No country, apart from India, is as closely allied with the Buddha’s travels as Sri Lanka, which was visited thrice by the Buddha and received corporal relics and a branch of the bodhi tree after his death. Today the Buddha’s eye-tooth is venerated daily by thousands in Kandy and regarded as a priceless relic.<\/p>\n
Buddhism is not the only religion to have influence the island, as another major pilgrimage spot is Kataragama, a site devoted to a Hindu God, while Christianity and Islam are also part of the mix. From Europe, the Portuguese, Dutch, and English added new spiritual layers in a colonial period that stretched nearly three centuries. As a result, understanding the country, through the lens of sacred sites provides a special glimpse into this unique civilisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Don Stadtner writes an authoritative, insightful and yet imminently readable history of the sacred sites across Sri Lanka, not only Buddhist, but Hindu, Christian and Islamic too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":53162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[5508],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-47523","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-travel","7":"author-by-author-donald-m-stadtner","8":"publisher-river-books","10":"first","11":"instock","12":"shipping-taxable","13":"purchasable","14":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n