Arrival of Buddhism

According to Sinhalese tradition, Buddhism reached Sri Lanka through a mission sent from eastern India during the reign of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, which Encyclopaedia Britannica dates to about 273 to 232 BCE. Its leader, Mahinda, is described as Ashoka's son. The ICOMOS evaluation of Anuradhapura for UNESCO places the mission towards 250 BC.

The account comes from the island's Buddhist chronicles. The earliest that survives, the Dipavamsa, was probably compiled in the 4th century CE and was followed by the Mahavamsa. Britannica cautions that these texts must be used with care and together with archaeological material, especially inscriptions. The king who received the mission is known as Devanampiya Tissa. A Library of Congress country study gives his reign as 250 to about 207 BC and counts him among the figures whose existence the chronicles help to verify.

Britannica relates that Mahinda and his companions travelled to the hill of Mihintale, 8 miles (13 km) from Anuradhapura, which is also the site of some of the island's earliest inscriptions. There they chanced to meet King Tissa and delivered a sermon. The king accepted the teaching and invited the monks to his city.

In Anuradhapura they were lodged in a royal pavilion in the Mahamegha park, where they preached first to the royal family and then to the common people. The king gave the park to the community of monks, and the Mahavihara monastery established there became the main centre of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Tourism records the belief that the meeting took place where the Ambasthale Dagoba now stands at Mihintale, a shrine reached by 1,840 steps.

A second mission followed. Mahinda sent for his sister Sanghamitta, a Buddhist nun, who arrived with a branch of the Bo tree at Bodh Gaya under which the Buddha attained enlightenment. The sapling was planted in the city with ceremony, and Sanghamitta founded an order of nuns. UNESCO describes the sacred city of Anuradhapura as established around this cutting, brought in the 3rd century BC.

The king also built the Thuparama, a stupa for public worship. The ICOMOS evaluation states that it was built in the 3rd century BC to house a collarbone relic of the Buddha presented by Ashoka. The tree, known as the Sri Maha Bodhi, still stands at the centre of the site, in a sanctuary near the building called the Brazen Palace.

Britannica states that, through the conversion of the king and the work of monks in the villages, the Sinhalese had accepted Buddhism by the 2nd century BCE. It adds that other religions were also practised on the island: the Mahavamsa mentions a Jain monastery and the presence of Brahmans.

Later kings were patrons of the faith. They built and endowed shrines and monasteries, and the monasteries became centres of learning in the Pali and Sinhalese languages. The Library of Congress study notes that it was on the island that the Buddha's teachings, the Tripitaka, were first committed to writing. ICOMOS records that Anuradhapura remained the political and religious capital for ten centuries. It was abandoned after an invasion in 993, and the capital moved to Polonnaruwa.

The arrival of Buddhism is marked every year on Poson poya day. Sri Lanka Tourism describes the day as dating back to the 3rd century BC, when King Devanampiya Tissa was converted by Mahinda. The whole country observes it, and the observance culminates at Mihintale. Many devotees go to temples to spend hours in meditation, and the tourism board lists sil campaigns, dan sal, Poson devotional songs and pandols among the customs of the day.

The Sacred City of Anuradhapura was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982. The Central Cultural Fund, the government body that manages and conserves the country's cultural heritage sites, describes it as a living religious centre that continues to receive pilgrims and visitors each year.