A large footprint embedded atop a 2,234 meter mountain, Sri Pada, is believed by Buddhists to have been made by Lord Buddha on his second visit to Sri Lanka in 523 BC. This site, which draws tens of thousands of pilgrims each year, is one of several sacred places associated with Lord Buddha. Born into a royal family in India, Siddhartha Gautama was deeply disturbed by the sufferings of those around him. He rejected his comfortable life and wandered for many years, searching for a way of life that would help alleviate the suffering of mankind. Finally, after a period of meditation under a Ficus religiosa or bo tree, he attained enlightenment, becoming known as the Buddha or Enlightened One. He traveled throughout India and visited Sri Lanka on three occasions, spreading the doctrine (Dharma) that is the foundation of one of the world’s major faiths, and the faith of the majority of Sri Lankans. Lord Buddha’s first visit to Sri Lanka in 528 BC was to try to avert a war between two rival factions of a clan. While Lord Buddha was still alive, a dagoba — believed to contain locks of his hair — was built on the site where he is said to have levitated, terrifying and instantly converting the primitive local Veddhas to the Buddhist faith. This ancient dagoba or dome-shaped stupa at Mahiyangana , east of Kandy, has been added to for more than two thousand years, and is revered as one of the holiest Buddhist sites in the country. Lord Buddha returned to Sri Lanka five years later, again in an attempt to prevent a war. Today, a bell-shaped dagoba marks the site on the small island of Nainativu , west of Jaffna. Near the dagoba is a robust tree, the cutting of which is supposed to have been brought with Lord Buddha. After leaving the mountain peak of Sri Pada where, according to legend, he left his footprint, Lord Buddha is said to have meditated at a spot near the east coast, a remote region between Batticaloa and the beautiful Arugam Bay. The Digavapi dagoba was built here in the 2nd century BC. Another sacred relic, a tooth of Lord Buddha, is enshrined at Sri Dalada Maligawa or the Temple of the Tooth, in Kandy . Source http://people.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1516117.cms