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Tissa-Mahāvihāra

A monastery in Rohaṇa, founded by Kākavaṇṇa Tissa (Mhv.xxii.23). It was also called Tissārāma (Mhv.xxii.28). It was one of the chief monastic establishments in Sri Lanka and was a place of pilgrimage. Some of the Sinhalese chronicles mention that Kākavaṇṇa Tissa built another vihāra of the same name on the east coast of Sri Lanka, at the place now known as Seruvila, where the Buddha’s frontal bone is deposited. The Mahāmeghavanārāma is also sometimes called the Tissamahārāma (e.g., Mhv.xx.25), and Tissārāma (Mhv.xv.174, 179, 203). Dappula gave to the Tissa-Mahāvihāra the village of Kattikapabbata (Cv.xiv.59).

Buddhaghosa says (DA.ii.581) that in his time all monks living in Sri Lanka, south of the Mahāvāḷukagaṅgā, assembled there twice a year, on the first and last day of the Rainy Season (vassa).