Did the Buddha Ever Visit Sri Lanka?

[Lucas Oliveira]

I see no reason to believe that he did.

I found this article from the Sunday Times, which refers to the account in the Mahāvaṃsa, which is not in the Tipiṭka or its Commentaries, but among the Other Books.

Sri Lankan children are taught in school about the Buddha's visit to Sri Pāda, so they take it as a fact, but I wonder what the general consensus is among learned monks and scholars?

according to this topic, the Buddha was also born in Sri Lanka.

Jambudipa
viewtopic.php?p=490309

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

It is not even worth debating. There are no reliable sources to backup these beliefs, and it is not connected with the goal.

“Those things, Gotamī, regarding which you know, ‘These things lead to passion (sarāgāya), not to dispassion (virāgāya); to bondage (saṃyogāya), not to freedom from bondage (visaṃyogāya); to accumulation (ācayāya), not to relinquishment (apacayāya); to having many wishes (mahicchatāya), not to having few wishes (appicchatāya); to discontent (asantuṭṭhiyā), not to contentment (santuṭthiyā); to association (saṅgaṇikāya), not to seclusion (pavivekāya); to laziness (kosajjāya), not to arousing energy (vīriyārambhāya); to being easy to support (subharatāya), not to being hard to support (dubbharatāyā),’ definitely, Gotamī, you can decide, ‘This is not Dhamma, this is not Vinaya, this is not the Teacher’s instruction.’

[KeepCalm]

Whatever it says in Other Books, whether that be ancient Pali books, or books by contemporary authors, should be compared with reliable sources. If it agrees with them; it should be accepted. If not, it should be rejected.

Bhante,
But the suttas don't say that the Buddha didn't go to Sri Lanka. Remember the handful of leaves. There is much that the Buddha didn't reveal.

It's perfectly fine to not believe the history books of Sri Lanka. I guess my point is that you can't say that they are false simply because that information is not found in the suttas. There are millions of factual things that are not found in the suttas!

I'd be interested in hearing what you think the contradiction or non agreement is. We have already established that travel through air by psychic powers is not against what the suttas say. Are there things about the Buddha's visit that you think contradicts the suttas? Are their things he did on the visit that go against information regarding the nature or behaviour of a Buddha in the suttas? Because that would be an important thing to know. As would the lack of contradictions.

Rereading your OP,

I wonder what the general consensus is among learned monks and scholars?

I'm afraid that DhammaWheel may not be the place to get this answer. Perhaps you could contact Bhante Anandajoti. He would probably be more in touch with this. Or the former Nyanatusita. Or Bhante Bodhi. I'm also not sure what you were trying to learn since you come back around to not believing anything not exactly found in the suttas. Were you looking for non-canonical facts that would disprove a visit? I'm not sure what those facts would be.

With respects

[sunnat]

If one has inclination towards The Dhamma then subjects like this don't help but rather waste precious time and so should be rejected or at least ignored. On one hand though, as it may stir up feelings of doubt and underlying tendencies to bond with thinking, these sort of topics can be useful simply by mindfully recognising and letting go of unwholesome states. For those who mindlessly bond to ideas of 'it is so' or 'it is not so' these topics stir up states that for those persons lead to further milling about in samsara, like cows in a fenced paddock moving from one patch of grass to another.