Nagadipa or Nainathivu

Nagadipa is a small but notable island off the coast of Jaffna Peninsula in the minority, Sri Lankan Tamil dominated Northern Province, Sri Lanka. The name of the island alludes to its aboriginal inhabitants, the Nayanar or Nāka people

Pilgrims have also been coming to Nainativu since about the 1st century CE to worship at its famous stupa. In the Mahavamsa the island is one of the sixteen sacred places and the Tamil Buddhist epic, Manimekala, mentions a gem studded throne and a stone with the Buddha’s footprints at Nagadipa which pilgrims from India used to come and worship. The heroine of the epic is described as wandering amongst the island’s 'long sandy dunes and lagoons’.

 

Less than half a kilometer down the road from the temple is Nagadipa Vihara marking the place where the Buddha is supposed to have stayed during his visit to the small island. On one side of the road is the Bodhi Tree and on the other is the silver painted stupa. There are two temples as well, one containing a bronze Buddha image donated by the Burmese government in 1956. Nothing at Nagadipa is of any aesthetic or historical interest, everything having been built in the 1950’s.