...:::Mirisawetiya.org:::... Ruwanweliseya

Buddhist sites in Anuradhapura

Ruwanweliseya ( Ruwanweli Dagaba)

What to see......

The paved brick courtyard

(Salapathala Maluwa)

Things to see as you go around the stupa....

We climb the stairs from the sand courtyard to enter the paved brick courtyard.....

As you enter the paved brickyard you see two statues. There is a standing male figure and a female figure. The male figure close to the eastern gate is regarded to be of the great king Dutugamunu himself and the female figure is Queen Viharamahadevi, the great king's mother (The figure of the Queen is a recent construction).

(Statue of King Dutugemunu located near the eastern entrance)

Now let us go around the great Stupa. The traditional way is to move clockwise so that your right hand always points towards the place of worship.

As you move clockwise, you first encounter a stone tablet made by King Nissankamalla in the 12th century which describes a great offering he made to Dagaba in which , for a week , he decorated the sand courtyard with pearls and put gold and silver flowers on them. then he lit lanterns using fragrant oils and conducted the pooja for one whole week.

(Stone tablet created by King Nissankamallawa)

Very close to the stone tablet, you see an ancient statue of a proud lady dressed in elaborate jewellary. This statue is the statue of the great king's mother Queen Viharamahadevi and the splendid jewellary gives an indication of what a queen's attire would have looked like in the Anuradhapura period.

Near the tablet and the satue, you now come to the Image house.In the image house lobby, can find four limestone Buddha Statues. These are said to represent the four Buddhas of this "Badra Kalapa". Namely "Kankusanda, Konagama, Kashapa and Gauthama". There is a belief that the design of these statues is not compatible with the style of the great monastery "Mahavihara", to which Ruwanweliseya belongs to and that the design is more compatible with the style of the great monastery "Abhayagiri" and it could be that the statues were brought here from Abhayagiri (Ref. "Atamasthana", Prof. Chandra Wickramage) .

(One of the four Buddha Statues found in the image house)

In the same image house, close to the four Buddha Statues, one can also see a statue of the Buddha yet to come (Maitri Bodhisathwa)

(The Buddha yet to come: The Maitri Buddha)

As you walk towards the Southern part of the paved brick courtyard you come acorss a statue.This statue is said to be of King Bhathika Tissa(19 BC - 9 AC) . This is a regarded as the oldest discovered statue of a Sinhala king and gives a good opportunity for us to study the attire of an ancient Sinhala king.

(Statue of king Bhathikabhaya: Souther part of the paved brick courtyard)

In front of the statue of King Bhathikabhaya, you see a stone inscription. This was done by Pirivathun Vijayanavan, who was the treasurer of Queen Kalyanwathie of the Pollonaruwa period. It describes a splendid pooja made to the Dagaba by the Queen in which the dagoba was dressed with a dress made of 8880 dresses and 2000 lanterns were lit on the third "pesava" (moulded plinth at the base of the dagaba) .

As we walk past the statue of king Bhathikabhaya, toward the Sothwest portion of the paved brick courtyard, you see a replica of the dagaba as it looked in the 12th century. This was a brillaint piece of farsight by King Nisankamallawa (1187-1196 AC) , who built this so that if by some chance some accident happens to the great stupa, a future king can look at the model and build the stupa. Thanks to this we now know exactly how the Stupa looked 800 years ago complete with the elephant wall.replica of the Stupa can be seen in the yard and this was believed to be constructed by King Nissankamalla (1187-1196 AC).

(The dagaba, as it looked in the 12th century)

As we apporach the western side of the paved brick courtyard, we see the wetern vahalkada (frontpiece). This is of great significance since it is the only vahalkada of the dagaba which is in its original form. Some of the paintings can still be very faintly seen.

(The Western Vahalkada (Frontpiece) )

(Some of the original paintings of the Western Vahalkada made in 5th Century AC by King Mahanaga)

Next to the Vahalkada, you can also see see two flower thrones. One rectangular in shape and the other circular .

(circular flower throne)

Now that we have finished going around the stupa, let us concentrate on the great Stupa itself