Almost everything that goes wrong for visitors at a Sri Lankan temple is not disrespect. It is simply not knowing. This page is what we would tell you over tea before we set off, and none of it is complicated.
We carry spare white cloth and shawls in the vehicle. If you turn up with nothing suitable, that is a five-minute problem, not a crisis.
Shoes and hats come off where the sign says, which is usually at the boundary of the whole compound rather than at a building. There is normally a rack and an attendant; a small coin is customary but never demanded. Wash your feet at the tap if there is one. Enter and move clockwise — keeping the stūpa or the shrine on your right — because that is the direction of respect in this tradition.
Photographing Buddha images is generally fine. Posing with your back to one is not, and neither is any pose that puts you above or level with the image — no selfies with an arm around a statue, no sitting on a stūpa terrace with your feet towards a shrine. Inside the Sri Dalada Māligāwa's inner chamber and in most meditation halls, no photography at all. When in doubt, do not, and ask.
Do not photograph a monastic without asking, and never photograph anyone mid-prostration.
Flowers — lotus buds, temple flowers, jasmine — are laid flat on the offering table, not placed in a vase. Oil lamps are lit from an existing flame. Water is poured. Incense is planted in sand. You put your palms together at the chest (añjali) and, if you wish, kneel and touch your forehead to the floor three times: once for the Buddha, once for the Dhamma, once for the Saṅgha. Nobody will mind if you do not.
A bhikkhu keeps 227 training rules and several of them concern contact with lay people, so a little care saves everyone embarrassment. Do not shake hands or touch. A woman does not hand anything directly to a bhikkhu — put it down, or pass it to a man, or place it on the cloth the monk offers. Sit lower than a monastic if you can, and do not point the soles of your feet at one. Stand when a senior monk enters. Address a bhikkhu as Bhante, or Venerable.
Monastics do not eat after midday, so do not offer food in the afternoon. They do not handle money. If you want to give something, ask us and we will show you the correct form.
Anurādhapura and Polonnaruwa are archaeological parks, and much of what you walk through is ruin. But the Bodhi tree, Ruwanwelisāya, Thūpārāmaya and most of the stūpas are active places of worship inside those parks, and there will be people at prayer a few metres from you. Keep your voice down, put the phone away, and if a group is chanting, wait rather than walk through.
Dāna is not a donation box and it is not charity. A bhikkhu owns almost nothing and does not cook, so the monastic community exists because lay people feed it — daily, for two and a half thousand years. Offering dāna has a form: you provide the food, you offer it before the community eats, the senior monk chants the anumodanā and you pour water from one vessel to another as the merit is dedicated, and then you eat. We will walk you through it. For many people it turns out to be the most straightforwardly moving part of the journey.
Every full moon is a public holiday in Sri Lanka and a day of religious observance. Temples fill with people in white, many keeping the eight precepts for the day; alcohol is not sold anywhere and meat is hard to find; and the atmosphere at a major site is completely different from any other day of the month.
Timing a journey to include a Poya is one of the best decisions you can make, and it is the one thing we will actively push you towards. The trade-off is crowds at the most famous sites and no alcohol — neither of which is much of a loss on this kind of trip.
Each of the twelve Poya days carries its own commemoration, and several are directly relevant to the sites you will be standing in.
The table gives the twelve Poya and what each one marks. Exact dates move every year with the lunar calendar — ask us and we will tell you the dates for your travel year, or check the Sri Lankan government holiday gazette.
| Poya | Month | What it marks |
|---|---|---|
| Duruthu | Jan | The Buddha's first visit — Mahiyaṅgana |
| Navam | Feb | Sāriputta and Moggallāna appointed chief disciples |
| Medin | Mar | The Buddha's visit to his family at Kapilavatthu |
| Bak | Apr | The second visit — Nāgadīpa |
| Vesak | May | Birth, enlightenment and parinibbāna. The greatest of the twelve. Śrī Pāda season closes. |
| Poson | Jun | Arahant Mahinda brings the Dhamma — Mihintale |
| Esala | Jul | The first sermon; the Kandy Perahera. Vassa, the rains retreat, begins the day after. |
| Nikini | Aug | The first Buddhist council; the late vas for those who could not begin at Esala |
| Binara | Sep | The founding of the order of nuns |
| Vap | Oct | End of the rains retreat; Mahinda's return |
| Il | Nov | The sending out of the first sixty missionaries |
| Unduvap | Dec | Saṅghamittā brings the Bodhi sapling. Śrī Pāda season opens. |
| Dhamma | The Buddha's teaching. Spelt this way in Pali; "dharma" is the Sanskrit. |
| Saṅgha | The monastic community |
| Bhikkhu / bhikkhunī | A fully ordained monk / nun |
| Bhante | How you address a monk. "Venerable". |
| Dāna | Generosity; the formal offering to the Saṅgha |
| Mettā | Loving-kindness. The client's own spelling is "Maitree". |
| Sīla | Virtue; the precepts |
| Bhāvanā | Meditation, cultivation |
| Samatha / vipassanā | Calming practice / insight practice |
| Stūpa / dāgaba / vehera | The domed reliquary monument. All three words are used. |
| Vihāra | A monastery or temple complex |
| Kuṭi | A monk's hut; your room on retreat |
| Pūjā | The offering ceremony |
| Poya | Full-moon observance day |
| Perahera | A religious procession |
| Aṭamasthāna | The eight sacred places of Anurādhapura |
| Solosmasthāna | The sixteen sacred places of the island |
No. You need to be willing to behave respectfully in someone else's place of worship, and that is all. Nobody will try to convert you; that is not how this tradition operates.
Yes. Every journey is private, which means it runs for one person as readily as for six — the per-person cost is simply higher.
Sri Lanka is a straightforward country to travel in and Sri Lankans are exceptionally kind to pilgrims. The realistic risks are traffic, sun and dengue, in that order.
Often yes, and we would rather redesign the route than have you struggle. Mihintale's 1,840 steps and Śrī Pāda's 5,500 are the two hard limits; almost everything else can be reached with a short, flat, barefoot walk. Tell us and we will be straight with you about what works.
Easy. Sri Lankan rice and curry is largely vegetable-based and monastery food is usually vegetarian by default.
There is no payment page on this website. We agree the itinerary and the price in writing first, and then send bank details for a deposit. We will never ask you for card details over WhatsApp or email.
Ask. There is no question about conduct, health or suitability that we would rather you did not raise before you travel instead of after.