Sri Lanka’s oldest capital and one of the great ancient cities of Asia – a UNESCO World Heritage Site where the Sri Maha Bodhi (the oldest documented living human-planted tree on earth), towering sacred stupas, and the ruins of monastic complexes that once housed thousands of monks create an environment of extraordinary historical and spiritual density. Most significantly: Anuradhapura is still in active daily use as one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Buddhist world.
The fig tree grown from a cutting of the original Bodhi tree since 288 BCE, still surrounded daily by pilgrims from across Asia offering flowers and prayers in an unbroken tradition of 2,300 years – the most genuinely moving encounter with living religious heritage available on any Sri Lanka cultural itinerary.
The Ruwanwelisaya’s 90-metre hemispherical dome of solid brick, built in the 2nd century BCE and still gleaming white above the surrounding plain, is one of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world – and the Abhayagiri Monastery complex nearby provides the ruins of a monastic community that once rivalled the great monasteries of India and China in its scholarly output and physical scale.
The intimate Isurumuniya Rock Temple with its sacred lotus pool, 6th-century relief sculpture, and ancient cave shrines provides the quiet, human-scale counterpoint to Anuradhapura’s monumental heritage – while the great ancient reservoirs of the city (Tissa Wewa, Nuwara Wewa) attract a remarkable diversity of waterbirds to their shores in the late afternoon.