Sri Maha Bodhi
The scared bodhi tree (Sri Maha Bodhi) is centra The huge tree has grown from a cutting brought from Bodhgay in India by the Princess Sangamitta, sister of teachings to Sri Lanka, so it has a connection to the very basis of the Sinhalse religion. This scared tree servies as a reminder of the force that inspired the creation of all the great buildings at Anuradhapura and s within walking distance of many of the most interesting monuments. The whole area around the Sri Maha Bodhi, the Brazen Palace and Ruvanvelisaya Dagoba was once probalbly part os the Maha Vihara (Great Temple).

It is hard to believe; but without a shadow of doubt that this small tree with limbs so slender that they must be supported on iron crutches, is the oldest historically authenticated tree in the world (2,200 years).

A branch of the very Bo beneath which (at Buddha Gaya in North India) the Buddha himself found Enlightenment, was brought to Sri Lanka in the 3rd Century B.C. by the Princess/religieuse Sanghamitta; a sister of the saint Mahinda.

It has never since been without its hereditary attendants and the care, to the very end, of the country’s kings. As lately as the reign of the last of them (Sri Vikrama Rajasingha, whom the British captured and deported); a wall was built by royal command to repair the platform on which it grows. In 1966 it was enclosed in a golden railing.