Anuradhapura

Anuradhapura
The Sacred City of Anuradhapura was the first capital of Sri Lanka. Already in 380 BC it became the Singhalese capital. One of the most famous (and eldest) monuments at the site is the sacred bo tree near the centre. It was grown from a cutting from the tree in India where Buddha achieved enlightenment, and brought here in the 3rd century BC by Sanghamitta, the founder of an order of Buddhist nuns.

The old capital flourished for 1,300 years, until it was abandoned after an invasion in 993. Nearby Polonnaruva, said to be a safer place, became the new capital.

The impressive remains of the site were discovered in the early 19th century, hidden away in thick jungle for a long time. The palaces, monasteries and monuments are since then in restoration.

Year Decision Comments
1982 Inscribed Reasons for inscription



Visit August 1996

The ancient, magic bo tree welcomes you as you enter the main complex. Its age (2300 years?!) is something to dwell on, although we were not really sure which one of the two prominent trees was the legendary one.

The rest of the monuments are spread out over a large area. Because of that, and because they are so old, Anuradhapura is not easy to grasp as a day trip (as I did).

Reviews

Frederik Dawson (Netherlands):
Anuradhapura, the city of king was the capital city of Sinhalese for 1,400 years with long history of royals, wars, and religious to be one of the most important ancient cities in this region and the cradle of Buddhism outside India. Everything of Anuradhapura is Buddhism and the center of the city is the sacred city. The word “city” in this term is quite similar with Vatican City or Beijing’s Forbidden City which are the city inside the city. The sacred city was the large complex of ancient monasteries with thousands of Buddhist monks when the city was in its zenith.

The centre of the sacred city is Sri Maha Bodhi, the holy tree, the symbol of local Buddhism, was bought from India 2,300 years ago, and is considered to be one of the oldest living trees in this world. Not only the holy tree, Anuradhapura has many big pagodas, the most famous of all maybe Thuparama and Ruvanvelisaya. Thuparama is regarded as the oldest pagoda in the world and is the model of Buddhist pagoda in many parts of Asia. The gigantic white pagoda of Ruvanvelisaya is just breathtaking with its size and hundreds of worshippers. The city is also famous for its art, the guard stone and moon stone at Mahasena and Ratna Palaces are the must see for their amazing mastery craving qualities.

Visiting Anuradhapura was quite a unique experience; I had to walk 1 km on bare foot in Sri Maha Bodhi and Ruvanvelisaya areas passed many security checking points with hundreds of local pilgrims. These places should be spiritual and peaceful, but the thing I saw were soldiers with guns in every corners of the area making a war zone liked feelings. There were also many rules of photography and dress code. But I could not compliant since terrorists had attacked the holy tree and killed many people, so having these soldiers maybe the best thing for this sacred city.

All in all, Anuradhapura is a nice place to visit, but in my opinion these place is not a must since most of the places are pagodas which are looked quite the same for non-expert who is unable to separate the differences of bubble, bell and rice heap styles; it is quite hard to appreciate unless you are in deep interest of Sri Lankan history or local Buddhism, the nearby Polonnaruwa maybe the better place for normal casual tourists and typical Kodak moments.
Date posted: January 2009
Rob Wilson (UK):
A fascinating place to visit, particularly the enormous stupas.
Whilst the cultural triangle ticket is expensive, it does give access to almost all of the main sites.
Date posted: July 2008
Suranga Hettiarachchi (Sri Lanka, Live in USA):
Well, I have been to all the World Heritage sites in Sri Lanka, except Sinharaja Forest.
They are wonderful and amazing, because it is very hard to imagine how people gain knowledge
thousands of years ago to build that kind of massive buildings and shrines. Kandy is nice clean
town full of smell of fresh fruits, and seeing an elephant makes you shiver, but touching the
largest land animal on Earth, is a Kodak moment. Going to Sinharaja Forest, Yes its my next target, when I go to Sri Lanka next year.
 


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