Abhayagiri Monastery

This was the home of mainly the Dhammaruchi sect, although it was open to many other sects including Mahayanism. There is little literary evidence as the rival monks of the Maha Vihara were the compilers of the chronicle. How ever, this 500-acre monastery was the biggest for 600 years, and Was home for 5000 monks. It was an international center of the arts, philosophy and mysticism, With branches in Java, Burma and China. Its center was this dagoba in ruin built over a sacred foot of the Buddha.

Abhayagiri Dagaba is left from the crossroads. It is 400m round and was supposedly 135m high in its original from (part of the pinnacle has disappeared); It is now about 110m high. Built in 88 BC by Vattagamini (and later restored by Parakramabahu I in the 12th century), it has two splendid sculpted dwarapalas ( guardians) at the threshold. the dagaba and its associated monastery were built in an attempt to weaken the political hold of the Hinayana Buddhist and to give shelter to monks of the Mahayana school. It was considered an important seat of Buddhist learning and the Chinese traveler/ monk Fa hien visiting in the 5th century notesd that there were 5,000 monks in residence