The ancient structures of the monastery and the temple helped me understand of the culture, religion and architecture of that time. The ruins of the ancient structures were very interesting, especially the Buddha statues. There are many ancient ruins around the Abhaygiri promises. For now, let's just look about our main destination Abhayagiri Viharaya. Abhayagiri viharaya is a huge complex and there are many monks living here. You can see them walking around the temple or meditating in their cells. The Abhayagiriya is one of the most important Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka. It was built by King Walagamba to commemorate his victory over a Tamil invasion in the third century BC. The monastery had five separate communities, each with its own ordination hall, refectory, dormitory and kitchen. The most impressive structure is the dagoba, which was built in the first century BC.

Front View of Abhayagiriya
Looks like Jethawanaramaya, but this is Abhayagiriya

According to the Mahawansha, there is an interesting story behind the name Abhayagiriya. During the ruling period of King Walagamba, a mighty army was landed in Mahathiththa to captured Anuradhapura. The battle was not going favour to King Walagamba therefor he flew away from the kingdom to hid among the mountains. Then a Jaina monk named Giri saw the fleeing King and shouted joyfully ‘The great black Sinhala is fleeing’. By hearing those sarcastic words, the King became very upset. But he promised himself, that he will shut that Giri’s mouth one day. Anyhow after 14 years, King Walagamba was able to recapture the kingdom. Then his first job was destroying Giri’s temple and building a great stupa. Full name of King Walagmaba is Wattagamini Abhaya. And the Jaina monk’s name was Giri. So, you can guess the rest.

According to the Mahawanshaya, Abhayagiriya was the first ever temple which was offered to an individual monk. Yes, Kupikkala Thissa Thera helped King Walagamba while he was hiding among the mountains. So, King offered this great temple to show his gratitude therefore the sangha society divided into two sectors. One was Mahavihara and the other one was Abhayagiri. Mahavihara was the traditional and Abhayagiri was the new trend. They criticized each other but that did not make any impact to the Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

Anyhow during that time period Abhayagiri Viharaya had developed as very popular and organized Buddhist University and student monks from different countries were being practiced Buddhism. Anyhow during the King Parakramabahu period, the Abhaygiri sector was dismantled and that was the end of the Abhayagiri Sector. Anyhow the Abhaygiri temple did not get much attention from the rulers and the temple was left to jungle.

Abhayagiriya During the Renovation Period
During the renovation period
In 1880 the temple was rediscovered, by the time it was mistakenly identified as Jethawanaramaya. Anyhow, temple was not in a good situation and was damaged heavily by the natural disasters and other things. Anyhow, the temple was reconstructed in 2000 and after 15 years the temple was restored completely in 2015 as a UNESCO project.

Having such a long history, the stupa stands nearly 115m in height and just little bit shorter than Jethawanaramaya and Abhayagiriya is the second tallest stupa in the world. It took me about fifteen minutes to take a walk around this giant stupa. The architecture design is similar to the others and the important thing is Abhayagri was a temple which was renovated successfully in the last decades. And the people here said that thousands of pilgrims voluntarily helped to the renovations process.

Anyhow the place is filled with devotees and evening time is the best time to visit this giant stupa. Not only for visiting, but also for worshipping lord Buddha too. Just like before, it is time to say ‘Sadu! Sadu! Sadu!’