A prominent Buddhist monastic complex in Sri Lanka’s former capital Anuradhapura, Abhayagiri Vihara dates to the first century BCE. Located in the country’s North Central Province, the vihara is named after its founder, the king Vattagamani Abhaya (also called Valagamba), and is also known as Uttara Vihara or ‘Northern Monastery’. Diverging from the region’s monolithic Theravada Buddhist tradition of the time, the vihara came to embody progressive principles and a new school of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, which also incorporated Mahayana and Vajrayana thought. It developed networks with similar institutions overseas in China, Java and India, and became the first institution in Sri Lanka to house the relic of the Buddha’s Tooth. The Abhayagiri complex is centred around o

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