Step through the northern stone gateway onto the white sand paths shaded by ancient trees in the Mahamevnawa Royal Park of Anuradhapura, and you will hear the rustle of heart-shaped bodhi leaves in the dry North Central breeze mingling with the low cadence of Pali chanting from thousands of white-clad pilgrims seated on the sand. In the center of the court rises a square stone-faced terrace standing 6.5 meters above the courtyard floor. From the summit of that high platform, encircled by two tiers of gleaming gold-plated railings and supported by gilded metal crutches, spreads the deep green canopy of an ancient sacred fig that has lived for more than two millennia.
In Sri Lanka this tree is revered as Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, the Victorious, Illustrious Great Bodhi Tree. Planted in the 3rd century BCE under King Devanampiya Tissa from the right southern branch of the original Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya in India beneath which Gautama Buddha attained supreme enlightenment, it is the oldest living human-planted tree on earth with an authenticated historical planting date. While the parent tree in India was destroyed and replanted several times across history, this scion in Anuradhapura has kept the unbroken biological life of the tree of awakening alive for over 2,300 years.
IA living presence of the Awakened One and the mission of Sanghamitta Theri
In the Theravada Buddhist tradition of Sri Lanka, sacred objects of veneration are classified into three categories: Saririka Cetiya (corporeal relics such as the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy), Paribhogika Cetiya (objects personally used by or associated with the historical Buddha during his lifetime), and Uddesika Cetiya (commemorative images). The Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi holds the supreme rank of a living Paribhogika Cetiya, because it grew directly from a branch of the Assattha tree (Ficus religiosa) that sheltered Siddhartha Gautama on the night of his awakening on the banks of the Neranjana River. For this reason, Sri Lankan Buddhists venerate the tree atop the Uduvewa Bo Maluwa terrace as a living presence of the Buddha himself.
Vietnamese Buddhism shares an intimate historical and biological tie with the Anuradhapura Bodhi Tree. In 1953, the Most Venerable Narada Maha Thera of Sri Lanka personally brought saplings propagated from the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi as gifts to the Buddhist community of Vietnam, where they now flourish at Xá Lợi Pagoda and Kỳ Viên Pagoda in Saigon as well as at major monasteries across central and southern Vietnam. In 1959, President Rajendra Prasad of India likewise presented President Hồ Chí Minh with a Bodhi sapling descended from this sacred lineage, which stands today at Trấn Quốc Pagoda beside West Lake in Hanoi.
According to the 5th-century Pali chronicle Mahavamsa (chapters 18 and 19) compiled by the monk Mahanama, together with the Mahabodhivamsa, after the arahant Mahinda Thera (son of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka) introduced Buddhism to King Devanampiya Tissa at Anuradhapura, Queen Anula and five hundred court women requested monastic ordination. Because monastic law did not permit monks alone to confer full ordination upon women, Mahinda Thera advised the king to send his nephew, the minister Arittha, to the Mauryan capital of Pataliputra to ask Emperor Ashoka to send his daughter, the arahant nun Sanghamitta Theri, to establish the order of nuns on the island and to bring with her the southern branch of the sacred Bodhi Tree from Bodh Gaya.
The Mahavamsa recounts that when Emperor Ashoka stood beneath the Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya and drew a vermilion line around its great southern bough with a solemn vow of truth, the branch severed itself of its own accord and settled into a golden vase filled with fragrant earth. Sanghamitta Theri, accompanied by eleven bhikkhunis and delegations from eighteen royal guilds (Attharasakulika), escorted the golden vase by ship from the port of Tamralipti across the Bay of Bengal to the northern Sri Lankan port of Jambukola (on the Jaffna peninsula). King Devanampiya Tissa waded neck-deep into the sea to receive the vessel upon his head, led a fourteen-day royal procession to Anuradhapura, and planted the sapling in the Mahamevnawa Park on the full moon day of the month of Unduvap (December). The arrival of the Bodhi sapling thus marked both the permanent rooting of the Dhamma in Sri Lanka and the founding of the first Bhikkhuni Sasana (Order of Nuns) outside India.
Readers consulting different scholarly and traditional sources encounter three different dates for the planting of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi: 288 BCE, 249 BCE, and 236 BCE. This variation arises from the difference between the traditional Sri Lankan Buddhist Era reckoning in the Mahavamsa (which places the Buddha's parinirvana in 543 BCE and the planting in the 255th year of the Buddhist Era, or 288 BCE) and modern epigraphic chronology for the reign of Emperor Ashoka (reigned c. 268 to 232 BCE, placing the mission around 249 BCE or 236 BCE). The library records all three dates so readers understand their calendrical basis. A second point of note is that the Bodhi Tree currently standing beside the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya (India) is a fourth- or fifth-generation tree replanted in 1881 by British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham using seeds and cuttings derived from the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura after the previous tree in India fell in a storm in 1876.
IIOver two millennia of royal patronage and monastic guardianship
Since taking root in the Mahamevnawa Park more than twenty-three centuries ago, the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi has stood at the spiritual center of the Mahavihara (Great Monastery), the premier seat of orthodox Theravada scholarship and Pali scriptural preservation in the ancient world. Among the Atamasthana (the Eight Sacred Places of Anuradhapura), the Bodhi Tree occupies the foremost rank. Even during the centuries when the royal capital shifted to Polonnaruwa, Dambadeniya, and Kandy and tropical forest reclaimed much of ancient Anuradhapura, resident monks and hereditary village guardians maintained an unbroken vigil to protect the tree from wild elephants, storms, and natural decay.
- 288 BCE (or 249 BCE)Arrival from India and planting in Mahamevnawa ParkSanghamitta Theri escorts the southern branch of the Bodh Gaya Bodhi Tree by sea to Jambukola port. King Devanampiya Tissa (reigned c. 307 to 267 BCE in traditional chronicles, or c. 250 to 210 BCE in modern historiography) presides over its ceremonial planting in Anuradhapura.
- 161 to 137 BCEGrand royal offerings of King DutugemunuAfter unifying the island and building the Ruwanwelisaya Great Stupa and the nine-story Lovamahapaya Brazen Palace nearby, King Dutugemunu endows sumptuous royal festivals and ceremonial adornments for the Bodhi shrine.
- 65 to 236 CEConstruction of the Bodhighara shrine and Buddha imagesKing Vasabha (reigned 65 to 107 CE) builds a pillared Bodhighara pavilion around the tree and installs four Buddha statues at the four cardinal directions. King Voharika Tissa (214 to 236 CE) adds bronze images and oil lamp galleries.
- 459 to 477 CERestoration under King DhatusenaKing Dhatusena rebuilds the Bodhighara sanctuary walls and institutes elaborate watering festivals to nourish the sacred tree.
- 569 to 866 CEExcavation and stone lining of irrigation canalsKing Mahanaga (569 to 571 CE) excavates a dedicated water channel from Tissa Wewa reservoir to irrigate the Bodhi terrace, which King Sena II (846 to 866 CE) later restores and lines with stone.
- 1747 to 1782Construction of the Prakaraya elephant wall in the Kandyan periodDuring the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha of Kandy, the monk Ilupandeniye Aththadassi Thera directs local villagers in building a massive granite perimeter wall (Prakaraya) 3 meters high and 1.5 meters thick to keep out wild elephants.
- 1969Installation of the golden Ran Veta railingUnder the guidance of Ven. Yatirawana Narada Thera and Ven. Yagirala Pannananda Thera, the first gold-plated protective railing (Ran Veta) and lower iron fence are erected around the upper terrace, supplemented by a second outer golden railing in the early 21st century.
- 1982UNESCO World Heritage inscriptionUNESCO inscribes the Sacred City of Anuradhapura on the World Heritage List under criteria (ii), (iii), and (vi) (reference 200), with the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi sanctuary as its living spiritual core.
UNESCO documentation (reference 200) and the official sanctuary administration (srimahabodhi.lk) highlight the historic custodial institution of the Atamasthana Palakasabha, presided over by the Chief High Priest of the Eight Sacred Places (Atamasthanadhipathi) of the Malwatta chapter of the Siam Nikaya. Throughout the centuries when Anuradhapura lay deep in jungle between the 11th and 19th centuries, villagers of the surrounding Nuwarakalawiya region kept the night-time custom of bringing cartloads of dry firewood to burn bonfires around the base of the terrace (the Daramiriya rite) to deter wild elephants and warm the precinct. Today, traditional monastic care works alongside botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya to monitor soil nutrition, prop aging limbs, and safeguard the health of the 2,300-year-old tree.
IIIThe elevated terrace, the golden Ran Veta railing, and the dolomite Buddha image
The architectural layout of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi exemplifies the classical Sri Lankan Bodhighara (Bodhi-tree shrine): an open-air hypaethral sanctuary left unroofed at the center so the tree canopy receives natural sunlight and rain, framed by concentric stepped terraces of dressed granite and brick. The rectangular sacred compound runs along a north-to-south axis enclosed by the 18th-century granite wall Prakaraya, which measures 118.3 meters (388 feet) from north to south, 83.5 meters (274 feet) from east to west, 3.0 meters (10 feet) in height, and 1.5 meters (5 feet) in thickness, its interior face pierced with hundreds of niches for clay oil lamps lit on full moon Poya nights.
At the center of the court rises the Udu Maluwa (Upper Terrace), an earthen and masonry platform standing 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) above the sandy courtyard floor. Atop this terrace, the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi reaches a height of roughly 20 meters, its heavy horizontal limbs supported by gilded metal props to prevent breakage during monsoon winds. Surrounding the upper platform are four stepped lower terraces (Pahatha Maluwa) planted with 41 guardian Bodhi trees (Parivara Bodhi), which form a protective biological ring that buffers wind gusts, retains soil moisture, and shields the ancient parent tree at the center.
The 6.5-meter-high square granite-faced platform at the center of the sanctuary where the original Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi has grown since the 3rd century BCE, accessed via a formal northern stairway.
Two concentric gold-plated protective railings encircling the Upper Terrace (first erected in 1969 and expanded in 2003), topped with lotus-bud finials and bodhi-leaf motifs that protect the trunk and low branches.
Forty-one mature Bodhi trees growing on the lower terraces on all four sides of the central platform, propagated over the centuries from seeds of the main tree to serve as an ecological windbreak.
The shrine room (Viharage) on the eastern side of the terrace housing a 3.3-meter seated Buddha carved from a single block of dolomite marble around the 6th century CE, uniquely depicted in the full diamond lotus posture (Vajraparyankasana) and earth-touching mudra (Bhumisparsa Mudra).
Semicircular carved stone threshold slabs at the northern and eastern entrances adorned with concentric bands of lotus petals, elephants, horses, lions, and sacred geese from the Anuradhapura period, flanked by seven-hooded Naga king guardstones (Muragala).
The massive 18th-century granite perimeter wall built under King Kirti Sri Rajasinha to keep out wild elephants, pierced by four cardinal gateways and lined inside with monolithic stone flower-offering tables (Mal Asanas).
Of particular art-historical note inside the eastern image house at the foot of the terrace is the 3.3-meter seated Buddha image carved out of a single slab of dolomite marble (dated to approximately the 6th century CE and installed in the present shrine in 1911). Whereas almost all ancient seated Buddha statues in Sri Lanka (such as the famous Samadhi Buddha) sit in the half-lotus posture (Sattvaparyankasana) with both hands resting in the lap in the meditation gesture (Dhyana Mudra), this statue is virtually unique on the island in sitting in the full interlocked diamond posture (Vajraparyankasana) with both soles turned upward and the right hand reaching down to touch the earth in the Bhumisparsa Mudra (Maravijaya Mudra). Placing the exact gesture by which the Buddha called the earth to witness his victory over Mara beneath the Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya directly beside the living branch of that very tree in Anuradhapura creates a remarkable iconographic harmony.
IVThe lie of the land and the facing
Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka does not employ East Asian feng shui, instead siting sacred monuments according to ancient Buddhist cosmology combined with the hydraulic reservoir (Wewa) engineering of the dry-zone Rajarata civilization. When King Devanampiya Tissa dedicated the Mahamevnawa Royal Park to the Sangha, the spot chosen for the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi was identified in canonical lore as the very ground where the sacred trees of the three previous Buddhas of the present eon (Kakusandha, Konagamana, and Kassapa) had stood. The reading below offers a comparative view through the lens of traditional Vietnamese landform analysis based on satellite coordinates and the physical topography of Anuradhapura.
In terms of macro-landform and flatland dragon veins (Dragon Vein (Long Mai) bình dương), ancient Anuradhapura lies on the gentle alluvial plain of the Malwathu Oya river (ancient Kadamba Nadi). Located at 8.3447 degrees North, 80.3967 degrees East, the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi sanctuary occupies a slightly elevated ridge wedged between the winding Malwathu Oya to the east and two vast man-made reservoirs to the west and southwest: Tissa Wewa (built by King Devanampiya Tissa in the 3rd century BCE) and Basawakkulama Wewa (Abhaya Wewa, built in the 4th century BCE). In traditional flatland geomancy, where an inch of elevation acts as a mountain and an inch of depression acts as water, raising the central Upper Terrace 6.5 meters above the flat sandy plain creates an artificial host mountain that gathers qi (Gathering Qi (Ju Qi)), keeps the ancient root system safe from waterlogging during monsoon rains, and draws steady subterranean moisture from the surrounding irrigation tanks.
In terms of axial orientation and cardinal guardians, the sanctuary opens its principal ceremonial gateway to the North (facing the ancient royal citadel and the 103-meter white dome of the Ruwanwelisaya Great Stupa some 500 meters to the north), while its main Buddha image house faces East toward the rising sun. Along the north-to-south sacred axis of the Mahavihara, the Ruwanwelisaya and Thuparama stupas form a linked front screen (Front Table Mountain (Qian An)) to the north, the 1,600 granite pillars of the Lovamahapaya Brazen Palace rise to the northeast on the side of the Azure Dragon on the left, the broad waters of Tissa Wewa reservoir lie to the west and southwest on the side of the White Tiger on the right to gather water in the bright hall (Bright Hall (Ming Tang)), and the forty-one guardian Bodhi trees (Parivara Bodhi) form an inner green embrace shielding the node (Dragon Spot (Xue)) from desiccating southwest winds.
VThe four royal agricultural festivals and monthly Poya observances
Ritual life at the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi follows the Sri Lankan Buddhist lunisolar calendar, revolving around the monthly full moon (Poya) days and four ancient royal seasonal festivals (Sathara Mangallaya) inherited from the kings of Anuradhapura. Every day, three liturgical offering services (Thewawa) are performed at dawn, midday, and dusk to the accompaniment of Hevisi drums and Horanawa reed pipes played by hereditary temple musicians. Rice farmers across the North Central plains continue the centuries-old custom of offering the first portion of their harvest to the sacred tree in thanksgiving for rain and protection from drought.
| Time of year | Calendar system | Festival | Rituals and significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unduvap Full Moon (December) | Sri Lankan Buddhist calendar | Unduvap Poya (Sanghamitta Day) | The principal annual anniversary of the sanctuary, commemorating Sanghamitta Theri's arrival in Sri Lanka with the southern branch of the Bodhi Tree and the founding of the Bhikkhuni Order of Nuns. |
| Month of Duruthu (January) | Agricultural and Buddhist calendar | New Rice Festival (Aluth Sahal Mangallaya) | One of the four royal seasonal festivals: farmers from across the Rajarata region process to the shrine to pour the first harvested paddy of the Maha season into a giant golden bowl to prepare milk-rice (Kiribath) offerings. |
| Month of Bak (April) | Traditional Sinhala solar calendar | New Year and Herbal Anointing Rites (Parana and Aluth Avurudu Mangallaya) | Marking the traditional Sinhala New Year with medicinal drink offerings (Gilanpasa) and the Nanumura Mangallaya ritual of anointing and purifying the shrine with fragrant herbal waters. |
| Poson Full Moon (June) | Sri Lankan Buddhist calendar | Poson Poya Festival | Celebrates the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka by Arahant Mahinda Thera during the reign of King Devanampiya Tissa, drawing ratusan of thousands of white-robed pilgrims to Anuradhapura and Mihintale. |
| Month of Nikini (August) | Nuwarakalawiya regional tradition | Sacred Firewood Procession (Daramiriya Perahera) | A historic Kandyan-era custom in which villagers bring decorated oxcarts laden with dry firewood to the temple, recalling the ancient night-time bonfires lit around the wall to ward off wild elephants. |
| Il or Kati Full Moon (November) | Sri Lankan Buddhist calendar | Festival of Lights (Kati Mangallaya) | Concluding the rains retreat and Kathina robe season, thousands of earthen coconut-oil lamps are lit throughout the night along the Prakaraya stone wall and across the sandy courtyards. |
For Vietnamese monastic and lay pilgrimage delegations visiting Sri Lanka, circumambulating the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi three times in silence, draping golden silk robes along the lower railings, and picking up a naturally fallen heart-shaped leaf from the white sand to press inside a sutra book is a deeply moving moment. Sitting in meditation beneath the very tree whose biological offspring shade Trấn Quốc Pagoda in Hanoi and Xá Lợi Pagoda in Saigon brings home the living continuity of more than two millennia of Asian Buddhist heritage.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Vườn thượng uyển Mahamevnawa (Mahamewuna Uyana), khu Thành phố thiêng Anuradhapura, tỉnh Bắc Trung Bộ, Sri Lanka
- Getting there
- The sanctuary stands in the heart of the Sacred City of Anuradhapura, about 205 kilometers north-northeast of Colombo. From Anuradhapura railway station or the New Town bus stand (3 to 4 kilometers to the east), visitors can take a three-wheeled tuk-tuk or bicycle along the tree-lined Sanghamitta Mawatha avenue directly to the northern entrance of Mahamevnawa Park.
- Coordinates
- 8.3447, 80.3967
Because this is one of the most sacred living sanctuaries in Sri Lanka, visitors must dress modestly with shoulders and knees fully covered, preferably in plain white attire in keeping with local pilgrimage custom. Footwear, socks, and hats must be removed at the depository outside before passing through the security checkpoint onto the sandy courtyard. To protect the ancient root system of the 2,300-year-old tree, access to the topmost platform (Udu Maluwa) is restricted to officiating clergy and botanical caretakers, while visitors offer lotus flowers, tie prayer flags, and circumambulate on the lower terraces. Visitors must never pluck living leaves or touch the branches of any Bodhi tree in the compound, and may only collect leaves that have fallen naturally to the ground.
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?Quick Questions
Why is the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura recognized as the oldest historical tree in the world?
While certain wild bristlecone pines and yews in nature are older, the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi is the oldest living human-planted tree in the world with an authenticated, written historical planting date. The ancient Pali chronicle Mahavamsa records that it was propagated from the southern branch of the original Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya (India) and planted by King Devanampiya Tissa in the Mahamevnawa Royal Park in 288 BCE (or around 249 to 236 BCE according to modern historical chronology).
Who brought the sacred Bodhi sapling from India to Sri Lanka?
According to the Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa chronicles, the sapling was brought across the sea from India to Sri Lanka by the arahant nun Sanghamitta Theri, daughter of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka and sister of Arahant Mahinda Thera. Landing at the northern port of Jambukola with eleven bhikkhunis and eighteen royal guilds, she presented the sapling to King Devanampiya Tissa and established the Bhikkhuni Sasana (Order of Buddhist Nuns) in Sri Lanka.
How is the Anuradhapura Bodhi Tree connected to the present Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya and to pagodas in Vietnam?
After the parent tree at Bodh Gaya (India) suffered historical destruction and finally fell in a storm in 1876, British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham propagated seeds and cuttings from the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura to replant the present Bodhi Tree beside the Mahabodhi Temple in 1881. In Vietnam, the revered Bodhi trees growing at Xá Lợi Pagoda and Kỳ Viên Pagoda (Ho Chi Minh City) and Trấn Quốc Pagoda (Hanoi) were likewise propagated from this sacred Anuradhapura tree in the 1950s.
What are the functions of the golden Ran Veta railing and the Parivara Bodhi trees?
The Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi grows atop a 6.5-meter elevated terrace enclosed by two tiers of gold-plated railings called the Ran Veta (first installed in 1969 and expanded in 2003), while gilded metal props support its heavy horizontal limbs. Surrounding the central platform on lower terraces are 41 subsidiary Bodhi trees known as Parivara Bodhi, planted to act as an ecological windbreak that buffers storm gusts and preserves soil moisture around the parent tree.
What makes the dolomite Buddha statue in the eastern image house unique in Sri Lankan art?
Inside the eastern shrine at the base of the terrace sits a 3.3-meter Buddha image carved from a single block of dolomite marble around the 6th century CE. Unlike almost all other ancient seated Buddha statues in Sri Lanka, which sit in the half-lotus posture with hands in the meditation gesture, this figure sits in the full interlocked diamond posture (Vajraparyankasana) with the right hand touching the earth in the Bhumisparsa Mudra, recalling the Buddha's victory over Mara beneath the Bodhi Tree.