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Mulkirigala Raja Maha Vihara
Mulkirigala Raja Maha Vihara (also known as Mulgirigala Raja Maha Vihara) ( si, මුල්කිරිගල රජමහා විහාරය) is an ancient Buddhist temple in Mulkirigala, Sri Lanka. It has been built on a high natural rock, surrounded with another four rocks known as Benagala, Kondagala, Bisogala and Seelawathiegala. The temple site is located about from the Mulkirigala junction and can be reached from either Dikwella or Tangalle towns. The temple has been formally recognised by the Government as an archaeological site in Sri Lanka. The designation was declared on 8 April 1988 under the government Gazette number 501. Name Except its most common name ''Mulkirigala'', the temple is also referred to as ''Mulgirigala'', ''Muvathitigala'', ''Muhudungiri'' and ''Dakkhina Vihara''. As the temple has been constructed on a massive natural rock similar to Sigiriya, the site is known as ''Punchi Seegiriya (Little Sigiriya)'' by the locals. As mentioned in the Bo ...
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Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi
Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi ( Sinhala: ජය ශ්‍රී මහා බොධිය) is a historical sacred bo tree (''Ficus religiosa'') in the Mahamewna Garden in historical city of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. This is believed to be a tree grown from a cutting of the southern branch from the historical sacred bo tree, Sri Maha Bodhi, which was destroyed during Emperor Ashoka the Great time, at Buddha Gaya in India, under which Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) attained Enlightenment. The Buddhist nun Sangamitta Maha Theri, a daughter of Indian Emperor Ashoka, in 288 BC, brought the tree cutting to Sri Lanka during the reign of Sinhalese King Devanampiya Tissa. /sup> At more than 2,300 years old, it is the oldest living human-planted tree in the world with a known planting date. The Mahavamsa, or the great chronicle of the Sinhalese, provides an elaborate account of the establishment of the Jaya Siri Maha Bodhi on the Island and the subsequent development of the site as a major Buddh ...
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Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, to royal parents of the Shakya clan, but renounced his home life to live as a wandering ascetic ( sa, śramaṇa). After leading a life of begging, asceticism, and meditation, he attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya in what is now India. The Buddha thereafter wandered through the lower Indo-Gangetic Plain, teaching and building a monastic order. He taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and severe asceticism, leading to Nirvana, that is, freedom from ignorance, craving, rebirth, and suffering. His teachings are summarized in the Noble Eightfold Path, a training of the mind that includes meditation and instruction in Buddhist ethics such as right effort, mindfulness, and '' jhana''. He di ...
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Kandyan Era Frescoes
Kandyan era frescoes are mural paintings created during the Kingdom of Kandy (1469–1815) in Sri Lanka, a time when kings gave a special place to arts and literature. As there was a political instability in Sri Lanka after the Anuradhapura Era, which lasted more than 500 years, kings didn't take much effort to build up the religious side of the people. Therefore there were no monks with Upasampada and people didn't have much education about Buddhism. Therefore at the beginning of Kandyan Kingdom, the monks got Upasampada, and started to preach Buddism to people. As people didn't know many things, monks (Specially Sangaraja Maha Nahimi) advised the kings to paint the walls of the temples with Jataka Stories so that anyone could understand even without knowing how to read. This marked the beginning of frescoes of the Kandyan Era. Special features of Kandyan era frescoes The walls of the Kandyan Era were built by clay which was stuck in between sticks. Then after they used Mak ...
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Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura ( si, අනුරාධපුරය, translit=Anurādhapuraya; ta, அனுராதபுரம், translit=Aṉurātapuram) is a major city located in north central plain of Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of North Central Province, Sri Lanka and the capital of Anuradhapura District. The city lies north of the current capital of Colombo in the North Central Province, on the banks of the historic Malvathu River. The city is now a World Heritage Site famous for its well-preserved ruins of the ancient Sinhalese civilization. While Mahavamsa place the founding of the city in 437 BCE, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it a major human settlement on the island for almost three millennia and one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Asia. It is the cradle of the Hydraulic Sinhalese civilization, Theravada Buddhism, and the longest-serving ancient capital of Sri Lanka that has survived for 1500 years. Moreover, It was the first capit ...
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Mulkirigala Museum
Mulgirigala Archaeological Museum is a site museum located at Mulkirigala, Sri Lanka. It was maintained by Department of Archaeology of Sri Lanka. The museum is used to exhibit archaeological objects found in Mulkirigala and surrounding area. It contains collection of rare stuff such as Palm-leaf manuscripts, tools, old reports and paintings. See also * List of museums in Sri Lanka This list of museums in Sri Lanka contains lists of museums which are defined for this context as institutions (including nonprofit organisations, government entities, and private businesses) that collect and care for objects of cultural, artistic ... References {{Museums in Sri Lanka , state=collapsed Museums in Hambantota District Buildings and structures in Tangalle ...
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Kirti Sri Rajasinha Of Kandy
Kirti Sri Rajasinha ( Sinhala: කීර්ති ශ්‍රී රාජසිංහ, Tamil: கீர்த்தி ஸ்ரீ ராஜசிங்கம்; 11 August 1747 – 2 January 1782) was the second Nayaka king of Kandy. He was a prince from the Madurai Nayak Dynasty and the brother-in-law of Sri Vijaya Raja Singha. He succeeded his brother-in-law to the throne in 1751. The king is credited for the revival of Buddhism and literature in Sri Lanka. Under the guidance and influence of Weliwita Sri Saranankara Thero, with Dutch assistance, king Kirti Sri Raja Singha successfully invited Bhikkus from Siam (Thailand) to revive the higher ordination of Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka. He also built the existing inner temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and Raja Maha Vihara (Gangarama) in Kandy. During his reign the Mahavamsa chronicle was continued from the time of Parakramabahu IV of Dambadeniya. He also rebuilt the Munneswaram temple close to Chilaw. Attack on Dutch F ...
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Dhatusena Of Anuradhapura
Dhatusena was a king of Sri Lanka who ruled from 455 to 473 AD. He was the first king of the Moriyan dynasty. In some records, he is also identified as Dasenkeli. Dhatusena reunited the country under his rule after twenty six years, defeating the six Dravidians that were ruling the country at that time. Dhatusena made eighteen irrigation tanks, a large irrigation canal known as Yodha Ela (Jaya ganga), and the Avukana Buddha statue, a large statue of Gautama Buddha. Early life and becoming king Dhatusena's ancestry is uncertain. The '' Cūḷavaṃsa'', the ancient chronicle of Sri Lanka, tells us that he was of royal lineage whose ancestors had fled the royal capital about three hundred years earlier. The country was invaded in 433 by Tamils apparently of or related to the Pandyan dynasty from South India, known as "the Six Dravidians". They overthrew Mittasena and ruled the Anuradhapura Kingdom for twenty-six years, from 433 to 459. During this time, Sinhalese leaders abandone ...
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Stupa
A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circumambulation or ''pradakhshina'' has been an important ritual and devotional practice since the earliest times, and stupas always have a ''pradakhshina'' path around them. The original South Asian form is a large solid dome above a tholobate or drum with vertical sides, which usually sits on a square base. There is no access to the inside of the structure. In large stupas there may be walkways for circumambulation on top of the base as well as on the ground below it. Large stupas have or had ''vedikā'' railings outside the path around the base, often highly decorated with sculpture, especially at the torana gateways, of which there are usually four. At the top of the dome is a thin vertical element, with one of more horizontal discs spreadin ...
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