Located in Chaitya Road, Fort, and on the Sri Lanka Ports Authority premises, Sri Sambuddha Jayanthi Chaitya is a stupa built to commemorate the 2,500th anniversary of Buddhism from the death of the Buddha.
It is adjacent to the Maritime Museum, run by the SLPA. The stupa stands on a platform held aloft by four diagonally intersecting reinforced concrete arches and supported by four struts. The stupa is accessed by a tower with eleven levels of stairs and there are about 230 steps to the stupa. There's a steel bridge connecting the tower to the stupa at the top.
The steps outside the stupa go down to a four-chambered meditation/preaching hall (now not used for that purpose [if it ever was!] and closed to the general public) and up to the hollow of the stupa, which is the main attraction.
Filmed and edited by Leonard Jayawardena.
22 авг 2024
