Mihintale 

 Mihintale travel guide

Mihintale is revered as the birthplace of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, but, regardless of your beliefs, it is unforgettable: a sequence of beautiful shrines, stupas and caves strung out across wooded hills, usually busy with crowds of devout, white-robed pilgrims.

Birthplace of Buddhism in Sri Lanka

According to legend, it was at Mihintale – literally “Mahinda’s Hill” – that the Indian missionary Mahinda, met and converted King Devanampiyatissa in 247 BC, establishing Buddhism as the island’s state religion. Mahinda was the son of the great Mauryan emperor Asoka, sent by his father to bring word of the Buddha’s teachings to Sri Lanka. Buddhism was immediately embraced with fervour by the Sinhalese people and soon became firmly established in the island – unlike in India, its birthplace, where it would subsequently fall into terminal decline.

Mihintale, on a higher plane

All over the world, high places are given religious significance, with the result that devotees are always climbing steps. Sometimes on their knees. Mihintale is one such place, its various shrines connected by a total of some 1,840 steps that ultimately lead to the summit – steep enough to require deep breaths and a meditative pace. They were built in the reign of Bhathika Abhaya (22 BC–AD 7), although a later paved road provides a short cut up to the first level.

Places to visit in Mihintale

Kantaka Cetiya

At the end of the first flight of stairs up is the 2nd-century BC Kantaka Cetiya, one of the earliest religious monuments on the island, originally excavated in 1934. The highlights of the building are the four richly decorated shrines, or vahalkadas, which face the cardinal points. The eastern facade is the best preserved, with horizontal rows of carvings including fine friezes of dwarfs and elephants, while on either side the wall is finished off with a tall carved pillar holding a weathered lion aloft.

Ambasthala Dagoba (Mango Tree Stupa)

A third flight of steps, narrow and steep, takes you on a spiritual ascent to the highest terrace, where the diminutive Ambasthala Dagoba marks the place where Mahinda surprised King Devanampiyatissa in mid-hunt. The stupa is supposedly built over the exact spot where Mahinda stood, and a statue of the king is placed where he stood – a respectful distance away. A large seated Buddha looks down from a rock above.  

Mihindu Guha (Mahinda’s Bed) 

From the Ambasthala Dagoba, steep steps lead up to the Rock of Convocation, from where Mahinda preached his first sermon, while a path wends its way for five minutes through woodland to reach the enormous boulder that covers Mahinda’s Bed. The bed itself is a smooth slab of stone, the covering rock was the roof. This is where the sage reposed, apparently oblivious to discomfort. Such spartan arrangements testify to the power of Buddhism that it could impel a prince to leave his palaces and live under a rock.

Vejja Sala (Hospital)

At the bottom of the site are the ruins of a hospital dating back to the 3rd century AD, some 400 years before the earliest hospital in Europe. Among the remnants of walls and pillars are monolithic stone baths in which the sick would have been treated. These are hewn from a single rock, but they have a particularly gripping sculptural quality, the internal cavity being shaped to immerse a recumbent body without wasting precious herbal oils. Excavations have unearthed many advanced medical implements while the small site museum close by (currently closed for renovation) has examples of stones used for grinding medicinal herbs and medicine jars too. 

Kaludiya Pokuna (Pond of Black Water)

A five-minute drive from the main entrance brings you to the sylvan Pond of Black Water. This peaceful artificial lake supplied water to a monastery that stood here during the 10th or 11th centuries. A few fragmentary monastic ruins stand around the lake including a quaint little structure comprising a facade and roof built onto a natural rock overhang – half cave, half house. The minimalist decoration is misleading, however, since these monks were definitely not roughing it like the troglodytic pioneers of Buddhism on the hillside above, but enjoyed the comforts of indoor toilets and bath houses.