, the science is often based on plausible and achievable concepts), but also because of the parallel tale of the ancient king of Taprobane.  The novel is part scientific journal, part adventure story and part historical fiction. However, the thing that really grabbed my attention was the author's note at the back.

You see, many of the places that Clarke describes in his book are real. Taprobane really exists - it's the historical name for his beloved Sri Lanka (albeit the island's position has been moved for story purposes). King Kalidasa? Well the name may be taken from a 5th Century Sanskrit writer, but the monarch himself ruled between 477 and 495 A.D. as Kashyapa I of Anuradhapura. His fabulous frescoed palace full of painted maidens on a mountain surrounded by gardens and fountains? Yes that's also a genuine locale - and halfway up he built a grand entrance in the shape of a lion - just like the one in the cover above. The mountain is not named "Yakkagala" though. In the island language of Sinhalese its called "Sigiriya" - literally "Lion Rock"...

As for the Buddhist temple on the mountain of "Sri Kanda" - you guessed it - Clarke also drew on what he knew about the holy sites of his adopted home. In central Sri Lanka lies "Sri Pada", the 'Butterfly Mountain' which has long been considered a very important religious region, mainly due to the monastery halfway up and most importantly the shrine near the summit which contains a large rock formation. This is held to be the footprint of Buddha (or the Hindu god Shiva or the Islamic / Christian "first man" Adam). It is therefore also known as "Adam's Peak".

The existence of all these locations outside the fictional construct of the novel blew my mind. For several years afterwards I dreamt of travelling to Sri Lanka and climbing Adam's Peak to see the sunrise from the top and gaze upon the footprint. Of walking up the steps of Sigirya through the lion's mouth. Of stepping through history but at the same time imagining myself in the future...

But as with many dreams, it fell by the wayside as everyday life took hold. School work, exams, work, relationships, getting married, children, divorce - the time went by in a virtual blur and before I knew it twenty-odd years had passed - and dreams of visiting a teardrop-shaped island more than 5,000 miles away were a distant memory.

Then in the early years of the 21st Century, I found myself in a new relationship and engaged to be married for the second time. Talking to my bride-to be about our honeymoon plans, I asked her where on the globe she would like to go. "Well, there was always one place I wanted to visit, after reading about it in a book by Arthur C. Clarke..." she said. Fate really had dealt in my favour! Here was possibly one of the few other people in the world who shared that dream of going to Sri Lanka. It was meant to be ! 

So that's how in early September of 2004 we found ourselves flying across the oceans for eleven hours and then on a ten day tour around the most fascinating parts of the island in a minibus. There were two other couples and a single guy on his own with us, plus the tour guide Dharmin, the driver and a young man acting as general "Passepartout". 

Starting and ending in the capital Colombo (no sign of dear Arthur C. sadly), we travelled over 1,000 kilometres (620+ miles) through some of the most beautiful scenery known to man. Along the way we fed baby elephants at a special orphanage in Pinnawala, gazed in awe at 2,700 year old painting in the Golden Temple caves of Dhambulla, experienced fire walking and the temple of the sacred tooth of Buddha in Kandy, drank tea in the mountainous plantations of Nuwara Eliya, came face to face with a leopard in the Yala National park - I could write a whole series of posts about the tour and the numerous wonderful parts of a very special holiday.

But of course the highlight was a visit to Sigiriya - the "Lion Rock".

As you approach the site and walk through the endless series of lush gardens with their still working fountains, the rock starts to loom larger and larger. It looks impressive, but it's not until you get much closer that you realise the sheer size of this outcrop and the manpower that would have been needed to build the Sky Palace on the summit.

Approaching the foot of the mountain, we reached the Bolder Gardens, where the steps were relatively easy to climb. Vast shapes may look like they are falling together, but were used carefully to create spaces for contemplation.

Then things started to become more difficult. The stairs through the Terraced Gardens were wide, but as we began to climb the grand zig-zag up to the next level, the going became much steeper. Hugging the side of the cliff face, we reached the Mirror Wall. Once this had been painted a glowing white, so polished that you could see your reflection. Now it was a glorious orange, the surface pitted and marked with the graffiti of travellers from millennia ago.

From here we ascended a very narrow spiral staircase to a sheltered indentation in the rock. Here are the only surviving examples of the painted frescoes that once covered the face of Sigiriya. The graffiti on the Mirror Wall suggests that there may have been over five hundred at one point. Bare breasted with golden skin and elaborate headpieces, our guide told us that they may have been members of the harem of Kashyapa and were painted to show the opulence and grandeur of the home of the god-king.

Descending back down the spiral to the Mirror Wall we continued our trek. The marble stairs at this point were very steep and it took a good 20 minutes before we reached the first half-way plateau - and the part I had been looking forward to the most. This was the start of the Lion Staircase!

At one point there *was* a colossal gatehouse here in the form of a crouching lion, which you had to pass through to gain access to the private sanctum of the king. Unlike that memorable image on the front cover of "The Fountains of Paradise", the stairs did not go through the mouth of the beast, but via a hidden set of doors in the chest, which then went back and forth inside the head before emerging at the back.

The ravages of time have not been kind to the once magnificent beast however, and all that remain are the paws and the staircase. As you can see from the picture below (and yes, that is me standing at the foot of the steps), the giant feet give you an idea of the scale of what was once there. It must truly have been magnificent. At last, years after I had read about it, there I was walking in the footsteps of the real King Kashyapa - and the fictional  King Kalidasa  upon his mountain of Yakkagala. It was a spine-tingling moment

The final climb to the ruins of the Sky Palace was via a set of vertiginous narrow metal walkways that grip onto the side of the rock face. The original steps had long since vanished, but I could see the grooves carved into the rock surface where the builders had set the foundations. We had to wait for a few tense minutes before starting, because there was a large hornets next fixed to the wall and our guide had to determine if it was safe to creep past. This was definitely not an ascent to make if you were scared of heights!

At last we reached the top and the remains of the Sky Palace were all around us. It was thankfully quite cool after the hard climb and the view across the countryside and down to the Fountains of Paradise in the garden far below was spectacular. It was a journey which I will never forget.

But what about that other important location from Arthur C. Clarke' novel - the holy mountain of "Sri Pada" or "Adam's Peak"? Well sadly as wide ranging as our tour was, it didn't go close enough for us to visit the site, let alone make the pilgrimage to the top. In reality it is over 100 miles from Sigiriya, and the closest we got was a view from the distance while on the road to Ratnapura. Apparently you have to start at 2 am to get to the temple in time for the sunrise. It was a shame that we couldn't do it, but I at least fully intend to go back to Sri Lanka again, so one day...

It's incredible to think that a mere two hundred-odd page science fiction story led to me visiting one of the most amazing countries in the world. Who knows where the next book I read will take me?

Honourable mentions:

• Not The Nine O'Clock News - The first comedy show that I really got into, having missed the whole thing about "Monty Python" (I didn't really discover *that* until several years later). I loved the satirical solo pieces, the fake news reports, the anarchic sarcasm and of course the songs and sketches. Who can forget "Gerald the Gorilla", "Constable Savage", "The Ayatollah Song ", the "TV closedown" sketch, "Nice Video Shame About The Song", the drunk darts players, "I Like Trucking", etc, etc. etc. I had all the BBC LP compilations, so I could recite the sketches verbatim and Rowan Atkinson was my first comedy hero. 

• Tornado - Another short lived companion comic to 2000 AD, most memorable for artist Dave Gibbons posing as superhero editor "Big E". In terms of ongoing serials, only retooled Nubian slave turned alien gladiator "Blackhawk" and teenager with psi-powers "Wolfie Smith" made the transition when it too was cancelled after 22 issues. I do have fond memories of "The Angry Planet" however, with art from the always brilliant Massimo Bellardinelli.

• Sapphire And Steel -  The adventures of the inter-dimensional agents who battled strange occurrences throughout time (which itself was a malignant force) was one of the best SF / fantasy TV shows of the era. I avidly watched each week, even if I didn't always understand what was going on. It didn't help that an industrial strike caused ITV to go off air for several weeks mid-way through the second story. Oddly I missed the final story with the infamous cliffhanger and didn't get to see it until years later when I bought the box set on DVD.

• Rom: Spaceknight - Along with "Micronauts" my favourite of the early Marvel titles that I began to pick up around now. They only get a brief mention here because I fully intend to write *much* more at a later date.