| Sri Maha Bodhi Vihara | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Basic information | |
| Location | Kandy |
| Geographic coordinates | 7°17′29.6″N80°37′45.0″E / 7.291556°N 80.629167°E Coordinates: 7°17′29.6″N80°37′45.0″E / 7.291556°N 80.629167°E |
| Affiliation | Buddhism |
| Province | Central Province |
| Country | Sri Lanka |
| Year consecrated | 1972 |
| Architectural type | Buddha Statue |
| Height (max) | 26.83m |
Sri Maha Bodhi Viharaya [1] is a Theravada Buddhist temple in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is located in Bahirawakanda, approximately 2 km (1.2 mi) from the city centre. The temple is known for its giant Buddha statue. The statue of Buddha is depicted in the position of the Dhyana Mudra, the posture of meditation associated with his first Enlightenment, and can be seen from almost everywhere in Kandy. It stands at 26.83 m (88.0 ft) high and is one of the tallest Buddha statues in Sri Lanka.
Theravāda is the most ancient branch of extant Buddhism today, and the one that preserved their version of the teachings of Gautama Buddha in the Pāli Canon. The Pāli Canon is the only complete Buddhist canon which survives in a classical Indian language, Pāli, which serves as both sacred language and lingua franca of Theravāda Buddhism. For more than a millennium, Theravāda has focused on preserving the dhamma as preserved in its texts, and it tends to be very conservative with regard to matters of doctrine and monastic discipline. Since the 19th century, meditation practice has been re-introduced, and has become popular with a lay audience, both in traditional Theravada countries and in the west.
Kandy is a major city in Sri Lanka located in the Central Province. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills in the Kandy plateau, which crosses an area of tropical plantations, mainly tea. Kandy is both an administrative and religious city and is also the capital of the Central Province. Kandy is the home of The Temple of the Tooth Relic, one of the most sacred places of worship in the Buddhist world. It was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1988.
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal and to the southeast of the Arabian Sea. The island is historically and culturally intertwined with the Indian subcontinent, but is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the commercial capital and largest city, Colombo.
The temple is built on land donated by the Minister of Lands, Hector Kobbekaduwa, to Ven. Ampitiye Dammarama Thero, a monk from the Amarapura Nikaya in the early 1970s. Initially Dammarama lived in a makeshift dwelling whilst soliciting funds for the construction of the temple. The temple was opposed by the senior monks of the Sri Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic), claiming it would overshadow the centre of the Siyam Nikaya. In the 1980s a chief monk of the Amarapura Nikaya, Hinatiyana Dhammaloka, successfully petitioned President Ranasinghe Premadasa to intervene and legally grant the land to Dammarama.
Hector Senarath Rajakaruna Bandara Kobbekaduwa was a Sri Lankan politician and lawyer. He was the Sri Lanka Freedom Party candidate in the Sri Lankan presidential election, 1982 and the Minister for Agriculture and Lands from 1970 to 1977.He is remembered for nationalizing privately owned land and restricting the ownership of private land to 20 hectares for the purpose of giving land to landless peasants.He created collectively owned settlement programs called Janawasas in some of the land that was acquired .He contested the 1982 presidental election and lost.The campaign of the SLFP lead by him advocated for restoring previous Sri Lanka Freedom Party policies .His opponents ran an effective campaign criticising the closed economy & socialist policies of his Sri Lanka Freedom Party - led regime from 1970-1977,they blamed the SLFP policies for creating scarcities of esstential goods and unemployment.Although the SLFP lead by him lost the 1982 presidental election he managed to gain a significant number of votes in Tamil speaking areas like Point Pedro defeating Tamil nationalist parties.
The Amarapura Nikaya is a Sri Lankan monastic fraternity founded in 1800. It is named after the city of Amarapura, Burma, the capital of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma at that time. Amarapura Nikaya monks are Theravada Buddhists.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple in the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is located in the royal palace complex of the former Kingdom of Kandy, which houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country. Kandy was the last capital of the Sri Lankan kings and is a World Heritage Site mainly due to the temple.
In the late 1980s Dammarama began to build a statue of Buddha, with construction of the statue completed in 1992. It was officially opened on 1 January 1993 by President Ranasinghe Premadasa. [2] It is now a popular tourist attraction.
