HISTORY OF DIMBULAGALA RAJA MAHA VIHARAYA
Since the very beginnings of Sri Lanka’s Buddhist period in the 3rd century BC, hermits or small groups of reclusive monks have retreated to the forests of the Dimbulagala ridge. It was a perfect refuge, as it was rarely attacked by foreign invaders. Due to its secluded location the mountain range almost continuously served as a shelter of Buddhist monks, it has probably never been completely abandoned. By the way, this means that Dimbulagala is a sacred site inhabited by monks for a longer period than any place in the western world.
Some caves of the Dimbulagala ridge bear traces of stone-age paintings, presumably from the palaeololithic Balangoda culture or from the Veddhas, who are considered descendents of the Balangoda men. Anyway, Dimbulagala belongs to the settlement area of aboriginal Veddah tribes till the present day. The chronicles start the story of Sri Lanka by narrating the visits of the Budddha and the arrival of the first Sinhalese King, Vijaya, from India. The latter event is said to have occurred exactly at the day of the demise of the Buddha. Prior to the introduction of Buddhism, there has already been a century of Sinhalese history of the island. The most important king of this earliest Sinhalese period is Pandukabhaya, who chose Anuradhapura as his capital – which it was destined to be for almost one and a half millennia. The records of the Mahavamsa chronicle mention Dimbulagala, then named ‚Dhumarakkha Pabbata‘, in connection with the campaign of Pandukabhaya against his rivals. The story that the mountain of Dimbulagala served as his army camp for a while may have a historical kernel, as Pandukabhaya, when fighting for the crown, seems to have been supported by inhabitants of this region east of the great river Mahaweli Ganga.
The first dedication of abodes to Buddhist monks in the hills of Dimbulagala is attributed in the to no less than the first Buddhist king of Sri Lanka, Devanampiya Tissa. Buddhist reclusives indeed must have lived here already in the founding period of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, maybe even before the king of Anuradhapura adopted the religion, as the early date of Buddhist settlement at Dimbulagala in the initial period of Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC is confirmed by some drip ledge inscriptions of allegedly more than a hundred rock shelters, recording royal dedications in a very early version of the Brahmi script. A total of 500 rock shelters suitable for hermits is said to exist at the rugged Dumbulagala ridge. A much later inscription attributed to Sundaramahadevi, the wife of Vikramabahu I and mother of Gajabahu II, indeed mentions that 500 monks resided here in the early 12th century AD. The number of 500 is obviously given because of its symbolical significance in Buddhism, as it was the number of participants at the first Buddhist Council, that took place one month after the demise of the Buddha, and also the number of monks involved in the textualisation of the canonical Tipitaka in Sri Lanka. However, there can be no doubt that already in the early Anuradhapura period (last three centuries BC) the remote mountain was famous for a high number of Arahants (Arhats). This is to say Dimbulagala was revered as the abode of Buddhist saints, those most venerated monks who were believed to have attained Nibbana (Nirvana). According to the Mahavamsa chronicle, the island’s last Arahant was Maliyadeva. He is believed to have lived in the 2nd century BC or only one or two centuries later (though even the 13th century AD is sometimes reported as his lifetime). Many local legends in Sri Lanka surround the life of this last saint of Theravda Buddhism, one also attributing him to the Dimbulagala caves. However, Arankale in Kurunegala District and Padavigampola in Kegalle District are the more famous places claiming to have served as abodes of Maliyadeva Thero.
High veneration for Dimbulagala is also evident from the belief that monks from this monastic community were involved in the textualisation of the Tipitaka, the canon of Theravada Buddhism, during the reign of King Vattagamani Abhaya in the 1st century BC. The Nikayasangraha chronicle composed in the Gampola period (14th century, or even earlier in the Kurunegala period of the late 13th and early 14th century) has it, that Kuttha Gattha Tissa (also spelt ‘Kuntagatta Tissa’ or Kattha Gattha Tissa’), the leader of the the monks who set the Pali canon into writing, was from the Thuparama in Anuradhapura, which belonged to the great Mahavihara monastery. But local tradtions have it that he originally came from Dimbulagala. The surroundings of Dimbulagala became part of the new paddy cultivation developed under Mahasena, the most prolific king concerning irrigation schemes, as probably the Pabbatanta canal, diverting water from the Mahaweli Ganga, flowed eastword past this mountain. A new monastery founded at this mountain ridge is attributed to the King Mahanama of the early 5th century. By the way, this was a period of literal productivity, as it is the time of the composition of the island’s first Pali chronicle, the Dipavamsa, as well as the report of the Chinese pilgrim, Faxian, who studied in Anuradhapura, as well as the classical Pali commentaries and the Visudhimagga compendium of the most significant church father of Theravada Buddhism, Bhuddhghosa, who lived in Anuradhapura, too. The Mahavamsatika, a Mahavamsa commentary originally composed around the 6th century AD, praises the forest monks of Udumbaragiri, today’s Dimbulagala, for their scholarship and piety. Apart from the rock shelters that had served as monks’ abodes right from the beginnings, Vihara stone and brick structures from the Anuradhapura period and the early Polonnaruwa period are scattered all over the ridge. This building program was probably initiated during the reign of King Mahanama. It was a common practice in Sri Lanka that new monastic buildings were donated by kings at sites that had already been inhabited by previously cave-dwelling monks. Constructing new of monastic buildings in a more systematic pattern at earlier forest dwelling places of Buddhist monks became a common practice in the later Anuradhapura period. The ruins that can be seen today at the Namal Pokuna complex may partly date back to the reign of King Mahanama. However, most of the buildings are from the second half of the first millennium BC. During the period of occupation in the 11th century, when most parts of the island were ruled by the Tamil Chola Empire from the mainland India, the Buddhist monastery of Dimbulagala was affected negatively due to neglect by the new political strongmen, as they were mainly Hindu. Furthermore, the main garrison of the Chola army was based in Polonnaruwa, seat of the Cholöa gouverneur, in only short distance from Dimbulagala.
The restorer of the Sinhala rule over the island, Vijayabahu I, who managed to finally drive out the Cholas completely, nevertheless chose Polonnaruwa as his residence, too. As a Buddhist ruler he was engaged in restoring the Sangha, the Buddhist Order. He did so with the help of monks from Myanmar (Birma), whose line of successession was introduced for this purpose. Vijayabahu was all the more concerned to revive the large Dimbulagala monastery in close proximity to his residence. In particular, he is credited with restoring the buildings of the complex that is now known as Namal Pokuna. In this worst period of demise of Buddhism on the island, the monks of Dimbulagala however earned the reputation of observing and keeping alive the Vinaya (canonical rules of monastic disciplne). The fall of the Buddhist Order began, when Vijayabahu’s son Vikramabahu managed to ascend the thrown, although the Sangha had supported his rivals. Vikramabahu deprived the monasteries of a large portion of their temporalities in the core region of the kingdom. The discipline of the monks in the major settlement areas deteriorated mainly due to lack of royal patronage. As said, the Sangha also suffered from the then ensuing period of civil wars. Monks aiming to uphold the monastic rules had to resort to secluded places. During the first half of the 12th century, Dimbulagala thereby became the spiritual centre of forest-dwelling reclusives. They not only remained steadfast in following the Vinaya rules of monastic life. According to the chroncles, Dimbulagala became a centre of learning and literacy, too. In this early Polonnaruwa period the abovementioned epigraphic evidence confirms Dimbulagala to have been the home of 500 monks. Surprisingly, the said inscription was drawn up on behalf of the impious Vikramabahu’s wife Sundaramahadevi, a princess from India’s Kalinga kingdom. The foreign woman proved to be the main benefactor supporting the monastery of Dimbulagala, also initiating new major construction works at the site. Actually, most of the structures that can be seen at Namal Pokuna, are from the first half of the 12th century. Commencing in this time of monastic decline in the core settlement areas, the remote Dimbulagala became the island’s centre of religious studies, too.
In this said period of otherwise islandwide decline of the Buddhist Sangha, Dimbulagala’s head priest or inofficial abbot Mahakassapa Thera (Maha Kashyapa Thero) had earned the fame of being the leading figure among the only remaining disciplined and learned monks. This is why he was charged to take control of the subsequent reform process of the island’s entire Sangha. (The Sangha is Buddhist church, it’s also called ‘Buddha Sasana’ in the Pali tradition, ‘Sangha’ can mean both the Buddhist Order in a more narrow sense or the community of all Buddhists, monks and nons and lay people alike, in a wider sense). It was in the reign of no less than Polonnaruwa’s most renowned king, Parakramabahu I (1253-86), that Dimbulagala, then known as Udumbaragiri, reached the peak phase of its influence and impact on Theravada Buddhism. The heydays of the monastery lasted for about two centuries to come. One result of King Parakramabahu’s and Dimbulagala Mahakassapa Thera’s Sangha reform was a highly improved standard of conduct, which increased the fame of the island’s Sangha and, within an astonishingly short period of time, attracted foreign Buddhist monks. Clergymen from Myanmar (Burma) visited the island only a few years after the Polonnaruwa council, two successive Sangharajas (primates) of the Buddhist Sangha of Bagan (Pagan) in Myanmar being among them. One reason for this development was that Sri Lanka promised to be a save haven for Buddhist monks in a time of turmoil in their country of origin, Myanmar. After the death of Shin Arahan, a monk from the Mon kingdom who established Theravada Buddhism in Bagan under Myanmar’s famous King Anawarahta and continued to be the religious leader under subsequent kings, Panthagu was the next in line of the Sangharajas of the Bagan kingdom. According to the chronicles of Myanmar, which however were composed only many centuries later on, Panthagu fled to Sri Lanka, because the infamous Narathu gained the throne by poisoning his brother, who had been invited by Panthagu to come to the capital to settle the dispute peacefully. Narathu is also said to have constrained some Buddhist monks to leave the Sangha. Instead of becoming laymen, some of them preferred to follow the example of Panthagu and escaped to Sri Lanka.
Soon afterwards, Panthagu’s successor Uttarajiva visited Sri Lanka, too. This turned out to be a crucial event in the history of Theravada Buddhism, as the only Samanera (novice) accompanying Uttarajiva played a pivotal role in establishing Sri Lanka’s Mahavihara line of ordination in Southeast Asia. The novice was ordained in Sri Lankan in a ceremony joined by local Sinhalese monks. After his return to Myanmar he established a new Buddhist Nikaya called the Sihala Order (see Excursus: Mahavihara orthodoxy), which later on became the sole lineage in Myanmar as well as in all other Theravada nations of Southeast Asia. The name of this young man who arrived in Sri Lanka in the 1170s, is Chappada (see Excursus: Chappada). There are divergent spellings of his name in inscriptions and in much later chronicles of Myanmar, with various transliterations for each of them. This is why the name of the said novice can be given as Chappada or Chapata or Japata or Sapada or even Sagata. When Uttarajiva returned to Myanmar, the newly ordained Chappada stayed in Sri Lanka for another decade. This is chronicled in the 15th-century Kalyani rock inscription in Bago (Pegu), Lower Myanmar. It is highly likely that Chappada continued his studies not only in the capital Polonnaruwa but also in Dimbulagala, as it is said that on his return to Southeast Asia he was accompanied by other learned Bikkhus (monks), who had been residing in the Udumbaragiri monastery alias Dimbulagala.
The Sangha reform of Parakramabahu the Great in the 1260th was a starting point. In the second half of the Polonnaruwa period and in the subsequent Dambadeniya period Sri Lanka became the standard bearer of Theravada orthodoxie, the Dimbulagala monastery being a main exponent of this development. This medieval era of monastic reform and literary productivity in the 12th and 13th century was pivotal in shaping the institutional and intellectual and social traditions of Theravada Buddhism not only in Sri Lanka but also in Southeast Asia. The role of Dimbulagala alias Udumbaragiri in this period of reforms cannot be underestimated. Historiography commonly tends to praise the most powerful kings of Polonnaruwa and Dambadeniya, Parakramabahu I resp. Parakramabahu II., as the initiators of those monastic reforms that resulted in the predominance of the ancient Theravada school. However, the Buddhist monks themselves might deserve more credits for those medieval reforms than the abovementioned famous kings, as one might well argue that it was a time of instability in the 12th and 13th century of Sri Lankan history – with only short periods of strong royal control over the island – that motivated monks to reorganize their monastic order themselves. As a result of this, just because monastic institutions were involved in the administration of the island, they also contributed significantly to stabilizing the political situation. This is to say: monastic developments were a root cause of the abovementioned kings becoming powerful – instead of strong Sinhalese kings being the cause of the said Buddhist revival. Dimbulagala was able to play a crucial role in this significant process in Asian history, as it was both an extraordinarily large monastery and a remote one and therefore much less affected by political turbulences than the major monasteries in the capitals Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.
Dimbulagala monks may well have been involved in reforms – and the issuing of a new new Kathikayatha code of conduct – in the Dambadeniya period, too, dispite the fact that Parakramabahu II for the purpose of restoring the Sangha invited monks mainly from foreign nations, viz. from the South Indian Chola region and from South Asia’s Malay Peninsula. Parakramabahu II established a new central monastery for forest-dwelling monks at Palabatgala near Adam’s Peak. The king held reclusives in high esteem, more than ordinary village monks. Actually, it is only since the Dambadeniya period that the divisions of forest monks (Arannavasins) and village monks (Gamavasins) got an official status in the Nikayas of Theravada Buddhism, although forest-dwelling reclusive monks had already been settling in remote areas and held in high esteem in the Anuradhapura period, with Dimbulagala being their largest settlement in the Polonnaruwa time. In the mid 13th century Dimbulagala was situated close to the area occupied by foreign invaders, this is why it seems to have been outside the territory of effective control of the new Sinhalese capital Dambadeniya, which is located further to the southwest of the former Sinhalese core regions of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. This does not mean that Dimbulagala was not an important forest monastery any more. This is only to say it was outside the scope of royal patronage during the Dambadeniya period. Though the Sinhalese kings were much less powerful those days, the island of Sri Lanka has been looked upon as the religious metropolis of Theravada Buddhism from the 13th century onwards. The reason is that in this period this monastic religion was entirely wiped out from India by Muslim invaders destroying the last Buddhist strongholds on the mainland, both the monasteries and universities in Bengal (Bihar belonged to Bengal those days). Ever since, monks from Southeast Asia eager to study the canon and the commentaries in more detail traveled to Sri Lanka instead of India.
In the 14th century Dimbulagala, then still known as Udumbaragiri, again was the fountainhead of a Theravada revival. This is known from the role a monk from this monastery played in the establishment of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Mon kingdom of Lower Myanmar and in the newly established kingdoms of Thailand. Only a few decades after his activities, the Sri Lankan form of Buddhism was firmly established in almost all parts of mainland Southeast Asia, except from the areas of today’s Vietnam. There are two different names of probably only one and the same the monk from Dimbulagala, who, when residing in Lower Myanmar, became a leader of the Sinhalese fraternity of Southeast Asia. One of his names, ‘Udumbara Mahasami’, is known from the chronicle Jinakalamali of the kingdom of Lanna (Lan Na) in today’s northern Thailand. This Mahasami became the teacher of no less than Sumana, a Mon monk who in the mid 14th century introduced Theravada Buddhism in Sukothai as well as in Chieng Mai, then known as Nabbisapura. In the late 13th century, Sukothai (Sukhodaya) had become the capital of the first united Thai principality. It had managed to evade Khmer overlordship in the middle of the century. Ramkhamhaeng, held in highest esteem as father of the Thai nation and said to be the son of the legendary founder Indraditya, ascended to throne in 1279. He is credited with introducing Theravada Buddhism, which has ever since been the official religion of Thailand. Soon afterwards, Lanna became a second major principality of the Thai people, namely by uniting Thai groups on former tribal territory and by conquering the Mon kingdom of Haripunchai. Both early Thai ‘kingdoms’ – as these unions of Thai groups are commonly called – already introduced Theravada Buddhism some decades prior to the missionary activities of Monk Sumana. Links to Sri Lanka too are well documented for the earlieast phases of the newly established Thai principalities. But it was Sumana who contributed most to firmly establish the Sinhalese version of Theravada as the predominant (and later on only surviving) lineage of Buddhism in the early capitals of Thailand. The story of his arrival in Lamphoon in the Kingdom of Lanna in 1368 is well known, as he brought with him the relic of Budha’s miraculously found shoulder bone, which since that time has been enshrined in northern Thailand’s most famous stupa on the Doi Suthep, the backyard mountain of Chieng Mai. The stupa is said to have been erected on the very spot where an elephant, released free when carrying the larger part of the relic, trompeted three times and then broke down and perished – an omen indicating the place where the relic decided to be kept forever.
Before becoming the missionary of Sukothai and Lanna, Sumana had visited the renowned teacher Udumbara Mahasami – and from him received higher ordination – in the Mon capital Bago (Pegu) in Lower Myanmar. At that point in time a chief monk named ‘Medhankara Sangharaja’, according to the chronicles of Myanmar, was the leading figure of the Sihala Sangha in Bago. It is highly likely that this person is Udumbara Mahasami, oe and the same. The reason for the identification is as follows. The second parts of both double names are just titles, but the first names, ‘Udumbara’ and ‘Medhankara’, refer to the same monastery, Dimbulagala, which was then well known as Udumbara Giri. Those days, ‘Medhankara’ was used as a name of all forest dwelling monks from Dimbulagala who left their home monastery to live near a royal court. It was common practice in Sri Lanka to assign names that indicated a specific monastery of origin. For example, forest monks from the second of the two main centres of Arannavasins (Sangha branch of reclusives) in Sri Lanka usually bear the name ‘Dhammakitti’ when settling in another town. In conclusion, as said, both names given to the monk with highest authority among the Mon of Southeast Asia, ‘Udumbara’ as well as ‘Medhankara’, identify the then most prominent forest monastery of Sri Lanka, Dimbulagala, as his monastic place of origin. In a way, ‘Udumbara Mahasami’ means ‘Dimbulagala great-teacher’, the Pali term ‘Mahasami’ has got the same meaning as the Sanskrit term ‘Mahaswami’. ‘Medhanka Sangharaja’ means ‘Dimbulagala Order-king’.
The historical monastery of Dimbulagala – the archaeological complex know called Namal Pokuna – definitely fell into decay before the arrival of the Europeans. For several centuries the area was inhabited by aboriginal Veddah people, the Bintenna region just south of Dimbulagala being one of their major settlement and hunting areas. The founder of Ceylon’s Archaeological Department, H.C.P. Bell, reported the Puligoda cave paintings in 1897. In the late years of British rule and early years of independence, several of the abandoned former monasteries in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka were restored by Buddhist monks from Sinhalese majority regions of the island. In the early 20th century, the Dimbulagala range was explored by Charles Gabriel Seligman, a British anthropologist who joined expeditions to New Guinea, then Ceylon, and Sudan. Seligman became infamous as a major exponent of the ‘Hamite’ theory referring to biblical origins of some ‘higher-developed’ ethnicities in Africa – which today is considered to be a racist theory without empirical basis, once serving to justify foreign rule in Africa. In Dimbulagala, Seligman met Veddahs inhabiting the rock shelters that had served as monks’ abodes in previous centuries. He described them as a hunter-gatherers. The monk who became famous as the new founder of the Dimbulagala Rajamaha Viharaya in the 1950s was Kithalagama Sri Silalankara Thera, who was born in Matara, Southern Province, in 1924. After being ordained, he lived as a reclusive in Kaduwela in Polonnaruwa District, where he soon established a temple for the villagers. But he left the temple to settle down as a reclusive again, then at Yapahuwa, Kurunegala District, where he stayed five years before moving to Dimbulagala. Here he first lived as a forest hermit in a cave. Then he founded a new temple near the Namal Pokuna ruins and finally established the monastic complex of the Dimbulagala Raja Maha Viharaya. In the course of time, he became the Amarapura Nikaya’s chief incumbent not only of the increasingly large monastery but also of the entire North and East Provinces. Kithalagama Sri Silalankara Thera is said to have had a cordial relationship with the local Veddahs and other ethnic communities alike. His efforts contributed much to develop the agricultural sector in this remote area. The famous monk resided in Dimbulagala Raja Maha Viharaya till 26th May 1995, when he was assassinated. Kithalagama Si Silalankara Thera is one of the most prominent victims of Sri Lanka’s civil war. That day, a group of about 100 fighters of the separatist guerilla armee LTTE raided the area in between the eastern coast and Dimbulagala. Some of them lied in ambush at a road and sniped the Thera and his driver when their vehicle passed by, as the chief monk was then on the way to a farm he used to visit routinely. On the very same day, terrorists killed 42 unarmed peasants in the fishing village of Kallarawa at the northeastern coast.
Ancient ruins and rock shelters once inhabited by monks are scattered all over the hills of Dimbulagala. Seeing all of them would require to spend more than one day in this area. Many destinations can not be reached by car but require hiking tours through across boulders and through forests. Be aware, walking around in the hills of Dimbulagala is not entirely safe, because of wild animals inhabiting this remote jungle. The ridge of Dimbulagala is not a huge boulder like Sigiriya or Yapahuwa, rather it’s an entire range with several peaks like Ritigala. Strictly speaking Dimbulagala was not a single monastery, since historical caves and remnants of ancient structues are found far away from each other at various locations of these hills. In the early Anuradhapura period, Dimbulagala harboured hundreds of isolated hermitages. It was not until the middle Anuradhapura period that King Mahanama (410-32) seems to have founded what can be called a Vihara, a permanent monastic settlement of a group of monks. It is highly likely that reclusive forest monks nevertheless continued to settle in isolated Lenas in other parts of the mountain area, at least seasonally. The Dimbulagala hills are surrounded by historical tanks, which have been restored for agriculture purposes since the late British colonial colonial period. Situated in between the modern monastery and the Pulligoda cave is the Hitcha Pitcha Wewa, ‘wewa’ being the Sinhalese term for ‘reservoir’. Dimbulagala’s historical core area is a Vihara (monastery) from the Anuradhapura period and largely expanded during the Polonnaruwa period.
The modern monastery, known as Dimbulagala Raja Maha Viharaya, is located at the western end of the Dimbulagala range. It has become the largest monastery of the Amarapura Nikaya in the northeastern dry zone, the Amarapura Nikaya being one of the three major branches of the Buddhist Sangha in Sri Lanka. The residential area of the monks is not open to the public, however, a museum and a cave temple with Buddha images can be visited and a jungle path with several flights of stairs leads to the new stupa building called Akasa Chaitya on the top of the western hill. Close to the monastery’s octogonal museum and colourful cave temple is the starting point a jungle path leading to the top of Dimbulagala’s westernmost hill. There is a new stupa atop the peak which attracts some pilgrims. Actually, it’s also a lookout tower, which is designed in the form of a house with a stupa on the roof. This new landmark tower of the Dimbulagala ridge, serving as a sacred stupa, is called Akasa Chaitya, which translates to ‘Space Pile’. Actually, the name of the modern building is a mix of Sanskrit and Pali. ‘Akasha Chethiya’ would be another one of several alternative transliterations. Dimbulagala Akasa Chaitya is worth visiting mainly for the views to the scenic surroundings. Other peaks of the Dimbulagala range can be seen to the west, whereas to the southwest plains stretch as far as the eye can see. The plains close to Dimbulagala are paddy cutivation area. Further south is the wildlife area of Maduru Oya National Park. As mentioned above, the Akasa Chaitya can also be reached from the opposite northern side of the ridge. The new and the ancient monastic complexes, Dimbulagala Raja Maha Viharaya and Namal Pokuna respectively, are connected by the jungle path traversing the ridge near the Akasa Chetiya.