I had mentally putting of visiting the Scared City of Anuradhapura. Something in me knew I was leading up for some kind of disappointment. In my head I was imagining either a large archaeological park like at the Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Or temples strewn across town were you can get your Indiana Jones on, like Bagan in Myanmar.

Putting it off for another day, I decided the next visit would be Mihintale. The hotel had their go-to tuk tuk driver for taking guests to these sights, so I took them up on the offer and ended up with the most awesome driver. He practically knew everything about the area and was quite passionate about it, and he himself a devout Buddhist. I was so impressed with him I asked for him the next day when I did eventually visit the Scared City.

The trip out had a couple of interesting detours. First was a Buddhist meditation retreat. As the driver explained, the only time they stop meditating is to have lunch and dinner. I’d like to think that toilet breaks are also allowed, because with a hundred monks living here this place will get pretty damn stinky pretty damn fast. Just outside the complex is a great tree (not sure the species) that grew to create this cool alcove were you can sit and mediate. Just next to it is a caged upright coffin with a skeleton in it. Apparently he was once the caretaker of this area and now, quite dead, still looks over the garden. I guess there’s some poetry in this, ignoring the fact there’s a human skeleton just chilling out here.

One beautiful spot is called Kaludiya Pokuma, meaning Dark Water Pond. It’s a 2000+ year old site that gets its name from the Mihintale Hill that casts it’s shadow over the pond. It was on this hill that King Devanampiya, in 247 BCE, was out hunting and ran into Mahinda, the son of the Indian Buddhist Emperor Ashoka. After some tests of wisdom, Mahinda found the king to be worthy of Buddhist teachings and converted him on the spot. 

It was on this hill that Buddhism was founded in Sri Lanka, over 2000 years ago.

The last off track spot we visited was a sacred dagoba where people would come and pray for help or for vengeance (yeah, I’ll get to that in a sec). As the faithful would pray for their wishes, a monk off to the side would smash coconuts as an offering. The wishful would then walk around the dagoba 7 times one direction, 3 times the opposite, and in a month the wish should come to fruition. The driver told me two stories how he prayed for a tourists father, who had just been in car accident and was in a bad condition. Some weeks after the prayer the father pulled through and made a fine recovery. The other story was a wish for himself, or more to the fact, vengeance against his enemies. He said it came true and there were broken bones and smashed faces, all not really sound particularly Buddhist. When I asked who they pray to, was it Buddha, he said not it was God. I’m not quite sure which god this is, or if it’s just a catch all name (the Romans and Greeks did this), but I figured it was best not to ask any further questions on that matter.

We next arrived at the base of Mihintale Hill, and the temple complex build here afterwards. It’s not bad climb up, leading to a courtyard and a short staircase to the great Ambasthale Dagoba built on the spot where King Devamampiya converted to Buddhism. It’s not a huge site, but the views are fantastic.

Everyone one of these sites have monkeys running around generally being, well, cheeky monkeys. I watched as a poor little girl, no older that 4 years, had her bottle of orange soda yanked away from her hand by a monkey. The kid just stood there wailing, the mum running over to her and taking her away from the naughty monkey, and she only stopped crying once mum had bought her another drink. Back at Sri Maha Bodhi, a woman in front of me had her flowers ripped from her hands by a monkey as she screamed at it. The lesson here was don’t go near monkeys when you have something in your hands it wants, because monkey will take what monkey wants.

It finally came time to tackle the Scared City. There’s a few ways to approach this; first you can hired a full guided tour, second hire a tuk tuk to take you around, or lastly hire a bicycle and ride around at your own pace. I indecisive whether to hire a tuk tuk or hire a bicycle. I was staying in New Town, and it was a bit of a trek on a bike to get to the beginning of the area and I would have be riding through some heavy traffic at first, so I went with the tuk tuk driver I used for Mihintale.

I’m pretty happy I made this choice. Unless you’re a hard core cycle enthusiast, cycling this area isn’t worth it. It’s very much just part of the town, with the sites dotted throughout, so you’re still vying the road with tuk tuks, motorbikes, and cars. The traffic isn’t crazy, but its not the romanticised ride I would imagine a lot of people have in mind. I did see a group of cyclists, maybe 20 of them, clad in lycra and racing gear, making their way through the area. This was a moment I wished I’d prayed for broken bones back at that dogoba. 

The entry for the area (which really isn’t well defined) is a foreigner tax of an insane $25USD. In the context of what things are worth in Sri Lanka, this is an absolute rort. You’re literally paying a fee to enter part of the town because you’re not Sri Lankan. Sadly this type of fee would come up a several times more.

Anuradhapura dates back to 380 BCE, and became Sri Lanka’s first capitol city. When King Devanampiya converted to Buddhism, this is when the capitol rose to importance and soon became a city complex of Buddhism, and between 167-137 BCE a massive push for building new monuments took hold, leaving the legacy we see today. Unfortunately the old city is long gone, buried beneath the current city of Anuradhapura. All that really stands is a handful of dagoba’s and some bricks overgrown with vegetation. 

I’m not going to be able to name each of the dagoba’s I visited, as for the most part they all look the same. I tried to find some interesting angles or details that made a particular dagoba stand out, but when it comes down to it, there are the brown ones that haven’t been fully restored, and the white ones that are restored and people pray at. There really isn’t much to distinguish each form another. 

The only two stand outs where the Ruvanvelisaya Dagoba and the Moonstone. The Ruvanvelisaya Dagoba was build in the 140 BCE, and has a surrounding wall of 344 elephant heads (not real heads, sculptures). At the time, it was the biggest stupa in the world and it is believed a collar bone of Buddha is within the foundation. Every famous Buddhist temple I’ve ever been to always makes the claim that some part of Buddha is inside, if all this were true, I’m not sure how cool Buddha would have been having bits of himself used to build temples all over Asia.

The Moonstone isn’t a dagoba but an entrance seal to a monks residence. It’s an elaborately carved piece of stone depicting various animals, and just a impressive feat of craftsmanship. It’s also a welcome change from the dagoba’s, even though it’s a pretty quick in and out visit.

After arriving back at the hotel I couldn’t help but feeling my instinct was correct, and the Sacred City wasn’t all that great. And with a $25USD price tag attached to it, plus 2,500 rupee ($20) for the tuk tuk, I’m finding it hard to justify a visit here. The best sights to see in Anurahapura are the Sri Maha Bodhi and Mihintale, neither requiring an entrance fee. 

It was now time to leave Anuradhapura, the next morning it was time to jump on a bus south to Dambulla, and change to the village of Sigiriya.