Anuradhapura - Sri Lanka

I have always thought that Sri Lanka was a Hindu country until my recent trip. I discovered that between 50-60% of its population are Buddhist. And Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist history with many historical monuments built during the ancient civilisation and still considered sacred by many Buddhists today.

The first site we visited was the sacred world heritage city Anuradhapura. Anuradhapura was once the ancient capital of Sri Lanka . Famous for its well preserved ruins of ancient Sri Lanka, it is a Unesco World Heritage site.

Our first stop to Anuradhapura was to see Mirisawatiya Dagoba or stupa. The stupa or dagoba as it is commonly known in Sri Lanka is bell-shaped unlike those found in other Buddhist countries such as Mynmar, Thailand or Tibet.

Mirisawatiya Dagoba - Anuradhapura Sri Lanka

Next was to Isurumuni temple.

Reclining Buddha in Isurumuni - Anuradhapura Sri Lanka

The caretaker of Isurumuni cave temple, a 17 year old monk, explained that if the toes of the reclining Buddha are not placed at the same height, the statue depicts Buddha's death.

Isurumnuni

A short walk up the Isurumuni cave temple lead us to this beautiful view.

View on top of Isurumuni cave temple

We managed to catch the sunset after visiting the cave temple.

Sunset near Isurumuni cave temple

We visited Ruwanwelisaya the day after the flower offering festival.

Ruwanwelisaya, Anuradhapura Sri Lanka

A black -faced monkey eating the flowers offered for prayer.

Ruwanelisaya - Anuradhapura Sri Lanka

Ruwanwelisaya, Anuradhapura Sri Lanka

Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi was planted in 288 BC and is said to be a branch from the Bodhi tree in Gaya under which Buddha attained ennlightenment. Here you can see that extra care is being taken to support the branches of the tree so that they don't fall on the roof of the prayer hall next to it.

Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, Anuradhapura Sri Lanka

The next 2 dagoba that we visited, Jetavanaramaya and Abhayagiri are huge and made with baked red bricks. Jetavanaramaya was once the tallest structure in the ancient world. Look at how small we are compared to this huge dagoba!

Jetavanarayama, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Abhayagiri was once a major monastery which housed 5000 monks. Restoration of Abhayagiri commenced in 1997 and it took 15 years and 2,833,431 pieces of red bricks to restore Abhayagiri to its current look.

Abhayagiri, Anuradhapura Sri Lanka

The stone canoe of 19m in length was made with a single piece of stone  and has the capacity to fill over 5,000 alm bowls. A sun-dial, kitchen , storeroom and undergound conduits supplying water to the main building are also visible.

Main refectory - Abhayagiri, Anuradhapura Sri Lanka

19 meter stone canoe - Abhayagiri Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Ratnaprasada (7-10 century AD) was once a "'skyscraper where the monks of Abhayagiri congregated and confessed and rectified their mistakes (Some thing like confessions by the Catholics).

Ratnaprasada - Anuradhapura Sri Lanka 

Guardstone - Anuradhapura Sri Lanka

Moonstone - Anuradhapura

The ancient city of Anuradhapura is really huge and would probably take an entire day to visit all the sites. There is an entrance fee of USD25 for tourist. Expensive fees but worth the visit.