Where stone, memory and belief converge: Thantirimale's long story of civilisation

At the northern boundry of Anuradhapura, where the Malwathu Oya curves through scrubland and forest and the wilderness of Wilpattu National Park presses close, the vast rock outcrop of Tantirimale rises quietly from the earth.

- BY IFHAM NIZAM

The Reclining Buddha Statue

Spread across nearly 200 acres within the Mahawilachchiya Divisional Secretariat Division, this ancient monastic complex is more than a place of worship. It is a layered archive of Sri Lanka's deep past — a place where prehistoric life, early Buddhist devotion, royal legend and later artistic traditions coexist within the same stone landscape.

"Thantirimale is not a site that belongs to a single period," says Dr. Nimal D. Rathnayake, one of the principal investigators who has been studying the area together with Ayoma Rathnayake and Eranga Sampath Bandara. "What we see here is continuity people adapting to the same environment across thousands of years, leaving behind traces of belief, survival and creativity."

Traditionally, the Thantirimale temple is believed to date back to the third century BC, placing it among the earliest Buddhist establishments in Sri Lanka. The Mahavansa records that civilisation in this region developed following the arrival of Prince Vijaya, whose ministers were tasked with establishing settlements across the island. One such settlement, Upatissagama, founded by the minister Upatissa, is often identified as the ancient precursor to present-day Thantirimale.

Yet archaeology offers a deeper and more complex story. Excavations conducted in and around the rock shelters reveal that indigenous tribal communities lived at Thantirimale long before the rise of the Anuradhapura kingdom. These early inhabitants likely ancestors of today's Veddas used the caves as dwellings, ritual spaces and meeting points thousands of years before organised monastic life took root.

"The rock shelters were not incidental," Dr. Rathnayake explains. "They were deliberately chosen spaces elevated, protected and close to water sources. This landscape offered everything prehistoric communities needed to survive."