Mihintale is about 8 km from Anuradhapura so this was our next stop. Perhaps we should have started here as this was the very place where Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka.
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| Mihintale Shrine |
It all happened when a visiting Buddhist teacher Prince Mahinda, son of the Indian Emperor Ashoka, and some of his Buddhist monks were camped out on the mountain and met Sri Lankan King Devanampiyatissa who was out on a hunting trip. The two had a conversation about Buddhism, the king listened to one of Prince Mahinda’s sermons and Prince Mahinda posed a question to test the King’s intelligence to ascertain if he was able to understand the Buddhist principles. Obviously he passed the test, adopted Buddhism for himself and about 40,000 people of his kingdom - so here we are today! The place where this is said to have taken place is nowadays called “ Invitation Rock “.
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| Invitation Rock |
The entire area here was built to house and otherwise cater for the Buddhist monks who, as noted by the scholar Fa hsien when he travelled from India and China studying Buddhism in the 5th century, to have numbered around 2000.
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| Mihintale Monkey |
Someone in our small group had earlier remarked that it seemed that every significant hill in Sri Lanka had a temple of shrine atop ! Mihintale confirmed this observation so we set off up the 1840 steps to the top ! [ Yes ! We improved on our levels of fitness on this trip !] It was a very pleasant walk with only a few people around, unlike on Poya [ full moon ] days when this place is very crowded with people coming to participate in the religious rituals. As we walked up the steps, monkeys appeared in the overhanging trees intent on seeing if they could scrounge any food.
The day was pleasantly cool and comfortable after the morning rain, the air clear and the colours of the trees bright and fresh. We soon arrived at the shrine pictured above and looked around this flat part where this structure which I think was a pond was situated.
Once again we were impressed by the feats of the plumbers of 2000 years ago ! Notably the bathroom for monks. It came complete with not only filtered water, toilets, shower and bath but also a drying room !
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| Remains of the monks' bathroom |
It must have been hard work for the 12 chefs and the other servants whose job it was to feed the large number of monks ! No gas or electricity for fuel, only firewood. There was plenty of that in the jungle but a lot of it would have been needed to cook enough rice to fill this serving trough! It is believed that the monks were served here but went elsewhere to eat - probably in their rooms as dining halls don't seem to have survived, even if they existed. Then again, for a monk, eating is supposed to be a mindful activity so no chatter would be expected. Any way, this rice trough is 23 feet long !
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| Rice Trough, Mihintale |
We were particularly interested in two large stone tablets either side of some steps. These were erected by King Mahinda IV - well, actually I doubt that he would have done the work himself - and they record details of life at Mihintale during his reign. The most interesting thing to us was the early form of Sinhala - the letters today are different. There semed to be a lot of 8 s in it !
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| King Mahinda IV's tablet[s] |
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| King Mahinda's tablet |
We then climbed up to the dagaba and walked around the "floor" looking up at the spire. As we were on a narrowish platform from which the dagaba arose, it was difficult for me to get much of a photo. As it gleamed white, I wondered when it had last been renovated.
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The views from here were both interesting and beautiful. I could see the huge Buddha in the distance as well as Invitation Rock opposite, several tanks and jungle. I believe that those jungle areas may have some elephants enjoying them.
We followed a bit of a track off the main path to see the Naga Pond. This is a small natural pond that has been enlarged by carving out rock and also adding an embankment. It provided piped water for the monks to bathe and wash in the bathroom below.
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| Naga Pond |
We made our descent the back way down some steep in places mighty rocks, enjoying the quiet and peaceful aspect of this beautiful part of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has so many different vistas - all have their own special beauty - and I am aware that " beautiful " is an overworked word in my descriptions.
I left Mihintale feeling very glad that I had included it in our Travel Plan because not only did we have a great day learning about the history of this unique and beautiful island we also had a bird's eye view of the jungle, surrounding tanks and the awesome Invitation Rock. Now I've seen that, I know that a certain family member must have been very adventurous to obtain the photo he declined to tell me the location of some years ago! [ Note the precariously perched boulder on the right !]
Next destination is Polonnaruwa ! I have clear memories of a happy day spent there in 1968! Going by the Anuradhapura experience, I think it will be a bit different now. Anticipation runs high !
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