I still can’t quite make my mind up on our time in Anuradhapura. If I was talking to a friend or family member who was visiting Sri Lanka, I would say it’s definitely worth visiting if you’re interested in history, but only stay for two nights and plan your time wisely. We’ve found with travelling so far you walk a careful line between planning your time for maximum enjoyment and understanding, and then keeping an element of spontaneity and taking things as they come. Anuradhapura has a lot to see, and if you don’t plan it well, it very quickly looks like a lot of rocks and big bell shaped temples.
Anuradhapura felt very undeveloped for tourists, which we usually love, but in this case we really struggled to find places to eat and things to do outside of visiting the temples. It was also my birthday on the day we arrived, and it was still pouring with rain which made heading out to explore much less appealing. We looked at a few different places for dinner, and eventually settled on an upstairs balcony spot that was well known for its biryani and delicious roti pots. It wasn’t quite my dream of a nice hotel restaurant dinner that might have even included a glass of wine, but c’est la vie, there are much bigger problems in this world.
Anhuradapura was another UNESCO world heritage site, so we parted with another $30 USD each for entry to the main sites. We also invested in a guide and tuk tuk driver, the sites span 100 square kilometers, so it’s a little hard to get around. Anuradhapura is old, and this is a good thing to keep in mind when visiting. The ruins are pretty ruined! Historical documents of Sri Lanka date the founding of the city at 437 BC, but the site has been inhabited for much longer, and records show there had been human settlement here for almost three millennia! It was the country's longest serving capital, and the centre of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Today, a lot of the stupas have been restored and some have been added, creating an atmosphere of harmony and connection between ancient times and modern life. We visited ancient cities that were once home to thousands of monks, then we visited a stupa with almost the same number of present day Sri Lankan people worshipping in similar ways. It is quite simply mind blowing. This is especially hard to even comprehend coming from a country with a very young history - the first Māori settlers in New Zealand arrived around the time this city was being abandoned, after 1,500 years of flourishing society!
The history of the place is just incredible, and having a guide with us was super important to be able to understand even some of this history. As with every guide we have had so far, he had amazing English and was able to share complex Buddhist teachings with us as well as discussing the challenges the country has faced coming out of the Civil War. Our guide mentioned how these days many Buddhists in Sri Lanka come to worship at these sacred sites wanting to have their problems solved. They recite chants without actually understanding the meaning behind Buddhist teachings, merely hoping that doing so will solve their problems. He also seemed critical of many modern day Buddhists in Sri Lanka, for appearing to worship Buddha in one moment and then acting in a way that goes against his teachings in the next. I’m sure this happens in most religions globally, maybe a sign of how the role of religion is changing with modern life?
One of our favourite sites in Anuradhapura was the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi Tree. This tree is the oldest living human planted tree in the world, with a known planting date of 2300 years ago. This tree is the only known cutting of the Bodhi tree that Buddha reached enlightenment under, making it a very special pilgrimage location for many buddhists. The place had an enlightening, reverent feel to it, and we were both in awe of how special this tree was.
Other highlights included some of the original carvings, like the moonstones and guardstones. They were so detailed and amazingly well preserved considering their age! Then of course, there were the giant stupas. At the time of construction, one of the major stupas was the third tallest monument in the world, behind the pyramids in Egypt! They also used fascinating techniques like certain plaster to preserve the Stupas, a job that today would be done with chemicals. Nature always has the answers!!
I hope this blog hasn’t come across as too negative, it really was some of the most fascinating history I have ever come across. I think our energy was waning a bit, and sites like these you need to approach full steam. At this point we were also deep in the blurred line between holiday and travel, a confusing place we sat in for about a week. It was such a privilege to experience this deep history, and it got us even more excited about all the temples, ruins and history we have coming our way over the next year. It would be remiss of me not to mention that our accommodation also did coffee delivery to our room, (yes, you heard that right, room service), so we enjoyed some slower mornings in bed as well reading our books and being very restful.
On our final morning in Anuradhapura we boarded the train to Jaffna, our final stop on this amazing island. In a way Anhuradpura marked the beginning of the end of our time in Sri Lanka, as Jaffna was going to be much more akin to the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where we were heading in just a few days' time.