The Pubbarama (27) 

 

Two miles north of the new town, the Jaffna Road cuts across the outside wall of the Pabbarama monastery (27). A secondary road branches to the right and takes you to the northwest corner of the central platform. This platform is a square raised terrace and on it are the four essential features of the ‘outer monasteries’ designed; an image house, a chapter house, a Dagabha and a Bodhi tree shrine. Unlike the rest of the monastery, which is laid out in a perfectly square plane, these buildings are placed in slightly eccentric positions, which have been worked out according to a mystical (tantric) formulary. Around the platform in a mathematically precise plan, are 32 living units, and around these runs a moat, crossed by drawbridges at the four cardinal points. Outside the moat, to the south, lies and excellently preserved hot water bath and the remains of a refectory buildings. The whole complex was surrounded by an outer wall. By the entrance to the image house on the platform are Dragon, with well-executed lions.