Story
The story of Adam's Peak
Adam's Peak is a conical mountain 2,243 metres tall, and near its summit lies Sri Pada, the sacred footprint, a hollow rock formation of 1.8 metres. Few places are shared by so many faiths. Buddhists see in it the footprint of the Buddha; Sri Lankan Hindus that of Hanuman or Shiva; some Muslim and Christian traditions that of Adam or of St. Thomas the Apostle.
The mountain is also regarded as the home of the deity Saman, and one of its names, Samanalakanda, may refer to him or to the butterflies that come here on their yearly migrations. Pilgrims climb thousands of steps, most often between December and May, usually going up from Hatton and coming down via Ratnapura. The goal is to stand on top at sunrise, when the mountain casts a triangular shadow over the plain below.
The Arab traveller Ibn Battuta climbed it in 1344 and described iron chains that helped pilgrims. Halfway up stands a Peace Pagoda built in 1978.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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