Sri Lanka Travel Guide

Fa-Hien (Fa Xian)
In the year 399 AD, a Chinese Buddhist Scholar monk named Fa-Hien embarked on a heroic odyssey, on foot, from China to Sri Lanka crossing the great Gobi desert. Fa-Hien writes: “There is not a bird to be seen in the air above, nor an animal on the ground below.” It was an overland travel of supreme scale of courage and endurance until Khotan, an oasis to the North of Kashmir was arrived at. At Khotan, Fa-Hien was to quench his thirst, physical to the content of his heart and spiritual to a certain stage: Khotan was home to monasteries inhabited by scholars of Theravada (Hinayana) Buddhism.

The oasis of Khotan was a dream following an almost endless nightmare of day after day, night after night in the Gobi desert. Fa-Hien narrated: “This country is prosperous and happy; its people are well to do; they have all received the Faith, and find their amusement in religious music.”
The next stop of Fa-Hien was in the country of Kasghar where a monastery that claimed among its holiest belonginings, a spittoon that was once used by Buddha. Though Fa-Hein found scholars of Thervada Buddhism at Khotan, on his onward journey from Kasghar, Fa-Hein was to meet the scholars of Mahayana Buddhism.

At Udayana, which lies north of India Fa-Hien discovered a foot print of Buddha which “appears to be long or short according to the faith in each particular person” From the north of India, to India over the Himalaya, it was a perilous descent of “ten thousand cubits” Fa-Hien spent no less than a decade studying Buddhist manuscript in the “central Buddhist realm”: both sides of the Himlayas: Kabul region as well as Ganges valley. Kapilavastu, Gaya, Benares, Pataliputra (Patna) were stopovers of Fa-Hien.  At Patapaliputra, the capital of the greatest emperor ever, Mayuran Asoka, Fa-Hein spent three years learning Sanskrit language and copying Vinaya Pitakaya (Discipline at the monasteries) and Pataliputra and followed up with another two years at the seaport of Tamluk, down steam of Ganges, at the delta of Hoogly, copying “sutras”. At Tamluk, Fa-Hien began his sea-journey to Sri Lanka.

Fa-Hien narrates in third person:
“At the end of this time he took passage on a large merchant vessel, and setting sail proceeded towards the south-west with the first of the favorable monsoon. After fourteen days and nights, he came to the country of the Sinhala, said by the inhabitants to lie at a distance of about seven hundred yojanas from Tamaluk.”
“Through the coming and the going of the merchants in this way, when they went away, the people of the various countries heard how pleasant the land was, and flocked to it in numbers till it became a great nation. The climate is temperate and attractive, without any difference of summer or winter. The vegetation is always luxuriant, cultivation proceeds whenever men think fit: there are no fixed seasons for it.”
Fa-Hien narrated the cremation of the High priest of Maha Vihara at Anuradhapura, Arhat (Sanskrit: supremely enlightened) Mahinda of India, the great Buddhist missionary, whom he didn’t see alive, but had just arrived in time in Sri Lanka at the time of funeral.

“At the time of the cremation, the king and his subjects collected from all quarters and with offerings of flowers and incense followed the car to the burial ground, the king himself making personal offerings of flowers and incense. When these ceremonies were finished, the car was placed on the top of the pyre, oil of basil was poured all over it and light was applied. While the fire was blazing, everyone was moved with a reverence, and each took off his upper garment, and together with feather-fan and umbrella, threw it from a distance into the midst of the flames so as to help on the cremation. When it was all over, the bones were collected and a pagoda raised over them.”

Fa-Hien lived in Anuradhapura of Sri Lanka Holidays, the greatest monastic city of the world, during its glorious days. Fa-Hien narrates extensively on Abhayagiri Dagoba of Sri Lanka Holidays and the monastery and a priceless colossal Buddha statue carved in Jade, a gem material.
“Where there are now five thousand monks. There is in it a hall of Buddha, adorned with carved and inlaid work of gold and silver, and rich in the seven precious substances, in which there is an image (of the Buddha) in green jade more than twenty cubits high.”

Fa-Hien, who had refrained from narrating on Chinese companions, wrote of his first sight of a Chinese at Anuradhapura. “Suddenly, one day, when he was standing by the side of the image of jade, he saw a Chinese merchant presenting as his offering a Chinese fan of white silk; and tears of sorrow involuntary filled his eyes and fell down,’’ he writes. Twelve years had elapsed since Fa-Hien left China.

Fa-Hien ’s description of Anuradhapura of Sri Lanka Holidays, the greatest monastic city in the world then, is particularly revealing of the ancient urban planning of ancient Sri Lanka.
“The dwellings of the merchants are very grand; and the side streets and main thoroughfares are level and well-kept. At all points where four roads meet there are chapels for preaching the Faith: and on the eighth, fourteenth and fifteenth of each month, a lofty dais is arranged where ecclesiastics and laymen come together from all quarters to hear the Faith expounded.”

Fa-Hien went on to narrate what would have been the earliest precursor to the modern Kandy Esala Perehera Pageant.
“The sacred Tooth is then brought out and passes along the central street, receiving the homage of offerings as it goes by. Arriving at the Hall of the Buddha in the shrine of the Abhayagiri monastery, ecclesiastics and laymen flock together in crowds, burn incense, light lamps and perform the various ceremonies of the Faith day and night without ceasing.

Fa-Hien spent two years in Sri Lanka copying the Vinaya Pitakaya (Sinhala: Book of Discipline) of Theravada Buddhism and returned to China by sea.
A Record Of Buddhistic Kingdoms Being An Account By The Chinese Monk Fa-Hien Of His Travels in India And Ceylon (A. D. 399-414) In Seacrh Of The Buddhist Books Of Discipline.
Translated and Annotated With A Corean Recension Of The Chinese Text By James Legge, M.A., Oxford,1886

Bookmark & Share

Ancient Sri Lanka’s Roman Connection

About the year 45 AD, a Roman vessel that was busy collecting tributes and revenues in the Red Sea was caught in the monsoon storms to land in a harbor in the Indian Ocean Island away from the regular sea route then known to the Romans. The Roman ship was seized, the crew was arrested and taken to the king. It was an accidental discovery in the Orient by the Romans. Romans found an island until then known as a land too far, a fabulous island where superior battle elephants were bred: Taprobane, modern Sri Lanka.

Speaking of Elephants of the ancient era in Sri Lanka, we too get carried away in the tides, if not the storms, of modern times. Today, with 12 per cent of the island of Sri Lanka designated for wildlife protection, sighting herds of elephants at Sri Lanka HolidaysKaudulla National Park, Minneriya National Park and Wasgamuwa National Park (all almost next to each other, Habarana in the Sri Lanka’s Cultural Triangle being the gateway) is a matter of couple of hours drive, once you are at Polonnaruwa (a UNESCO World Heritage Site – Culture), which is replete with renovated ancient rainwater reservoirs of gigantic scale, ancient restored Buddhist temples and ruins of ancient monuments.

The most famous sanctuary of large herd of elephants is on the banks of modern Uda Walawe Irrigation Reservoir at Uda Walawe National Park located south of Sri Lanka Holidays Ratnapura (Sinhala: The City of Gems). The other famous sites where elephants can be sighted are Ruhuna Yala national Park of Sri Lanka Holidays located close to Kataragama, the domain of the God Skanda in the Deep South and Willpattu National Park within a couple of hours drive from Kalpitiya Beach Resort of the north-western coast. Maduru Oya National Park close to Kuda Sigiriya (Sinhala: Small Lion Rock), an eco location and Gal Oya National Park close to Ampara, though, less visited by the foreign tourists of Sri Lanka Holidays, are the other wildlife sanctuaries famous, specially among the Sri Lankan tourists, for the herds of elephants.

Then Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD – August 25, 79 AD), better known as Pliny the Elder,  a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Empire, one of the great Roman historians, had already narrated about Sri Lanka in the sixth book of his 37-volume Natural History. It begins:

“It had been of long time thought by men in ancient days that Taprobane was a second world, in such sort that many have taken it to be the place of the Antipodes, calling it the Antichthones world. But after the time of Alexander the Great, and the voyage of his army into those parts, it was discovered and known for a truth, both that it was an island, and what compass it bear. Onesicritus, the admiral of his fleet, has written that the elephants bred in the island be bigger, more fierce and furious for war service than those of India.”

Pliny’s tragic death during a naval rescue operation of his friends, citizens and Romans trapped during the explosion of the volcano of Mount Vesuvius was revealed to us in a sensational narration by his nephew, Cornelius Tacitus also known as Pliny the Younger. Pliny’s life ended, once again setting a universal example that a hero never leaves his friends in troubled waters.

If the Greek records relating to Taprobane during the era of Alexander the Great fell shot of proper depth and description, the era of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (10 BC – 54 AD) was to reveal credible testimony to the Roman connection with Sri Lanka. That was following the vessel was caught in the Indian Ocean Monsoon in 45 AD.

Gaius Plinius Secundus, having recalled the narrations also of the Greek writers Megasthenes and Eratosthenes had said about Sri Lanka, continues to reveal: “But, we came to far better intelligence, and more notable information by certain ambassadors that came out of that Island, in the time of Claudius Caesar the Emperor: which happened upon this occasion, and after this manner.

“It fortuned that a freed slave of Annius Plocamus (who had farmed of the Exchequer the Customs for impost of the Red Sea) as he made sail about the coasts of Arabia, was in such wise driven by the north winds besides the realms of Carmania, and that for the space of fifteen days, that in the end he fell with a harbor thereof called Hippuros, and there arrived. When he was set on that land he found the King of that country so courteous that he gave him entertainment for six months, and entreated him with all kindness that could be devised. And as he used to discourse and question him about the Romans and their Emperor, he recounted to him at large of all things.

“But, among many other reports that he heard, he wondered most of all at their justice in all their dealings, and was much in love therewith, and namely that their deniers of the money which was taken, were always of like weight, notwithstanding that the sundry stamps and images upon the prices showed plainly that they were made by diverse persons, and hereupon especially was he moved and solicited to seek for the alliance and amity of the people of Rome: and so dispatched four ambassadors of purpose, of whom one Rachias was the chief and principal personage.”

Annius Plocamus learned Sinhala language and engaged in numerous conversations with the king who, according to Sir James Emerson Tennent, was probably King Sadamuhunu (Chanda-Mukha-Siva) (44 AD- 52 AD), who donated a rainwater reservoir by the name of Minigiri to Isurumuniya Rock Temple (Buddhist) at Anuradhapura, the greatest monastic city of the world during its glorious era.

The harbor called Hippuros in Pliny’s records is non-other than Kudramalie which lies between Puttalama and Mannar of Sri Lanka Holidays. Dispatching an embassy to Rome wasn’t an isolated incident. Sending embassies to foreign lands wasn’t an unusual practice for the kings of Ceylon. Chinese historical records reveal receiving embassies from Sri Lanka. Most of all the tangible evidence of Sri Lanka’s Roman connection in the ancient era is substantiated by the Roman coins discovered at the site of Jetavana monastery, now displayed at Jetavana Museum, Anuradhapura amidst Fine jewelry, including ivory carvings, bangles and ornamental ear clasps and fragments of Chinese and Islamic pottery. Sri Lanka Holidays escort you all to the Jetavana Museum at Sri Lanka Holidays Anuradhapura to reveal the Ancient Sri Lanka’s Roman connection.


Bookmark & Share