Exchanges between the Budddhist monks of Sri Lanka and the ancient Burmese capital of Bagan (Pagan) have been carrying in since the 11th century, according to Dr. Hema Goonatilake of Sri Lanka.
photo credit: antwerpenR
Ancient Sri Lanka-Myanmar links rediscovered
Daily News (Sri Lanka), 26 August 2009
She showed a number of very large Buddhist temple sites which had connections with Sri Lanka. There were numerous stupas built on the Sinhalese bell shaped style-actually there were at least 260 such Sinhalese style stupas. The inflow of Sri Lankan culture was facilitated by Myanmar monks visiting Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan monks visiting Bagan. The stupa enshrining the remains of one of the Myanmar monks Zapata who went to Sri Lanka was there to see it built in the Sri Lanka style. There were four monasteries to house four leading monks from Sri Lanka. The remains of these monasteries are large in number with their own stupa and vihara complexes. The most captivating buildings had murals depicting scenes from the Mahavamsa. One was the Sakyamuni temple which had murals depicting the arrival of Sanghamitta in Sri Lanka, the daughter of Emperor Asoka.
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