Travel Day 1122 – Anuradhapura, SRI LANKA
Today was another day and it was a big one for me as I was attempting to see as much as possible of the UNESCO enlisted Sacred City of Anuradhapura…
Thuparama Dagoba in UNESCO enlisted Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
Anuradhapura had been the sacred capital of the Sinhalese kingdoms since the 4th BC but unfortunately during its 1300 years of use it suffered many invasions of Cholas, Pandyas and Tamils from southern India. After a last devastating invasion in 993 AD, the capital was finally relocated to Polonnaruwa and later when the Portuguese were occupying more and more of the island, it got moved one last time to Kandy. Today, Anuradhapura itself appeared as a pretty big, modern city which seemed to co-exist besides all the ancient ruins of the former kingdom…
Since all the ancient ruins of Anuradhapura were pretty spread out, I had an early start to ensure that I would be able to make the best use of my 25 USD entrance ticket. At 6.30am I was already paddling towards the Jetavanram Monastery where an entrance ticket to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Anuradhapura could be bought at 8am. My idea was to visit this area first as it could be accessed via a little bride on the side and then basically buying a ticket on the way out. But before I could even do that, I just had to go back to the atmospheric Thuparama Dagoba and enjoy the early morning light before the crowds arrived…
UNESCO Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic Ruin in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
This Thuparama Dagoba, which was said to be one of the oldest in the world, possibly even containing the right collarbone of the Buddha, was already my favorite sight in Anuradhapura. Walking a few rounds while watching some locals do their rituals was the perfect start of the day for me. Visiting then the Jetavanarama Monastery was great as well because still some steam from the rain at night was rising, giving the whole ruined complex a quite mystical atmosphere. But overall it seemed that since Anuradhapura had been abandoned for such a long time, all that remained to be seen today were foundations walls and the big dagobas…
As mentioned already yesterday, all the many dagobas of Anuradhapura were the most interesting structures for me. While I had believed the Buddhist Stupa in Boudhanath was impressive, I now had to admit that the stupas in Sri Lanka, especially the enormous Jetavanarama Dagoba of the vast monastery complex, were certainly a different league. People walking their rounds looked like little ants from the distance and I just had to sit down in awe for a while to fully understand the size of these structures…
Abhayagiri Monastery in UNESCO Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
Not quite as impressive was the Jetavanarama Museum and rather underwhelming was the Citadel area which I visited thereafter. Virtually nothing remained of the royal palace and other ruins were barely even visible in the forest. The only noteworthy structure of the Anuradhapura Citadel was in my mind the ruined Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. This was in fact the original temple and the ones I had seen in Plonnaruwa and Kandy were obviously the following structures…
The rest of my day I spend mostly in the northern, strictly controlled area of the Abhayagiri Monastery. From the Samadhi Buddha over the Twin Ponds, the Moonstone and the Ratnaprasada to the Abhayagiri Dagoba, I worked my way around and got lost in the surrounding forest. It really seemed that the ruins never ended and one could always discover more overgrown foundation walls, stairs or ponds. But eventually I had to stop my explorations in the afternoon as once more dark rain clouds were moving-in and this time I was quite determined to make it back to the guesthouse before getting entirely soaked again…
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