Tantirimale

The massive Buddhist shrine sited in Maha Villachchi Korale of Anuradhapura district, known as Tantirimale, is a vast panoramic site spanning an area of almost 50 acres. Most of the monuments found in this rocky wilderness are based directly on the rock. The dagoba, one of the most important items existing stands on the apex of the largest and highest rock. Upon the rock which the Dagoba crowns further off is the old Bo tree surrounded by a dry stone wall and below it is a figure of Buddha in a sitting posture cut in the face of the rock. To the north of the Dagoba, at the foot of the rock, is an enormous image of recumbent Buddha, carved in the side of the hill. On a rock adjacent to that on which the Dagoba and great images are, there are three buildings, one of which is identified as a poth-gula or library. The rocks divide in to two groups, with a sinuous stretch of grassland between them, which at its southern end widens out into a little tank formed by an embankment thrown from rock to rock.

Tantirimale now neglected and forlorn is as old as Buddhist Lanka. In fact it was one of the first colonies that the Aryan group that came over in 6th century BC established. It is identified with Upatissagama, which was one of such earliest colonies. Tantirimale was a main junction on the road from Mantota (Mannar, the former harbour to the north of the Island) to Anuradhapura (the capital at that time) and soon zoomed in to a commercial venue. Naturally it became thickly populated though today the area is starkly depopulated.

But even after the conversion of the king and the capital's people to Buddhism, Tantirimale had remained Brahminic. The main figure in the area had been Nivattaka Brahmana who however had made a visit to Tantiri the capital during king Devanampiyatissa's time that resulted in his embracing Buddhism. He returned with a Bo sapling of the Sri Maha Bodhi, that is Tantirimale's most sanctified object of veneration today. Soon the sheen of yellow robes began to spread all over the area.

The last and greatest monastery of Tantirimale ended in tragedy. This gigantic shrine had been one of the main victims of the Magha invasion that led to its almost total destruction. Its golden period was the 7th to 8th century, but came the demon Magha from south India on his way from Mantota towards Anuradhapura and the sculptors and artists putting the final touches to many works of art simply fled. For many centuries the place has been abandoned, but it is possible however that Tantirimale thereafter became a resort of solitary monks.