The Legend

An ancient pilgrimage , which has long attracted thousands of pilgrims from perhaps all faiths, is the pilgrimage to the sacred mountain, Sri Pada , popularly known in English as Adam's Peak . It is a conical mountain 7,360 feet (2,243 meters) high, soaring clear above the surrounding mountain ranges. According to a legend, when the Buddha visited Ceylon he planted one foot on the north of the royal city and the other on Sumana-kuta (Adam's Peak) fifteen yojanas, or about hundred miles distant.

According to another legend the Buddha is believed to have left the print of his left foot on Adam's Peak, and then, in one stride, strode across to Siam, (now Thailand) where he left the impression of his right foot. It is called Phra Sat, and its appearance is supposed to be like that of the foot print on Adam's Peak and of similar size.

General Sir A. Cunningham, in his account of the Bharhut Stupa, which dates from the second century B.C., says:

"Footprints of Buddha were most probably an object of reverence from a very early period -- certainly before the building of the Bharut Stupa -- as they are represented in two separate sculptures there. In the sculpture the foot­prints are placed on a throne or altar, canopied by an umbrella hung with gar­lands. A royal personage is kneeling before the altar, and reverently touching the footprints with his hands. The second example is in the bas-relief repre­senting the visit of Ajata-satru to Buddha. Here, as in all other Bharut sculp­tures, Buddha does not appear in person, his presence being marked by his two footprints. The wheel symbol is duly marked on both' (p. 112. abridged).

The most famous physical feature of Ceylon is Adam's Peak, which is situated in the Ratnapura district. It is on the edge of the central massif but its surrounding group of mountains called the Wilderness of the Peak, is so extensive in comparison to the bulk of the other mountain groups that it appears to form a nucleus of its own, separate from the others. It is about 7500 ft high and, though it is the second highest peak in the land, its position in relation to the topography is so dominant that it stands out above all others.

The physical features of a land are often spoken of first, by a foreign visitor. Physical descriptions compare it to a pearl and a teardrop. Lying at the southern point of India its pendant shape appears like a drop of water as it falls. South of it there is nothing but the Antarctic. It is on the major sea route between West and East Asia and therefore was a trading station for the Arabs and a trading station and a colony for the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. The Arabian Nights has possibly the first reference to it.

Now the island of Serendib lieth under the equinoctial line, its night and day both numbering twelve hours. It measureth eighty leagues long by a breadth of thirty and its width is bounded by a lofty mountain and a deep valley. The mountain is conspicuous from a distance of three days and it contains many rubies and other minerals, and spice trees of all sorts. I ascended that mountain and solaced myself with a view of its marvels which are indescribable and afterwards I returned to the King.