The Primary Study On Buddhist Architecture Of Sri Lanka

247 BC in Sri Lanka, king Devanampiya Tissa received attunement from Asoka prince Arahat Mahinda and finally converted to Buddhism. From then on, the history of Sri Lanka had been in closely connection with Buddhist culture. The flourishing culture of Sri Lanka was driven by the prosperity of Buddhism. Buddhist buildings which were built during this golden time were best evidence of history. The ruins of buddhist monasteries that have been explored recently show the evolutionary process and exquisite construction technologies of ancient Sri Lanka. These all reflect interaction between buddhist culture and secular culture.They are the defining heritages of this period.Based on the pectination of historical data and fieldwork combined with the prevailing socio-economic background, this paper explores the formation and development course of monasteries and buddhist buildings of Sri Lanka from the perspective of historical development, and analyzes the various styles of buddhist buildings through numerous examples.This paper is divided into six chapters:Chapter I is the introduction, it puts forward the overall vision, including the origin of this topic, the background and content subject, the purpose and the significance of the study, the current research status and the methods and structures of the subject;Chapter II introduces the background of history, culture and society status of Sri Lanka, it sketchs the process of transmission and basical creed of Theravada Buddhism which is a widely held belief by Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. Finally it makes periodization of construction activities in ancient Sri Lanka; Chapter III introduces buddhist center cities in ancient Sri Lanka and further studies the influences on cities affected by Buddhism through the analyze of historical background and city planning; According to the classification by year, Chapter IV introduces the different layout characteristics of every type of buddhist monasteries; Chapter V specifically lists the features and discusses the evolutionary process of buddhist buildings in monasteries;Chapter VI interprets four important examples of buddhist monasteries in Sri Lanka.