Tropical Island Buddhist Sanctuary

Lord Buddha in Mihintale, Sri Lanka

Continuing on the Buddhist theme, here’s a tropical island that is staunchly Buddhist – Sri Lanka.

Buddhism started in India, but has more or less disappeared from India except for a few pockets here and there. It’s a completely different story in its island neighbour to the south however. Here, in Sri Lanka, Buddhism is still very much a part of everyday life. Buddhist temples and figures dot the landscape like in Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. And any gesture perceived as an insult to Buddha will get you into big trouble with the authorities. Don’t believe me, try taking a selfie with Lord Buddha and see what happens.


“Papa, what’s that Didi (sister) doing”? “Oh, she’s courting trouble, by showing her back to Buddha, posing for a photo”. She’s lucky no officers were nearby, or her camera would probably have been confiscated, and worse... A Sri Lankan couple asked me to snap a photo of them with their phone posing in front of the Tooth Relic Sanctum in Kandy. Immediately after that, an officer of the temple approached them, reprimanded them in the local language and took hold of their phone (and probably deleted the ‘offensive’ photos, …nope, didn’t stay to find out, got as far away from them as possible…)


A white dagoba (stupa in Sinhalese I guess) in Mihintale


A smaller dagoba and the Lord Buddha statue


Anu, on the stairway up to Mihintale – be careful of the monkeys, years of pampering have taught them to terrorize and snatch food out of unsuspecting tourists, like Anu and Justin. They had their mangoes, which we had just bought, snatched from their hands! Classic case of spare the rod and spoil the child, (apes in this case). Ask Justin about Sri Lanka, and he’ll probably tell you this story. I think it's about the only thing he remembers of Sri Lanka.


The rock where Buddhism purportedly arrived in Sri Lanka, brought over from India by the son of Emperor Ashoka. He either flew, or there must be some teleportation portal on that rock, a stargate, or moongate perhaps… (another view of the rock can be seen in this earlier post – On a Pilgrimage Spree)


This looks like a nice place to meditate, famous rock for Buddhist landing in Sri Lanka, nice view of the surrounding countryside, convenient place to jump off in case you get tired of meditating…


A view of the countryside from Mihintale