A Morning in Anuradhapura

I recently had the fortune of travelling to Sri Lanka for a short holiday. During my time there, my father and I decided to do a daytrip to Anuradhapura, as neither of us had been there in over 2 years.

We departed from Colombo a touch before 4am in the morning. It was dark and there was no traffic on the road, so it was a fairly easy journey which saw us arrive in Anuradhapura by 7:30am. First stop: Ruwanwelisaya.

Most commonly referred to as the Great Stupa, Ruwanwelisaya was commissioned by King Dutugemunu in 140BC. It is one of the most well-known stupas not only in Anuradhapura, but the whole of Sri Lanka as it enshrines the largest portion of relics of the Buddha. It measures 90m in diameter at its base and stands at just over 100m high. 

We had come prepared to offer the usual Buddha pooja of kiribath and other various gilanpasa items, but we also decided to offer 100 oil lamps, 100 sticks of incense and 100 flowers as well. We first tackled the laborious task of lighting 100 oil lamps followed by using those lamps to light the 100 sticks of incense. We then walked over to the stupa and found a spot to offer the 100 flowers and the rest of the pooja items.

It is an extremely peaceful and calming experience to walk around Ruwanwelisaya. A good place for some quiet self-reflection, pirith chanting and learning of the Dhamma; it would be very easy to spend several hours immersed in the atmosphere of Ruwanwelisaya.

From there we made our way to our second stop: Jaya Sri Maha Bodhiya.

Jaya Sri Maha Bodhiya is, of course, a cutting of the sacred Bo Tree under which the Lord Buddha attained enlightenment. As noted by English author and historian H.G. Wells, “in Ceylon there grows to this day a tree, the oldest historical tree in the world, which we know certainly to have planted as a cutting from the Bo Tree in the year 245BC.” This cutting was brought to Sri Lanka by Theri Sanghamitta and planted in Mahameghavana Park by Kind Devanampiya Tissa. The word “Bodhi” means “wisdom to understand the Four Noble Truths,” hence the tree that helped the Lord Buddha attain enlightenment is called the Bodhi Tree. 

A beautiful place to find a quiet spot for some morning meditation, we slowly made our way around the base of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhiya. Again, we offered some lamps, incense as well as some flowers.

From here we made our way to our third stop: Thuparama.

Thuparama was built by King Devanampiya Tissa on the instruction of Ven. Mahinda Thero. The stupa enshrines the right collar bone of the Buddha. It was built soon after the establishment of the Buddha Sasana in Sri Lanka and the entire Thuparama complex covers approximately 3.5 acres.

Again, we spent a short time here making the usual offerings and chanting pirith, before calling it a day on our time in Anuradhapura.

I am sure I speak for most of us when I say our trips to Sri Lanka quickly fill up with meetings with family and conversations with old friends. This often makes it hard to find time to make trips to places like Anuradhapura to visit and make offerings at some of Sri Lanka’s most significant Buddhist sites. However, I hope this demonstrates that you do not need to spend weeks planning a trip. All you need is a day (with a potentially early start from Colombo) to make a trip to Anuradhapura. You can even be home in time for dinner with those cousins you have not seen in years. I guarantee that you will be grateful that you made the effort.