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Image / Elephant Wall of Ruvanvälisǟya

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Title
Elephant Wall of Ruvanvälisǟya
Creator
Bopearachchi, Osmund
Date Created and/or Issued
2001
Publication Information
Claremont Colleges Library
Contributing Institution
Claremont Colleges Library
Collection
Ancient Cultural Sites and Royal Residences
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Description
The so-called "Elephant Wall" of Ruvanvälisǟya is located inside the courtyard that is enclosed by the outer wall with gate-houses at the four cardinal points. It was circa 7 feet high (or 9 feet according to some sources) and had been decorated with a row of heads (with trunks and tusks) and the front legs of elephants; the wall supported the terrace of the Stūpa. Badly damaged, the elephant sculptures have now been reconstructed. The area is still under restoration. The "Elephant wall" covers the space between a sand terrace and the terrace of stone slabs. There were 344 elephant figures, each 9 feet in height. The wall measured 475 x 477 feet.
Type
image
Format
image/jp2
Identifier
acs00313.JPG
http://ccdl.claremont.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15831coll15/id/403
Subject
Walls
Shrines (structures)
Time Period
Begun in 144 BCE
Place
Mahāvihāra (The "great" monastery): Ruvanvälisǟya Dāgäbe (Mahāthūpa)
Anurādhapura
Sri Lanka
Relation
Ancient Buddhist Sites and Royal Residences in Sri Lanka - https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/collection/p15831coll15

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