Spread of Buddhism to Sri Lanka

Why in news?

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi to open the Kushinagar International Airport in Uttar Pradesh on October 20,2021. The inaugural flight will land at the airport from Colombo, Sri Lanka, carrying the 125-member delegation of dignitaries and Buddhist monks.
• To mark the occasion, Sri Lanka will present to India photographs of two murals
  • One of the murals depicts ‘Arahat Bhikkhu’ Mahinda, son of Emperor Ashoka delivering the message of the Buddha to King Devanampiyatissa of Sri Lanka.
  • The other shows the arrival of ‘Theri Bhikkhuni’ Sanghamitta, the daughter of the Ashoka, in Sri Lanka, bearing a sapling of the ‘sacred Bodhi tree’.

More about the news:

• The airport is expected to provide seamless connectivity to tourists from Sri Lanka, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, etc.
• Kushinagar is the centre of the Buddhist circuit, which consists of pilgrimage sites at Lumbini, Sarnath and Gaya.
• Buddhist pilgrims consider Kushinagar a sacred site where, they believe, Gautama Buddha delivered his last sermon and attained ‘Mahaparinirvana’ or salvation.

On Spread of Buddhism to Sri Lanka:

• Ashoka during the third Buddhist council dispatched various Buddhist missions to different areas such as Gandhara, Kashmir, Greece, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), Egypt, and Thailand.
• Buddhism was first brought to Sri Lanka by one of such mission.
• The leader of the mission to Sri Lanka, Mahendra (Mahinda), is described as Ashoka’s son.
• Mahendra and his colleagues traveled to the Mihintale hill, Anuradhapura. There they chanced to meet the Sinhalese king Tissa, to whom they delivered a sermon on Buddhism.
• The king was brought into the Buddhist fold, and he invited Mahendra and his followers to the city.
• The missionaries were settled in a royal pavilion in the city park of Mahamegha, where they preached first to members of the royal family and then to the common people.
• Many embraced the new religion, some taking holy orders and joining the Buddhist sangha (community of monks).
• The king donated the Mahamegha park to the sangha.
• Meanwhile, the monastery of Mahavihara was established, and it became the prime centre of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.
• Mahendra sent for his sister Sanghamitta, who arrived with a branch of the Bo tree (at Bodh Gaya), under which the Buddha had attained enlightenment.
• The sapling was ceremonially planted in the city. Sanghamitta founded an order of nuns, and a stupa (shrine), the Thuparamacetiya, was built by the king for popular worship.
• Thus, with the founding of these and other institutions, Buddhism became an established religion in Sri Lanka.
• Today, the followers of Buddhism in Sri Lanka belong to the Theravada sect of Buddhists.

PRACTICE QUESTION

Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka by a mission sent out from India during the reign of:

(a) Chandragupta Maurya

(b) Ashoka

(c) Samudragupta

(d) Menander I

Answer