Things to do in Anuradhapura
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Sri Maha Bodhi
The Sri Maha Bodhi, the sacred bodhi tree, is central to Anuradhapura in both a spiritual and physical sense. The huge tree has grown from a cutting brought from Bodhgaya in India by the Princess Sangamitta, sister of Mahinda (who introduced the Buddha's teachings to Sri Lanka), so it has a connection to the very basis of the Sinhalese religion.
This sacred tree serves as a reminder of the force that inspired the creation of all the great buildings at Anuradhapura, and is within walking distance of many of the most interesting monuments. The whole area around the Sri Maha Bodhi, the Brazen Palace and Ruvanvelisaya Dagoba was once probably part of the Maha Vihara (Great Te…
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Ratnaprasada
Follow the loop road above Vata Mandana Rd and you will find the finest guardstones in Anuradhapura. Dating from the 8th century, they depict a cobra king, and demonstrate the final refinement of guardstone design. You can see examples of much earlier guardstone design at the Mirisavatiya Dagoba.
In the 8th century a new order of tapovana (ascetic) monks settled in these western fringes of the city, among the lowest castes, the rubbish dumps and the burial places. These western monasteries were simple but grand structures of stone. Ornamentation was saved for toilets and urinals, now displayed at the Archaeology Museum. The monks of Ratnaprasada (Gem Palace) monastery gav…
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Ruvanvelisaya Dagoba
Behind the Folk Museum, this fine white dagoba is guarded by a wall with a frieze of hundreds of elephants standing shoulder to shoulder. Apart from a few beside the western entrance, most are modern replacements for the originals from 140 BC.
This dagoba is said to be King Dutugemunu’s finest construction, but he didn’t live to see its completion. However, as he lay on his deathbed, a false bamboo-and-cloth finish was placed around the dagoba so that Dutugemunu’s final sight could be of his ‘completed’ masterpiece. Today, after incurring much damage from invading Indian forces, it rises 55m, considerably less than its original height; nor is its form the same as the earl…
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Thuparama Dagoba
In a beautiful woodland setting north of the Ruvanvelisaya Dagoba, the Thuparama Dagoba is the oldest dagoba in Sri Lanka – indeed, probably the oldest visible dagoba in the world. It was constructed by Devanampiya Tissa in the 3rd century BC and is said to contain the right collarbone of the Buddha. Its ‘heap-of-paddy-rice’ shape was restored in 1862 in a more conventional bell shape and to a height of 19m.
The surrounding vatadage’s slender, capital-topped pillars, perhaps the dagoba’s most unique feature, enclose the structure in four concentric circles. Impressions on the dagoba pediments indicate the pillars originally numbered 176, of which 41 still stand.…
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Abhayagiri Dagoba
The huge Abhayagiri Dagoba (confused by some books and maps with the Jetavanarama), created in the 1st or 2nd century BC, was the centrepiece of a monastery of 5000 monks. The name means ‘Hill of Protection’ or ‘Fearless Hill’ (though some local guides mistakenly claim ‘Giri’ was the name of a local Jain monk). The monastery was part of the ‘School of the Secret Forest’, a heretical sect that studied both Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism. Chinese traveller Faxian (also spelt Fa Hsien) visited in AD 412.
The dagoba was probably rebuilt several times to reach its peak 75m height. It has some interesting bas-reliefs, including one near the western stairway of …
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Archaeological Museum
Anuradhapura’s Archaeological Museum also houses a ticket office for the ancient city. It has a restored relic chamber, as found during the excavation of the Kantaka Chetiya dagoba at nearby Mihintale, and a large-scale model of Thuparama Dagoba’s vatadage as it might have been if a wooden roof (for which there is no physical or epigraphic evidence) had existed.
In the museum’s grounds are the carved squatting plates from Anuradhapura’s western monasteries, whose monks had forsaken the luxurious monasteries of their more worldly brothers. To show their contempt for the effete, luxury-loving monks, the monks of the western monasteries carved beautiful stone squat-style…
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Jetavanarama Dagoba
The Jetavanarama Dagoba’s massive dome rises from a clearing back towards the Sri Maha Bodhi. Built in the 3rd century by Mahasena, it may have originally stood over 100m high, but today is about 70m. This was a similar height to the Abhayagiri, with which it is sometimes confused. When it was built it was the third-tallest monument in the world, the first two being Egyptian pyramids. A British guidebook from the early 1900s calculated that there were enough bricks in the dagoba’s brick core to make a 3m-high wall stretching from London to Edinburgh.
Behind it stand the ruins of a monastery that housed 3000 monks. One building has door jambs over 8m high still standin…
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Isurumuniya Vihara
This rock temple, dating from the reign of Devanampiya Tissa (r 247–207 BC), has some very fine carvings. One or two of these (including one of elephants playfully splashing water) remain in their original place on the rock face beside a square pool fed from the Tissa Wewa, but most of them have been moved into a small museum within the temple. Best known of the sculptures is the ‘lovers’, which dates from around the 5th century AD and is built in the artistic style of the Indian Gupta dynasty of the 4th and 5th centuries.
South of the Isurumuniya Vihara are extensive remains of the Vessagiriya cave monastery complex, which dates from much the same time.
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Mirisavatiya Dagoba
Mirisavatiya Dagoba is one of three very interesting sites that can be visited in a stroll or ride along the banks of the Tissa Wewa. This huge dagoba, the first built by Dutugemunu after he captured the city, is across the road from the Tissawewa Rest House. The story goes that Dutugemunu went to bathe in the tank, leaving his ornate sceptre implanted in the bank. When he emerged he found his sceptre, which contained a relic of the Buddha, impossible to pull out. Taking this as an auspicious sign, he had the dagoba built. To its northeast was yet another monks’ refectory, complete with the usual huge stone troughs into which the faithful poured boiled rice.
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Kuttam Pokuna
The swimming pool–like Twin Ponds, the finest bathing tanks in Anuradhapura, are east of Sanghamitta Mawatha. They were likely used by monks from the monastery attached to Abhayagiri Dagoba. Although they are referred to as twins, the southern pond, which is 28m in length, is smaller than the 40m-long northern pond. Water entered the larger pond through the mouth of a makara (mythical multispecies beast) and then flowed to the smaller pond through an underground pipe. Note the five-headed cobra figure close to the makara and the water-filter system at the northwestern end of the ponds.
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Royal Palace
Built by Vijayabahu I in the 12th century after Anuradhapura’s fall as the Sinhalese capital, this palace is indicative of the attempts made to retain at least a foothold in the old capital.
Close to it are a deep and ancient well and the Mahapali refectory, notable for its immense trough (nearly 3m long and 2m wide) that the lay followers filled with rice for the monks.
In the Royal Palace area you can also find the Dalada Maligawa, a tooth-relic temple that may have been the first Temple of the Tooth. The sacred Buddha’s tooth originally came to Sri Lanka in AD 313.
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Brazen Palace
So called because it once had a bronze roof, the ruins of the Brazen Palace stand close to the Sri Maha Bodhi tree. The remains of 1600 columns are all that is left of this huge palace, said to have had nine storeys and accommodation for 1000 monks and attendants.
It was originally built by Dutugemunu more than 2000 years ago, but through the ages was rebuilt many times, each time a little less grandiosely. The current stand of pillars (now fenced off) is all that remains from the last rebuild – that of Parakramabahu around the 12th century.
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Anuradhapura Ruins
While it’s not quite as grandiose as Burma’s Bagan or as mysterious as Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, the ruins of Anuradhapura remain one of South Asia’s most electrifying sights. The sprawling complex contains a rich collection of archaeological and architectural wonders: enormous dagobas, soaring brick towers, ancient pools and crumbling temples, built during Anuradhapura’s 1000 years of rule over Sri Lanka. Still today it’s not completely dead; in fact, several of the sites remain in use as holy places and temples; which adds some life to the place.
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Royal Pleasure Gardens
If you start down the Tissa Wewa bund from the Mirisavatiya, you soon come to the extensive royal pleasure gardens. Known as the Park of the Goldfish, the gardens cover 14 hectares and contain two ponds skilfully designed to fit around the huge boulders in the park. The ponds have fine reliefs of elephants on their sides. It was here that Prince Saliya, the son of Dutugemunu, was said to have met a commoner, Asokamala, whom he married, thereby forsaking his right to the throne.
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Samadhi Buddha
East from the Abhayagiri is this 4th-century statue, seated in the meditation pose and regarded as one of the finest Buddha statues in Sri Lanka. Pandit Nehru, a prominent leader in India’s independence movement, is said to have maintained his composure while imprisoned by the British by regular contemplation of a photo of this statue.
Local authorities recently erected a modern metal roof over the statue, somewhat spoiling the artistic integrity of this masterpiece.
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Abhayagiri Museum
The Chinese-funded Abhayagiri Museum, just south of the Abhayagiri Dagoba, commemorates the 5th-century visit of Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian to Anuradhapura. Faxian spent some time living at the Abhayagiri monastery translating Buddhist texts, which he later brought back to China. The museum, arguably the most interesting in Anuradhapura, contains a collection of squatting plates, jewellery, pottery and religious sculpture from the site.
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Mahasena's Palace
This ruined palace northwest of the Abhayagiri is notable for having the finest carved moonstone in Sri Lanka. Photographers will be disappointed that the railing around it makes it almost impossible to achieve an unshadowed picture. This is a peaceful wooded area full of butterflies, and makes a good place to stop and cool off .
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Anzu's Restaurant
A relaxed house restaurant that's actually down a side street called Dharma Asoka Lane, this place is run by chefs from northern China, which gives it an authenticity that sets it apart from nearly all of the Chinese restaurants out in the provinces.
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Casserole
A busy, very clean air-con spot serving Sri Lankan, Chinese and Western meals. For a good dessert, try the wattalappan (egg, coconut milk, cardamon and jaggery pudding). There’s a supermarket downstairs.
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Buddhist Railing
A little south of the Jetavanarama Dagoba, on the other side of the road, there is a stone railing built in imitation of a log wall. It encloses a site 42m by 34m, but the building within has long disappeared.
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Western Monasteries
To the northwest of the Basawakkulama are the ruins of the Western Monasteries, where the monks dressed in scraps of clothing taken from corpses and, it's claimed, lived only on rice.
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Nuwara Wewa
Nuwara Wewa, on the east side of the city, is the largest tank in Anuradhapura, covering about 1200 hectares. It was built around 20 BC and is well away from most of the old city.
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Basawakkulama
The oldest tank in Anuradhapura, probably dating from around the 4th century BC, is the 120-hectare Basawakkulama (the Tamil word for tank is kulam).
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Folk Museum
A short distance north of the Archaeological Museum is this Folk Museum with dusty exhibits of country life in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province.
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Salgado Hotel & Bakery
This is an old-fashioned place serving Sri Lankan breakfasts, short eats and biscuits.
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