Mihintale: When beauty is centuries deep
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Getting There & Things to
See
15km from Anuradhapura – a 30 minute drive or
bus journey
The Mihintale Temple Complex
The Cave of Arahat Mahinda – walk down to the
cave where Arahat Mahinda is supposed to have slept. You can
still see a slightly raised rectangular area carved out of the
granite. On the way down there are various other caves, one has
a small shrine in it with offerings of coins and diya lamps. To
refresh or re-energize yourself on your way buy a glass of
bellemal tea and drink it with a piece of sweet jaggery (crystalized
brown sugar).
Snake Pond – This pond is named because of the
stone sculpture of a cobra on the rock face. Appropriately,
snakes can be seen swimming across the pond today.
Lion Sculpture – It is thought that Asiatic
lions once lived in Sri Lanka and they are certainly one of the
predominant symbols of the Sri Lankan Kings. This majestic
sculpture was once a fountain where water spurted through its
mouth from a stone trough above.
Ambasthale Dagoba – This is built on the spot
where Arahat Mahinda is supposed to have appeared when he came
to Sri Lanka from India.
Mahaseya Dagoba – This ancient white Stupa
offers fantastic views of the surrounding area. Many of the
buildings in the sacred city of Anuradhapura can be made out.
Meditation Rock – The steep climb to the
summit is more than worth it for the stunning 360 degree
panoramic view and the feeling of deep spirituality it imbues.
Eating – Dinesha Max Hotel is around 10kms
along the road from Mihintale to Auradhapura, opposite a pink
house. This is a very pleasant roadside bath kade (restaurant
selling rice and curry) and is run by the friendly Sarath
Karunaratna. You can serve yourself from traditional terracotta
pots. The vegetable rotti, string hoppers and coconut pancakes
are also recommended. |
 As
Cleopatra and the Ancient Egyptians bathed in milk to soften and
beautify their skin and the Romans applied olive oil, the Ancient
Lankans covered their faces in sandalwood paste.
It is a tradition that has been carried down through the generations
as highlighted by the variety of products that are sold in Sri Lankan
pharmacies today. It is estimated that 10-15 percent of people still use
the ancient beauty method. At Rankin’s stall, three quarters of the way
up the frangipane tree lined ancient granite stairway at Mihintale, the
tradition is very much alive. For over 30 years Ranjini has made the
climb up the hill face at dawn to prepare her stall of potions for the
day ahead along with musicians, mango sellers, drink stall owners and
plastic toy vendors.
Oldest hospital in the world
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Ancient beauty secrets |
The selling of sandalwood and Ayurvedic products at the Mihintale
Temple site is far more noticeable than at any other sacred Buddhist
spot in Sri Lanka. This could just be a fluke or in the words of one
cynical tourist: “just what they sell to make money.” However, it seems
too much of a coincidence that the temple complex contains the ruins of
what is thought to be the oldest hospital in the world.
For centuries it has clearly been a place where the ancient art of
Ayurveda has been practiced. The visitor only has to glance at the Vijay
Sala hospital complex, which is thought to have been built by King Sena
II in the 9th Century to realize how sophisticated the understanding
was. There are the remains of a consulting room, an area where hot
healing baths could be taken and a place for the preparation and storage
of medicines. Excavations have unearthed medicinal utensils, as well as
grinding stones and urns.
The Ayurveda medicine trough, which still stands intact on the site,
is perhaps the greatest example of this. Patients would have climbed
into the trough and immersed themselves in healing oils, including
sandalwood, which has been used for thousands of years to cure
everything from bronchitis to cystitis and skin problems.
Ancient remedy for healing
The connection between King Sena II’s hospital and Ranjini’s stall
narrows when she gestures to the site down the hillside between
demonstrating how to extract powder from a piece of sandalwood by
rubbing it on a granite rock.
Both men and women buy the ancient remedy from her to apply to their
skin and treat acne, prickly heat, insect bites, minor burns and eczema
or simply to use as a deodorant or to enhance the skin’s luster.
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Other families in the area |
Ranjini explains that the wood can help relieve headaches by sponging
the paste over the forehead and in the same way can bring down
temperatures because of its cooling properties.
Many pilgrims buy the wood on their way up to the Stupa because it
can help to focus the mind during meditation.
The stall is equivalent to an ancient pharmacy in the range of herbal
medicines that are sold, whether it is kasurikaha, a special type of
saffron that looks like a yellow seed and improves the condition of
facial skin; pieces of kotala himbuttu wood that when boiled are
fantastic for diabetics; ranarwa which resembles pot pouri for stomach
problems; Venivelgatta wood that when boiled and drunk can help prevent
colds or coocomb, which looks like pale yellow biscuits that when ground
clarifies the skin.
First wildlife and nature reserve
When asked where the plants and trees are found, Ranjini makes a
sweeping gesture around the shimmering emerald landscape that lies below
and explains that many are found in local forests around Mihintale. Her
knowledge of their remedial effects has been passed down from her mother
and grandmother.
It seems possible that there is an association at Mihintale between
the fact that it was the site of the world’s first recorded wildlife and
nature reserve established by King Devanampiya Tissa in 247 BC as well
as the first hospital.
Most of the medicinal herbs and plants that were used would have been
collected from the protected/forbidden forests, something that still
happens across the country today.
Conservationists, who are working to protect Sri Lanka’s 18
biodiversity hotspots, including Sinharaja Rainforest, say that the loss
of medicinal plants is one of the biggest worries along with the species
extinction rate.
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| Stairway to
enlightenment |
Ancient ruins |
The connection extends further because it is in these sacred forests
that it is believed that Buddhism first arrived in Sri Lanka. King
Devanampiya Tissa was on a hunting expedition when he caught sight of a
deer and pursued it. Having lost track of the deer, he saw a man dressed
in yellow robes sitting beneath a tree.
The man explained that he was Arahat Mahinda Thera, the son of
Emperor Ashoka of India and that he had been sent by his father to give
Sri Lanka the gift of Theravada Buddhism.
As I made my way to the top to see the temple, hermit spot and caves,
I looked back at her fascinating stall, watching frangipane flowers
falling around her as she sold her bag of ancient cures, monkeys and
giant squirrels rustling in the trees overhead, it feels like nothing
much has changed since King Devanampiya Tissa first constructed the
Vihara and 68 caves for the founding order of Lankan Buddhist monks.
Walking around this historic site with pilgrims from all over the
country it is clear that the Mihintale Stairway is enlightening in many
different very different and special ways. |
