Visit the ancient city of Anuradhapura on a full moon day and the past doesn’t feel far away at all.
Buddhist pilgrims dressed in white walk barefoot along the dusty path. Monks in saffron robes chant at dawn. Foreign visitors from Taiwan to Canada join local worshipers in the ceremonies held here, which have been going on essentially without interruption for more than 2,000 years.
Anuradhapura, located in the north-central plains of Sri Lanka, was the island’s first great capital. Today, it remains one of the holiest cities in the Buddhist world and is known as the first place where Buddhism was spread outside India. Its vast archaeological park is dotted with temples, reservoirs and stupas that are among the most ambitious religious monuments of all time.
Towering above them is the massive bubble-like dome of Jetavanaramaya – a structure so large that when it was completed in the early fourth century AD, it became the third largest man-made structure on Earth, after the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Completed around AD 301 using approximately 93.3 million baked mud bricks, the stupa originally stood approximately 122 meters (400 feet) tall, making it one of the tallest structures in the ancient world.
In 2010, another stupa in Anuradhapura, the Abhayagiri Stupa, underwent restoration work. – John Elk III/Photo Library RF/Getty Images
Today, after centuries of collapse, abandonment and restoration, Jetavanaramaya stands about 71 meters (233 feet) high – still monumental but only slightly more than half its original height. Even so, it remains the largest brick structure ever built.
It was so massive that archaeologists estimate its bricks could build a three-foot-tall wall stretching from London to Edinburgh, or from New York City to Pittsburgh.
However, outside Sri Lanka, Jetavanaramaya is little known. Unlike the pyramids, it was not continuously visible throughout history. Jungle growth, shifting religious priorities and selective conservation gradually buried the monument and much of its story, leaving one of the ancient world’s greatest engineering achievements largely forgotten.
Lost – and rediscovered
Jetavanaramaya refers not only to the stupa itself, but also to the center of a large monastic complex called Jetavana Vihara, which can accommodate hundreds of monks. Every building in the complex faces the stupa, ensuring that it is the first thing the monks face when they emerge from their residences – a daily reminder of piety and cosmic order.
“About 200 monks lived here,” explains Godamune Pannaseeha, a bespectacled monk, senior archaeological official in Anuradhapura, and one of Jetavanaramaya’s foremost contemporary experts.
“People come and offer robes, books, food – everything – to gain merit,” said Godamune Pannaseeha, a senior archaeological official in Anuradhapura. – Justin Calderon
“People come and offer cassocks, books, food — everything — to gain merit,” he said, pointing to the stupa’s lower platform where offerings once were, while walking slowly clockwise around the stupa’s base. “This is a living religious city.”
However, from the beginning, Jetavanaramaya was controversial. It was built on land traditionally associated with the Maha Vihara, an orthodox Theravada Buddhist building, reportedly without the consent of its monks. The complex later became associated with the Sagarika sect, which followed Mahayana teachings.
No Mahayana chronicles of ancient Sri Lanka have survived. Today, Sri Lanka remains a country dominated by Theravada Buddhism. As a result, much of Jetavanarayama’s history—including the political and doctrinal tensions surrounding its creation—had to be reconstructed indirectly, leaving historians with an incomplete and sometimes controversial version.
Huge ancient engineering project
The technical challenges faced in building Jetavanarayama were enormous. Unlike Egypt’s stone pyramids, this massive structure was built almost entirely from mud bricks, a material more susceptible to erosion and collapse.
“To replace one stone, you might need 10 bricks,” said Anura Manatunga, a senior professor of archeology at the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka. “This meant millions of bricks had to be prepared, transported and laid with precision.”
Anuradhapura remains one of the holiest cities in the Buddhist world. – Alex Ogle/AFP/Getty Images
This is what Jetavanaramaya looked like in 1965. – Harvey Meston/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Archaeologists have discovered ancient brick kilns in and around Anuradhapura, confirming the large-scale brick production in the area. However, none can be clearly linked to Jetavanaramaya or can be dated with certainty to the early fourth century.
Moving such large amounts of material requires extraordinary organization and labor.
While there are no records specifically mentioning animals at Jetavanaramaya, historians believe that elephants and bullock carts were almost certainly used here, as at other major construction sites in Sri Lanka – including the city’s most sacred stupa, Ruwanwelisaya, built in 140 BC.
Elephants may haul bricks and trample the soil over the foundations, a technique that until recently was used in traditional construction on the island.
When this photo was taken in 1926, the area was overgrown. – Print Collector/Helton Archives/Getty Images
The scaffolding relies heavily on bamboo and is tied with coir ropes made from coconut fibers and jungle creepers. The use of metal is minimal, only for tools rather than structural elements.
Durable
Jetavanaramaya reflects the height of ancient Sri Lankan engineering knowledge. Its massive hemispherical shape distributes weight efficiently, while its foundations have been carefully prepared. Ancient chronicles describe how builders flooded the excavated ground to observe absorption—a rudimentary but effective form of soil testing.
The collapsed parts of the stupa reveal even more ingenuity. Panasiha noted a hollow cylindrical chamber within the ruins, suggesting an early understanding of ventilation.
Despite its complexity, time took its toll. Earthquakes, monsoon rains and centuries of abandonment caused parts of the stupa to collapse. The last major renovation took place during the reign of King Parakramabahu I in the 12th century.
Recent restoration work has introduced cement into some of the outer layers – a decision that archaeologists now believe may have accelerated deterioration rather than halted it. The mortar originally used to lay bricks consisted of a mixture of finely crushed dolomite, limestone, sifted sand and clay.
The excavations also uncovered reliquaries buried in various structural levels of the stupa. These sites preserve sacred relics and ritual deposits, reinforcing that Jetavanaramaya is not just an architectural feat but a sacred structure built from the inside out.
The most important finds related to Jetavanaramaya include gold plates depicting images of Bodhisattvas and inscribed with portions of the Prajnaparamita Sutra, the foundational text of Mahayana Buddhism. The panels, now preserved at the National Museum in Colombo, are written in Sanskrit using the ancient local script.
They provide rare material evidence of Mahayana Buddhist practice in ancient Sri Lanka, showing that Gion was once a center of world-wide Buddhist thought, linked to India and beyond by doctrinal and trade routes.
the mysterious peak
Panasiha stood at the base of the stupa and pointed at the damaged minaret.
“Historical records indicate that diamonds were once crowned on the summit, possibly to deflect lightning during monsoon storms,” he said.
The minaret itself is unusual. “It’s like a tower,” he notes – a form that some scholars believe may reflect technological influences from Rome or the wider Mediterranean world, spread through Indian Ocean trade networks.
“Historical records indicate that diamonds were once crowned on the summit, possibly to deflect lightning during monsoon storms,” Panasija said. – Justin Calderon
Whether symbolic or functional, much about its construction remains unclear.
“We can see the remnants of some decorative patterns, including that of the naga, a form of cobra hood,” Pannaseeha added, pointing to the intricate carvings on the base. “But we still don’t know how they are held in place.”
Nobility and dedication
The gigantic size of the Jetavanaramaya Temple rivals that of the nearby gleaming white Ruwanwelisaya, and today it has greater religious significance to Sri Lankans.
Ruwanwelisaya is believed to house some of Buddhism’s most revered artifacts, including parts of the Buddha’s remains. It remains a focus of pilgrimage and national religious life.
Although smaller than its original form, Ruwanwelisaya has been maintained and is now taller than the truncated structure of Jetavanaramaya, with a height of over 100 meters (328 ft).
While Jetavanaramaya represents architectural audacity and doctrinal debate, Ruwanwelisaya embodies pious continuity.
Eetalawetunwawe Gnanathilaka Thero, one of the country’s most revered religious figures and the chief monk of Ruwanwelisaya, has noticed a steady increase in foreign tourists visiting Anuradhapura in recent years.
“First there was the civil war, then there was the pandemic,” he said. “But the number of foreign tourists coming to our holy city has increased significantly in the past two years.”
Travelers are welcome to observe and participate in any of the nine daily puja rituals, the first of which begins at dawn.
Anuradhapura is the island with Sri Lanka’s first great capital city. – Thilina Kaluthotage/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Visited on a full moon day, thousands of pilgrims arrive and wait patiently to enter Ruwanwelisaya and Sri Maha Bodhi. This temple is surrounded by a sacred fig tree, which is believed to have grown from the sapling under which the Buddha attained enlightenment.
the last of its kind
Perhaps the most striking fact about Jetavaramaya is that nothing like it was ever built again. In the nearly 700 years since its completion, Sri Lanka has never attempted to build a pagoda of similar scale.
“This is the last truly huge stupa,” Manatunga said. “Not only here, but even in Southeast Asia, later builders adopted the same bubble shape – but never on this scale.”
Today, Jetavanaramaya stands as evidence of an ancient society that organized labor, materials, and engineering knowledge on a scale that rivaled any civilization of its time.
That it remains relatively unknown outside Sri Lanka may be one of history’s great oversights – a reminder that some of the ancient world’s most extraordinary achievements were not carved in stone, but were shaped by the earth, devotion and human ingenuity.
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