Solosmasthana

Sixteen hallowed sites the Buddha visited:

Vesak dawned yesterday with many a Buddhist engaging in various religious activities to celebrate the life of the Buddha.

The Thrice Blessed Day which commemorates the Birth, Enlightenment and Parinibbana of the Buddha is one of the most significant events in the Buddhist calendar. As it is a time of spiritual awakening where devotees of the Buddha perform many meritorious acts and pay homage to Him, we decided to focus your attention on some of the important places the Buddhist venerate not only during Vesak, but also at other times during pilgrimages.

There are 16 very special sacred sites in Sri Lanka that are important to Buddhists because the Buddha is believed to have gone to these places during His many visits to Sri Lanka. Collectively known as Solosmasthana ‘16 sacred sites’, they are listed in this order in the Pali verse Buddhists recite when they worship at any temple - Mahiyangana, Nagadeepa, Kelaniya, Padalaanchana (Holy Foot Print), Divaguha, Deegavapi, Muthiyangana, Tissamaharama, Sri Maha Bodhi, Mirisavetiya, Ruwanveliseya, Thuparama, Abhayagiri, Jetavana, Sela Chaitya, Kirivehera.

Mahiyangana is in the Badulla district on the left bank of the Mahaweli river.Nagadeepa is an island off the Jaffna peninsula and is known as Nainativu in Tamil. Kelaniya is on the right bank of the Kelani river about five or six km from the river’s mouth. Next in this list is Padalaanchana, the Holy Foot Print, (Sri Pada) atop Samanala Kanda. Sri Pada is followed by Diva Guha. The site has still not been identified - (not known for certain). Some say it is the rock shrine near Kuruwita in the Ratnapura district. The Samanala Kanda is clearly visible to this spot.

Next comes Deegavapi, a shrine in the Ampara district, followed by Mutiyangana in Badulla and Tissamaharama in the Hambantota district. The sites that follow are all in Anuradhapura except Kirivehera which is in Kataragama.

Why are these 16 shrines considered specially sacred? They are sites hallowed (made sacred) by Buddha’s visits. The Buddha’s first visit to the island was to Mahiyangana, in the Badulla district in the seventh month after His Enlightenment; that is on the full Moon Day in the Month of Duruthu (January). He came to settle a clash between two factions (rival groups) of Yakkhas were human beings not devils as they are portrayed today. They were a race of people living in the island before the advent of Vijaya. Because of the Buddha’s visit, the place is of special sanctity and is first in the list.

The Buddha’s next visit was three years later, on the Full-Moon Day of Bak (April) to Nagadeepa. Two Naga chieftains, uncle Mahodara and nephew Chullodara were fighting over a gem studded throne.

Kiri Vehera

Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara

Mirisavetia

Mahiyangana

It was to settle this fight that Buddha came to Lanka. On hearing of this fight, another Naga chieftain Maniakkhika, a relative of the two antagonists had also come to Nagadeepa. After the Buddha settled the dispute and calmed the two warring groups, Maniakkhika approached the Buddha and invited Him to his own Kingdom in Kelaniya. By His silence, the Buddha indicated His acceptance of the invitation.

Tissamaharama

Deegavapi

Five years passed before Buddha visited Kelaniya. It was on the Vesak Full-Moon day in the eigthth year after His Enlightenment.

Kelaniya and Nagadeepa were two Naga settlements from pre - Vijayan times. There were Nagas living in Kelaniya when Totagamuwe Sri Rahula wrote his Selanlihini Sandesa. We read in the poem, that Naga maidens, seated on the bank of the Kelani river were playing the veena and singing eulogies (songs of priase) of the Buddha. Naga is a tribe or community living today in north east India.

Hearing that the Buddha was in Kelaniya God Sumana Saman, came to pay his respects to the Buddha and invited Him to his abode atop the mountain.

The Buddha went there and in response to God Sumana Saman’s request for a token of this visit, left His foot print on a rock. Ever since then this foot print has been the object of great veneration.

Legend says that after this visit to the god’s abode atop the mountain, The Buddha rested for a short while in a cave close-by. This is the cave that came to be known as Diva Guha (“noonday cave”), because the Buddha rested there during the noon.

Legend also says that the Buddha visited each of the other sites listed after Diva Guha. So ,in later times Kings built shrines on those sites hallowed by the Buddha stepping on them.

When King Devanampiya Tissa wished to build an aramaya (monastery for monks) Mahinda Thera pointed out a site hallowed by the Buddha’s brief visit and the King built Thuparamaya there.

All that is left of this first shrine and aramaya built in Lanka, is the dagoba and some stone pillars that held up the roof of the ambulatory (corridor for walking round the dagoba).

The Bodhi sapling was also planted on a hallowed site. There were Arahats then, who through their supernatural powers were able to locate the sites hallowed by the Buddha’s brief stops, in those places. And Kings who followed, built dagobas and aramas on those hallowed sites. Dutugemunu built Ruwanveliseya and Mirisawetiya, Valagamba Abhayagiriya and Mahasen Jetavanarama.

Except the first four on the list and four others viz., Digavapi, Mutiyangana, Tissamaharama and Kataragama, all the other eight shrines are in Anuradhapura. It is my surmise that this verse enumerating the 16 sacred sites, was composed during the early Anuradhapura period of our history or it is based on an earlier verse enumerating the 16 sacred sites.

A question arises.

Why isn’t the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic or the Dalada Maligawa, our most sacred shrine to which devotees come from Myanmar and other Buddhist countries to pay their obeisance, not included in the list of very sacred sites? The dalada, the Sacred Tooth Relic had no permanent shrine. It was taken whenever the King left his palace, to wherever he went and housed the Dalada in a shrine next to the royal residence.

Although the Dalada didn’t have a fixed shrine, it was always there. It could have been listed as Dalada. Why was this not done? This omission baffled me for a long long time.

I have now come to my own conclusion, that this gatha was composed before the bringing of the Sacred Tooth Relic to Sri Lanka by Princess Hemamala and Prince Danta in the first quarter of the 4th century, during the reign of King Keerthi Sri Meghavarna (301-328 AD).

- Sumana SAPARAMADU