SACRED ISLAND

Of these sixteen places seven are in Anuradhapura and the rest are spread widely throughout the country. Those in Anuradhapura are the Sri Mahabodhi, Mirisavati Stupa, Ruvanvali Stupa, Thuparama, Abhayagiri Stupa, Jetavanarama Stupa and Lankarama Stupa. Of the rest Nagadipa is on an island near the northern tip of the country while Tissamaharama is in the far south. Dighavapi is on the eastern seaboard near Ampara and Kelaniya is on the west coast near Colombo. Sri Pada is on top of the country’s second highest mountain, Divaguha is somewhere near its foot, and Muthiyangana is on the very southeastern edge of the hill country while Mahaiyangana and Kirivehera are down on the plains. To the ancient Sinhalese it was not that there were many sacred places in their land but rather that the very land itself was sacred. In their imagination. Lanka was a vast sacred mandala whose axis was Sri Pada encrusted with precious gems and from which numerous rivers spiraled outwards with their life giving waters. The Sadhammopayana puts it like this; ‘This Buddha land is illuminated by the luster of the sun of supreme wisdom and cooled by the full moon of compassion. It is everywhere enclosed by the lofty peaks of the Buddha’s Dhamma and with hills of the gold and jewels of true understanding. The lions of self-confidence living comfortably and fearlessly in the forest of the Sangha decorate it. It is refreshed with the rain of Dhamma instruction, strewn with the blossoms of the factors of enlightenment and has the straight highways of the Eightfold Path. The ocean of virtue surrounds it with waves of good conduct. Noble heroes inhabit this Buddha land which is eminent above all others’.

Pilgrimage is as popular today as it was in the past. It is true that modern transportation and better roads have changed some aspects of the experience but the old spirit of devotion and awe, of endurance and benediction of enjoying companionship and enduring hardship, still prevails. The Sinhala terms for pilgrimage are ‘journey of worship’ (vandana gamana) or ‘journey of merit’ (pin gamana). The devotees of a particular monastery or a particular teacher, an extended family or perhaps people from one neighborhood will discuss the possibility of going on pilgrimage, decide on a date and begin to work out the details. One of the local monks or perhaps a nun will be invited to accompany the group or if they are particularly respected, to lead it. The costs of the whole journey will be calculated and shared equally between all the participants. A bus or truck will be hired, loaded up with large cooking pots, bundles of fire wood and sacks of rice and vegetables and after the inevitable delays will set off to enthusiastic shouts of ‘Sadhu’! Sadhu! Sadhu’! This oft heard exclamation means something like, ‘It is good’. In Buddhism pilgrimage is neither a penance nor an obligation during which one is expected to be dour and serious. The mood of pilgrims often alternates between curiosity and piety, high sprits and wonder. There are traditional songs that pilgrims sing and poems that they recite as they progress towards their goal and some of those sung on the Sri Pada pilgrimage contain a good deal of humor. After the devotions time is always made for buying souvenirs or products not available at home. At Sri Pada pictures of Samantha and little books of devotional poems are popular and at Anuradhapura a certain type of native sugar not available in southern Sri Lanka always sells well. Most pilgrims today wear neat ordinary clothes but those keeping the eight or ten Precepts during the journey and some of the older people will wear white.

Why would the modern Westerner Buddhist or someone just interested in Eastern spirituality consider going on pilgrimage to Sri Lanka as opposed to, say, India? Although geographically close to each other India and Sri Lanka couldn’t be more different. People who have spent time in the former and then come to the latter expecting it to be similar are always surprised, usually pleasantly so. India is dry, brown and dusty while Sri Lanka is generally lush and green. The level of public hygiene is many times higher in Sri Lanka than in India, the crowds are smaller, there is less pushing and shoving and people are more ready to smile. Having said this though it is also true that Sri Lanka has none of the exuberant and diverse expressions of spirituality that one finds in India. Only one school of Buddhism prevails throughout the entire country, Theravada, and there is a general uniformity of belief and practice. Theravada tends to emphasis adherence to the Dhamma rather than devotion to the guru which means that there are few high profile teachers in Sri Lanka. The Vinaya, the rules for monks and nuns, is a further discouragement to the emergence of such personalities. One of these rules says that a monk who attains an exalted state must not tell others about it. What the Western pilgrim will find in abundance in Sri Lanka are places associated with the great sages and the events mentioned in the sacred literature and legends of the Theravadin tradition. At many of these places the pilgrim will feel a very palpable spiritual energy , an energy often enhances by great natural beauty. Those interested in Mahayana and Tantrayana will also find places where those schools once flourished and where they left behind interesting traces of their presence. Western Buddhists might also be able to share the experience of pilgrimage with Sri Lantern devotees. Sometimes one’s encounters with Buddhists from a different culture can be both inspiring and humbling.

Sri Lanka has a longer and more complete history than any other Asian country except China This history is derived from five main sources; the Pali chronicles, the Pali commentaries, collections of folk tales, inscriptions and the travel accounts of pilgrims and travelers. The most important and comprehensive of there are the Pali chronicles. The Dipavamsa, The Chronicle of the Island, is the oldest and most reliable of all these works and was written in the 4th century CE. It tells the history of Buddhism from the time of the Buddha, its introduction to Sri Lanka and its progress up to the time of its writing. Scholars believe that nuns of the Hatthalhaka Nunnery of the Mahavihara composed the Dipavamsa. The Mahavamsa or Great Chronicle was written in the 5th century by the monk Mahanama and covers much the same ground as the Dipavamsa but from a somewhat different angle and in much more detail. The Culavamsa or Lesser Chronicle by Dhammakitti takes up from where the Mahavamsa leaves off and brings the island’s history up to the 13th century. All three chronicles were written by clerics of the Mahavihara and thus of course tell their story very much from that perspective. Although the history these chronicles tell is uneven, giving much space to some kings or events and doing little more than mentioning the names of others, research over the last hundred years has consistently verified many of the details they do record. There are several other lesser chronicles as well; the Mahabodhivamsa, The Chronicle of the Bodhi Tree, The Thupavamsa, the Chronicle of the Stupas and the Dhatuvamsa the Chronicle of the Tooth Relic. After these chronicles the Pali commentaries are the most important source of Sri Lankan history. In the centuries after Buddhism came to Sri Lanka scholars and teachers began writing commentaries on the Tipitaka, the canon containing the words of the Buddha. By the 5th century CE the Sinhala that these commentaries were composed in was becoming so archaic that it was increasingly difficult to read and thus it was decide to render them all into Pali, the sacred language of Theravada. Buddhaghosa, the most erudite scholar of his time, was invited from India to perform this task. Some decades later another Indian monk, Dhammapala, wrote commentaries on the parts of the Tipitaka that Buddhaghosa had been unable to finish. As well as explanations of doctrine and comments on language these commentaries included stories about famous monks and saints, information about the daily life of the time and about the deeds of various kings and princes. In ancient times many pilgrims and scholars came to see Sri Lanka and some of them wrote accounts of their sourjorns on the island. Although most of these accounts are scant they do provide some interesting information.