Pūjāvaliya

The Pūjāvaliya, or “Garland of Offerings,” is one of the masterworks of classical Sinhala literature. Composed around 1270 by the monk Mayūrapāda Buddhaputta at the court of Dambadeṇiya, during the golden age of Sri Lankan letters, it presents a complete life of the Buddha — beginning with the vow made lifetimes before his birth, moving through his former births and the great events of his final life, and ending with the arrival of his relics on the island where its author wrote. That closing chapter stands among the earliest written histories of Sri Lanka.

For more than seven and a half centuries the Pūjāvaliya has been read, copied, and preached throughout Sri Lanka, shaping how generations have understood the Buddha's life. Yet it has remained inaccessible to English readers — until now.

This volume presents the first complete English translation of the Pūjāvaliya, rendered directly from the Sinhala, making one of the treasures of medieval Buddhist literature available to a global readership at last.