Ritigala, the monastery in the forest

Legend has it that all vegetation on the mountain of Ritigala in central Sri Lanka is protected by guardian spirits known as Yakkhas. These are the guardian spirits of the mountain, said to have helped Prince (later King) Pandukhabaya fulfil a prophecy by defeating his eight uncles at the foot of the mountain. As king he went on to establish Anuradhapura as a thriving city and capital, and to unify the island.

He also founded a monastery, today in ruins but once a focus for Buddhist meditation. It was in use for centuries but abandoned in the 10th century and gradually overtaken by the forest. Today the forest forms part of a nature reserve. We visited with our guide Champi, taking a jeep through the reserve.

At first we were on a road, then a track through paddy fields and into the forest. We stopped briefly at a very functional-looking building. Champi explained that this was a meditation centre where eighteen monks now live. People had brought food for them, as is customary for Buddhists. We laughed at the antics of a macaque trying to drink from a water pipe.

At the meditation centre

Exploring the ruins

Further into the forest we parked and started what proved to be a long, hot and occasionally difficult climb. This led us first to a huge water tank or reservoir. This is an impressive feat of engineering, credited to King Pandukabhaya. It is thought to have been used for ritual bathing by pilgrims, and its size suggests that very many visited the monastery.

The reservoir

We walked around the rim of the reservoir and on the far side started to climb up through the forest, following a stone path with frequent flights of steps.

The path through the forest

The various ruins revealed themselves at intervals, with steep climbs between each. Without proper guiding I was at first at a loss to understand what I was seeing. Fortunately we ran into a Spanish couple with their guide, who was much more knowledgeable than Champi, and they kindly allowed us to listen in. I learned that the first area after the water tank was a library, and the later flat circular platforms were for meditation walking. The function of some of the other buildings seems to be unknown but they could have been accommodation for the monks or for pilgrims, as well as meditation centres.

Various ruins (the library is, I think, top left)

Another platform carries the remains of the hospital. You can still see the large stone for grinding the medicinal herbs found in the forest. One of these herbs, Sansevi, was believed to have the power of conferring long life and curing all human pain. That could explain the large number of pilgrims?

Hospital ruins and grinding stone

The monks who inhabited Ritigala were extreme ascetics known as Pansakulikas, meaning Rag-Robe Wearers. The name reflects their commitment to one of the Buddha’s thirteen ascetic practices (dhutanga): wearing robes made from discarded rags, mostly shrouds picked up from cemeteries

There are no stupas, very few decorations on the ruins and only a handful of Buddha statues have been found. But there is one interesting exception to the general lack of decoration. To our surprise, on one of the platforms we came to an ornate urinal! It is thought that the decorated stones were intended to represent the architectural and ritualistic excesses of the orthodox monastic chapters to which the Pansakulikas were opposed. By urinating on them the monks asserted their rejection of these excesses.

The decorated urinal

On our way back down through the forest the jeep driver, who had accompanied us on the climb, pointed out a short detour. This led us to a small but pretty waterfall. But neither he nor Champi could tell me the reason for the row of clearly human-made holes in the rock beside it. My guess is that it was once intended to be used in a building here, with the holes created with the aim of splitting the rock, a common stone-cutting technique.

The waterfall

I’m sharing this visit as a Monday Walk for Jo.

I visited Ritigala in February 2026