According to the Mahavansa the Sri Lankan history chronicle, King Asoka's son and emissary to Sri Lanka, Mahinda, introduced the One of King Devanampiya Tissa (250-c. 207 BC) the teachings of Lord Budda. King Devanampiya Tissa became a powerful patron of Buddhism and established the Monastery of Mahavihara, which became the historic center of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka.
Subsequent events also contributed to Sri Lanka's prestige in the Buddhist World. It was on the island, for example, that the oral teaching of the Buddha-the Triprtaka-was committed to writing for the first time.Devanampiya Tissa was said to have received Buddha's right collarbone and his revered alms bowl from Asoka and to have build the Tuparama Dagaba, or stupa (Buddhist shrine), to honor these highly revered relics. Another Relic, Buddha's sacred tooth, had arrived in Sri Lanka in the fourth century AD.
The possession of the Tooth Relic came to be regarded as essential for the legitimization of Sinhalese royalty. Some of the kings even went to the extent of prefixing the 'Datha' to their names. Eg: Dathopathissa, Dhathappabuthi, Dalamugalan etc., which clearly indicates their close association of the sacred Tooth Relic. The annual procession Perahera held in honor of the sacred Tooth Relic serves as a powerful unifying force for the Sinhalese in the twentieth century.
Asoka's daughter, Sanghamitta, is recorded as having brought to The island a branch of the sacred Bo tree under which the Buddha attained Enlightenment. According to legend, the tree that grew from this branch is near the ruins of the ancient city of Anuradhapura in the north of Sri Lanka. The tree is said to be the oldest living thing in the world and is an object of great veneration. The connections between religion, culture, language , and education and their combined influence on national identity have been an age-old pervasive force foe the Sinhalese Buddhists.
Devanampiya Tissa employed Asoka's strategy of merging the political state with Buddhoism, supporting Buddhist Institutions from the state's coffers, and locating temples close to the Royal palace for greater control. With such patronage, Buddhism was positioned to evolve as the highest ethical and philosophical expression of Sinhalese culture and civilization. Buddhism appealed directly to the Masses, leading to the growth of a collective Sinhalese cultural Consciousness.
In contrast to the theological exclusivity of Hindu Brahmanism, the Asokan Missionary approach featured preaching and carried the principles of the Buddha directly to the common people. This proselytizing had even greater success in Sri Lanka than it had in India and could be said to be the Island's first experiment in mass education. Buddhism also had a great effect on the literary development of the island. The Indo-Aryan dialect spoken by the early Sinhalese was comprehensible to Missionaries from India and facilitated early attempts at translating the Scriptures. The Sinhalese literati studied Pali, the language of the Buddhist scriptures, thus influencing the development of Sinhala as a literary language.
