Anuradhapura

Anuradhapura and the city of Polonnaruwa are the vitally important “must visit” twin tourist attractions of Sri Lanka Holidays Cultural Triangle. Anuradhapura, the greatest monastic city of the ancient world that date from the middle of the 5th century B.C. remained the proud seat of kingdom of Sri Lanka until the 11th century A.D. Today Anuradhapura, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is replete with renovated monuments, restored edifices, preserved ruins and historical sites where the archeological excavations are still being continued. Today, Sri Lanka Holidays foreign tourists and local tourists, who tour Anuradhapura, are simply unable to witness everything Anuradhapura has to offer, within the confines of a single day as Sri Lanka Tours have been cram-programmed. However the major attractions of Anuradhapura can be visited in a single day.

Anuradhapura was the cradle of glorious Sinhalese Buddhist civilization. The pride of place inAnuradhapura was taken by the ancient stupas and ancient reservoirs. Towering stupas (dagobas) of stupendous domes, the marvels of ancient civil engineering, were built having taken into the account the effects of lightening on high rise constructions, among numerous other engineering factors. The vast rainwater reservoirs built by crossing rivers with enormous dams and controlling the outlets with “Bisokotuwa” (Sinhala: Queens enclosure-no entry, of course) valve pits (sluice gate), extend lifeline toAnuradhapura district to date.

Among the other tourist attractions at Anuradhapura are magnificent rock carvings of monumental richness and remarkable grace; colossal stone pillars that stand proud amidst the ruins of royal palaces, Buddhist monasteries and temples; magnificent stone cut swimming pools of sophisticated hydrology.

The splendors of ancient Anuradhapura was narrated in great length by Fa-Hien, the famous Chinese Buddhist scholar pilgrim, who spent two years in Anuradhapura copying the Vinaya Pitakaya (Sinhala: Book of Discipline) of Theravada Buddhism at the end of the 4th century. The Roman historian Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD – August 25, 79 AD) has recorded the descriptions of the city of Anuradhapura made by Annius Plocamus, who had visited Anuradhapura during the reign of Sinhalese King Sadamuhunu (Chanda-Mukha-Siva) (44 AD- 52 AD).

Sir William Colebrooke narrates of Anuradhapura “I saw here here ornamented capitals and balustrades, and bas reliefs of animals and foliage. I cannot better express my opionion of their elegance thn by saying that, had I seen them in a museum, I should, without hesitation, have pronounced them to be Grecian or of Gracian descent. One semicircular slab, at the foot of a staircase, is carved in a pattern of foliage which I have repeatedly seen in works of Greek and Roman origin.

This flourishing state of art proves wealth and taste; and there are enormous conical buildings of brick, called Dagobas, whose Egyptian diamensions and durability show that they must have been built by a numerous and laborious race. The immense tanks, of which I saw the ruins, and by which the country was irrigated, were the cause of its permanent fertility so long as they were kept in repair.” Colebrooke, Sir William Macbean George (1787–1870), 1832

Life-line: Great Ancient Man-made Lakes (Rainwater Reservoirs)
Renovated Stupas, Ruins of Stupas, Monasteries & Temples.
We mustn't fail to see: Glorious Golden Sand Stupa, Serene Samadhi Buddha Statue, Enormous Jetavana Dagoba, Isurumuniya Rock Temple, Sacred Sri Maha bodhi tree.

Sri Lanka's northwestSri Lanka's northwest (of which Anuradhapura is a major city) also known as the dry zone is arid, rolling, open country coloured in shades of dusty brown earth and golden ripening rice fields. Farming here depends on artificial irrigation, and the countryside is dotted with great ancient artificial reservoirs to retain rainwater and allow crops to thrive through the dry season.

Three great rainwater reservoirs & River MalwatuThe ancient city of Anuradhapura is surrounded by three great man-made lakes, Nuwara Wewa reservoir to the east & Tissa Wewa reservoir together with Basawakkulama Wewa reservoir to the west with two directions of the city being defined by River Malwatu Oya that flows through it. We have Anuradhapura new town to the east of the river & sacred ancient city to the west of the river. It cannot get any better.

History of Anuradhapura (WHS)From the origins as a settlement by Minister Anuradha in the 6th century BC, Anuradhapura was developed at a rapid pace & was made the capital of the island by King Pandukhabaya (437-366 BC), who took a leaf out of the book of King Abhaya (474 BC), the builder of the first rainwater reservoir of Lanka. King Pandukhabhaya commenced the irrigation schemes in a larger scale providing the lifeline to the fledging Aryan civilization of the Sinhalese. By the mid-3rd century BC Anuradhapura's fame for the excellence of its temple art and palace architecture, the ingenuity and skill of its irrigation engineers, noble elephants, precious gems, fine spices and its military prowess had spread as far as the Roman-Hellenistic world.