Aluvihara
Then…
Aluvihara, the Temple of the Ashes, has great significance
for the Buddhist world as it was here that the Buddhist
Doctrine was first written down in Pali on ola leaves
in the 1st Century BC during the 4th Buddhist Council.
Previous to this time the Buddhist
Doctrine or Tripitaka ("Three Baskets") was handed down
orally, since the Buddha had left nothing written down.
The preservation of the doctrine was therefore initially
entrusted to the memory of his disciples who had listened
to him, but the sanctity of the Buddha's teachings needed
a more structured approach and consequently the 1st Buddhist
Council was established in the 6th Century BC. However,
depleting ranks, infighting between the great monasteries
of Mahavihara and Abhayagiriya, and the hazards of sickness
and death convinced the Buddhist sangha (order of monks)
that the practice of preserving the Buddhist Canon and
its commentaries through oral transmission had to be
rethought. In 88 BC, the monks assembled at Aluvihara
near Matale and committed all the texts to writing.
…and
now
Today, Aluvihara is a complex of cave temples, each with
different functions and contrasting moods, and a monastery
with a scriptorium. Several of the caves are beautifully
painted with frescoes, one contains a large reclining
Buddha, also brightly painted, and one is dedicated
to the Indian scholar Buddhagosa. The strangest of all
contains a salutary depiction of the afterlife awaiting
miscreants. As your eyes adjust to the gloom you will
see colourful statues of sinners being punished by demons,
such as an unfaithful woman being chopped into pieces,
and a male sex-pest having the top of his skull removed
so that the demons can reach in with a spoon and ladle
out his brain!
Even though the original library of
priceless manuscripts dating back to 88 BC and the lifetime's
labour of 500 monks was destroyed by fire in 1848 when
the British quelled a revolt by the monks of Dambulla,
the site retains a certain spirituality and mysticism
of its own, particularly after you have visited the
temple's "chamber of horrors"! In addition,
the laborious task of replacing the library has been
painstakingly carried out since their destruction, with
the first of the "Three Baskets" of the Tripitaka being
completed in 1982. The monks reconstructing the library
can be seen in a scriptorium at Aluvihara producing
facsimiles of the originals on the long leaves of the
ola palm, which are then loosely bound to make books.
Most of the principal sites of interest
can be visited in a 1-hour tour en route from either
Kandy or Dambulla.
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