Buddhist Arts

Sri Dalada Maligawa

Temple of the Sacred Tooth is the holiest Buddhist site in Sri Lanka. The temple is located within the old Palace complex. When we visited, we needed to go through a rigorous security checkpoint due to the bombing by the Tamil Tigers on January 25, 1998. Once again we were also treated to [...]

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Sigiriya Lion Rock rises 360 meters above sea level. While it is not a Buddhist pilgrimage site, it is very important historically and archaeologically and is one of the UNESCO Cultural Triangle sites. As described later in this post, it was also home during separate periods of hundreds of years to Buddhist monastic orders.

The Winter [...]

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We visited Sri Lanka in November, 2007. Sri Lanka has been a Buddhist country for the past 2000 years, 2nd only to India. Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka by the Indian Buddhist Emporer Asoka’s pen-pal, King Tissa of Anuradhapura. 236 years after the death of the Buddha.
Sri Lanka, a stunningly picturesque island nation, [...]

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In 1978, UNESCO approved a project to safeguard the centuries of cultural achievements of six exceptional sites in Sri Lanka. They called the sites, bounded by Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Kandy, the Cultural Triangle.
When South Indian invaders sacked the early capital of Sri Lanka, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa became the second medieval capital of Sri Lanka, from [...]

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The Golden Mountain Temple

We arrived at the Dambulla Cave Temples in the late afternoon. Our driver, Aslam, introduced us to our guide, a middle aged wiry Sri Lankan, who we quickly learned possessed a passionate wealth of knowledge about Buddhism and the Cave Temples.
I had my camera and tripod because I wanted to get [...]

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