Sandahiru Saya
Sandahiru Seya is a second largest hemispherical stupa in Sri Lanka located in Anuradhapura.
On the south side of Anuradhapura, between the ancient Dakkhina Stupa and Isurumuniya Viharaya, an enormous new stupa rises where nothing stood just over a decade ago, a genuinely modern addition to a skyline otherwise dominated by monuments two thousand years old. Sandahiru Seya was commissioned in 2010 by then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, its foundation stone laid on November 22 that year, built specifically to honor members of Sri Lanka's Tri Forces, Police and Department of Civil Security who lost their lives during the nearly three decade civil war that ended in May 2009. Sacred relics were placed within the stupa on November 22, 2014, and after eleven years of construction, the monument finally opened to the public in 2021.
Designed to reach 85 meters in height with a circumference of 244 meters, built from over 30 million bricks and finished in the traditional whitewash coating that defines Sri Lanka's great dagobas, Sandahiru Seya ranks as the largest stupa constructed anywhere on the island in the past 1,700 years, since King Mahasena's Jetavanaramaya went up in the 3rd century. It's also just the first of nine such war memorial stupas planned across Sri Lanka's provinces, one for each region, a project that's drawn its share of controversy, some critics have objected to dedicating explicitly Buddhist religious monuments to honor military and police actions, a debate that adds a layer of contemporary political weight to what's otherwise framed as an act of remembrance.
Standing among Anuradhapura's ancient dagobas without technically surpassing their original heights, Sandahiru Seya offers visitors a genuinely striking contrast, brand new construction rising directly beside monuments that have stood since before the common era, a physical reminder that Sri Lanka's long relationship with stupa building, and with war, continues even now.