Sri Lanka’s first great capital is one of the world’s oldest and most continuously inhabited cities – a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose sacred stupas, ancient monastic complexes, and the Sri Maha Bodhi (the oldest documented living human-planted tree on earth, 2,300 years old and still tended by devoted monks) create an environment of historical and spiritual density unmatched anywhere on the island. What distinguishes Anuradhapura from purely archaeological sites elsewhere in Asia is that it remains an active place of devotion – the pilgrims who come to offer jasmine at the Sri Maha Bodhi and circumambulate the great stupas in the early morning have been doing so in an unbroken tradition since the 3rd century BCE.
