Ruwanweli Saya

Ruwanweli Saya

Ruwanweli Saya Dagoba is the holiest place that ranks with Sri Maha Hohi in Anuradhapura. They see the big dagoba painted in white from a distance as the landmark of Anuradhapra.
          It was 110 meters high in the second century B.C when it was completed, but it has become smaller due to the transition and ruin afterwards. Now, it is55 meters high and 80 meters in diameter. The stupa with the bowl form that copied water bubble was set up on the platform of three steps that heaped up the stones and the bricks. The main body of the stupa was also constructed by laying up bricks. The legend says that, in order to prevent the subsidence, the elephants treaded the base of 5 meters deeps that was made from crushed Lyme stone and clay. Other legend says that, before laying up the bricks, the chest shape's room made from the vivid color stones was put inside the stupa and the bohdi tree of jewel and the golden Buddha image were installed there.
                        In India, a cube in the upper part was mainly used as a place for keeping Buddha's ashes, and the steeple on the cube that originally had the shape of the umbrella was a variation of symbol of nobility. Moreover, there is a theory that the object like the building facade that stands on the edge of Stupa is the oldest sculpture in Sri Lanka.
                                  At the sunset time, in the precincts of Ruwanweli Saya Dagoba, I heard Piritha as the statement of a Sri Lankan Buddhism. It was not a live performance but transmitted from speaker. The sound by recitation and percussion instrument echoed through the sky growing dark. The monotonous and slow rhythm made the auditory sense faint, and the scenery that the white wall rising high before my eyes dimmed the brightness also made the sense of sight faint. I sat down there between about 1 hour. As I left me with the situation, my consciousness was also dimming. Its state was as if I had reached at the entrance of a kind of religious experiences or I had slipped to ancient time. When the sky grew dark entirely, Pritha finished and the dagaba was lighted up. The comfortable and usual evening returned.