Anuradhapura

          Founded in 457 BC by the mighty King Pandukhabaya, Anuradhapura is the ancient capital city in Sri Lanka. In its day, it was celebrated throughout Asia for the excellence of its architecture and the sophistication and execution of its temple art, the ingenuity and skill of its irrigation engineers and its military importance.

          It was through the kings of Anuradhapura, too that Buddhism was brought to Sri Lanka, from the court of the great Murya Emperor of India, Ashoka. Today. for many throughout Asia not just within Sri Lanka itself, the island is acknowledged as the heartland of Theravada Buddhism, said to be the purest and least elaborated expression of the Sage’s teachings.