Tirtha Atlas

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Ancient · Buddhist · Sri Lanka

Pusulpitiya Raja Maha Vihara

Pusulpitiya, Nuwara Eliya District, Central Province · 7.0554°, 80.6482°

Gautama Buddha (Dambaran stone image; ancient Bo tree)Anuradhapura
Sacred since
300 BCE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
3rd c. BCE or earlier
Anuradhapura

History & significance

A Buddhist temple at Pusulpitiya in the Nuwara Eliya District whose history is traced to the third century BCE or before. It keeps a Bo tree planted in the time of Devanampiya Tissa and one of the four Dambaran Buddha statues said to have been brought from India by Arahat Maliyadeva, and it sheltered the Sacred Tooth Relic on three occasions of political unrest.

Sthala katha — the traditional account

What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.

An Indian brahmin hunting a golden ash pumpkin in the Kotmale country is said to have sacrificed his son to win it, then set it down on a rocky plain where it sank into the stone — giving Pusulpitiya its name.

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Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-28 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Anuradhapura