The whole Solosmasthāna circuit, north to south — a boat to Nāgadīpa, six of the sixteen in Anurādhapura alone, and a summit before dawn on the last night.
Prices are not published yet — every journey is quoted for your dates and group size.
The Solosmasthāna are the sixteen places the Sinhala chronicles hold the Buddha consecrated on his three visits to Laṅkā: Mahiyaṅgana on the first, Nāgadīpa on the second, and Kelaniya, Śrī Pāda, Divāguhāwa, Dīghavāpi, Muthiyaṅgana and the sites at Anurādhapura on the third. Six of the sixteen — the Bodhi tree, Mirisawetiya, Ruwanwelisāya, Thūpārāmaya, Abhayagiri and Jetavanārāmaya — stand inside Anurādhapura, and Mihintale's Sela Cetiya is the fifteenth.
Sri Lankan Buddhists talk about completing the sixteen the way Catholics talk about the Camino: something you hope to do once, properly. It is roughly 1,400 kilometres of driving and it ends, by tradition, at the top of a mountain.
We travel it in the order that makes geographic sense rather than the order the chronicles list, which means Kelaniya on your first afternoon and Śrī Pāda on your last night.
Met at the airport and taken straight to Kelaniya Rāja Mahā Vihāra on the bank of the Kelani river, where the Buddha is held to have preached on his third visit at the invitation of the nāga king Maṇiakkhika. The interior is covered in Solias Mendis's twentieth-century murals, which are worth an hour on their own. Night in Colombo or Negombo.
The long haul to Jaffna — either by road up the A9 through the old front line and Elephant Pass, or by the morning train, which is the better journey. Afternoon in Jaffna town: the Nallur Kandaswamy temple, the fort, and a very different Sri Lanka from the one most visitors see.
Out to Kurikadduwan and across by ferry to the island of Nainativu for Nāgadīpa Purāna Vihāra, where the Buddha is said to have come five years after his enlightenment to settle a war between two nāga kings over a gem-set throne. The silver-blue stūpa and the crossing itself make this the strangest and most memorable of the sixteen.
Down through the Vavuniya dry zone to Anurādhapura, arriving in time for the evening at Ruwanwelisāya. Three nights here.
Before five for the Jaya Sri Mahā Bodhi — grown from a cutting of the tree at Bodh Gayā, brought by the bhikkhunī Saṅghamittā in the third century BCE and tended without a break since. Morning chanting, then the Lovāmahāpāya's sixteen hundred columns. Late afternoon at Mirisawetiya.
Thūpārāmaya at first light — the island's first stūpa, enshrining the right collarbone relic, still ringed by the pillars of its vanished vaulted house. Then Ruwanwelisāya, Duṭugämuṇu's great dome, and the elephant wall around its terrace. Afternoon at Isurumuniya and the royal gardens.
Abhayagiri and Jetavanārāmaya in the morning, with the Samādhi Buddha, the twin ponds and the great moonstone. In the cool of the afternoon, the 1,840 steps at Mihintale to the Ambasthala Dāgaba and the Sela Cetiya on the summit rock.
East across the Mahaweli floodplain to Somawathiya, which enshrines a right tooth relic and sits inside a national park, then north-east to Seruwila Mangala Rāja Mahā Vihāra, built where the forehead relic was placed. On to Polonnaruwa for the night.
Morning in the Polonnaruwa quadrangle and at Gal Vihāra, whose four twelfth-century figures cut from one granite face are the high point of Sinhalese sculpture. Then south to Mahiyaṅgana, the first place the Buddha is said to have set foot on this island, nine months after his enlightenment.
East to Dīghavāpi in Ampara district, the least visited of the sixteen and the one that most feels like a working village temple rather than a monument. Then up into the hills to Muthiyaṅgana at Badulla, where the Buddha is held to have preached on the way back from Mahiyaṅgana.
Through Wellawaya and Buttala to Tissamahārāma, the old capital of the southern kingdom of Rohana, whose great dāgaba is traditionally said to enshrine a forehead bone relic. Evening at the tank, which is full of birds.
Kirivehera at Kataragama — the sixteenth and last of the numbered places — reached across the Menik Ganga, where pilgrims of four religions wash before entering the precinct. In the afternoon, Sithulpawwa, a second-century BCE rock hermitage out in the scrub of Yala that once housed twelve thousand monks.
North-west to Divāguhāwa — the Batatotalena cave near Kuruwita, where the Buddha is held to have spent a day in meditation. Then to Nallathanniya at the foot of Śrī Pāda. Early dinner, early bed, and up at two in the morning for the 5,500 steps.
The summit shrine of Śrī Pāda before first light, with the bell that pilgrims ring once for each completed ascent, and — if the air is clear — the triangular shadow of the peak thrown across the cloud below. Descend through the morning, rest, and drive to the airport.
This is the most demanding of our journeys: two long driving days, a boat, and 5,500 steps at the end. Please be honest with us about your fitness so we can plan the last three days around it — the climb can be replaced.
Notation lifts to the photograph. Every image here is a real, freely-licensed photograph of the actual site.
This journey depends on the Śrī Pāda season and on the north-east monsoon. Tell us your rough dates and we will tell you honestly whether they work.
