Anuradhapura: Dagobas and Buddha’s Bo Tree

We were up at 3.45 am to take a 4:30 am tuk tuk the half hour to Columbo Fort train station. I’m still feeling pretty good and it was surprisingly easy to find our platform, then wait for our 4.45 am train to Anuradhapura. There was some confusion finding our carriage and seats, and when we did the latter were facing backward, so we spent the first bit of the trip playing musical chairs as new travellers arrived, until we found seats facing the right way we could stay in.

About 4’½ hours to Anuradhapura, an easy journey past rice paddies, villages and small towns, lush green forests & palm trees.

We got a tuk tuk straight to the Ivy Lake Hotel, a small friendly place, and had a lunch of sandwiches in their small covered outdoor eating space. Then we headed out for 4 hours of very hot sightseeing! This started with a tuk tuk to the Jetavana Museum, where we paid the fee of US$30 per person for tickets. I initially thought this covered all the local archaeological sites around Anuradhapura, but in fact they’re just needed for the Jetavana dagoba (stupa in India) and the Abhayagiri monastery area (the Abhayagiri dagoba and nearby Samadhi Buddha). Since we planned to see the Abhayagiri area tomorrow, we’ll have to pay the ticket price twice – which is annoying, but we really don’t mind paying if, hopefully, the fee is going to preserving these monuments. So we explained ourselves to the guys at the office, got our tickets, and went through the back of the museum to get our first glimpse of the huge Jetavanarama dagoba.

What an incredible sight! A massive 70 metre tall red brick dome constructed of 90 million bricks, built 2,300 years ago, and at the time the third-tallest monument in the world after the two largest Egyptian pyramids. Surrounding it are manicured parks filled with monastery ruins. It was very hot and the sun was beating down, but planning in advance we’d bought socks for our feet because, as this is still a venerated Buddhist site, we had to remove our sandals to walk (always clockwise around dagobas and stupas) around the dagoba on the hot stone pavers. It was incredibly impressive.

To the west, we visited the Patimaghara (image house) with a doorfame 8 metres tall. This ruined hall beyond probably once held a standing Buddha.

We saw the tall white spire of the Ruwanwelisaya dagoba to the west and headed towards it, stopping for breaks in the shade under trees. On the way we saw the Kujjatissa Pabbata, the remains of a very small dagoba on a plinth. Closer to the Ruwanwelisaga dagoba, crowds seemed to be gathering, along with buses and a generally festive atmosphere. We walked north along a walkway to the Thuparama dagoba, the oldest in Sri Lanka, only 20 metres tall and extensively rebuilt, though surrounded by an angular forest of toppling pillars of bare stone that once held up a roof. After we circumambulated the stupa and left, we were waylaid by an orange-robed monk who gave us a quick rundown in broken English of the concepts of reincarnation and the suffering in Buddhist hell. We extricated ourselves from this sermon and headed back south to join the growing crowds of white-clad devotees heading for Ruvanwelisaya. Obviously it was a special day as people were everywhere, many bringing offerings of seated Buddha statues, which we later saw being set up in a ring around the huge white dagoba. Incense wafted in the air, costumed drummers and pipers drummed and piped, sermons were preached over loudspeakers, the sun beat down on the hot stones underfoot, and the atmosphere was festive and devotional at the same time. As we sat outside a shine a group of smiling women came up and offered us lotus blossums and incense; we placed the former before the reclining Buddha in the shrine and the latter to burn before the dagoba. So many people! The atmosphere was wonderful.

Finally we headed south to the Shri Maha Bohi (sacred Bo Tree), said to have been grown from a cutting taken from the original tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment (which was soon after destroyed). The tree itself is on an inaccessible platform, but there was quite an atmosphere as as people hummed, chanted and sang on the platforms surrounding the tree.

We were uttery exhausted and sunstruck by this time & tuk tuk’d back to the hotel to recover, have a hearty and tasty dinner of kottu (chopped roti, eggs, vegetables, onions) in the garden, and for me, to finally begin this diary. We enjoyed coconut milk drinks with our dinners (I had a beer too), and organized transport for the morning to continue our exploration of Anaradhapura.

Only two days in Sri Lanka and we’re having a fantastic time. Despite not much sleep we both seen to be soldiering along well.