Buddha Siddhartha’s defeat of Māra (māravijaya) and subsequent enlightenment under the Bodhi-tree at Bodhgayā (Gayā district, Bihar, N.-E. India). The only known Sri Lankan Buddha image displaying the bhūmisparśa-mudrā is thus fittingly placed beside the principal Bodhi-tree of Sri Lanka located at the Mahāvihāra complex. This Buddha was commissioned to be installed in the Śrī Mahā Bodhi Shrine and likely copied after an early North-Eastern Indian Pāla style image. Faxian, the Chinese pilgrim, left the following account of his visit to the Śrī Mahā Bodhi Shrine during his stay in Sri Lanka in the years 411 to 413 AD, which was during the reign of King Mahānāma (c. 406–428 AD): “At the foot of the tree a shrine has been built, with the image of Buddha seated inside, an object of ceaseless worship to priests and laymen”. The image seen by Faxian in the early 5th century cannot be the one installed at present in the Śrī Mahā Bodhi Shrine at the Mahāvihāra complex, dating earliest from the 6th century. Therefore it can be concluded that the present Buddha image was likely not the first one to be installed near the Bodhi tree, but possibly the first depicted with the gesture of touching the earth (bhūmisparśa-mudrā). Buddha of the Śrī Mahā Bodhi Shrine Discoveries Ruins of an ancient building called Mayura Pirivena (Mayura Monastery) have been found to the south-west of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, and the ruins of a stupa called Dakkhina Tupa (Southern Monastery) can be seen nearby. According to the ancient chronicles in Sri Lanka, some walls and terraces had been built surrounding the sacred tree at some time in the past. Mahavamsa states that King Gothabhaya (249 – 262 AD) built a rubble wall. Dipavamsa reports that a rock-laid terrace and a lattice wall was built by King Kirthi Sri Meghavarna (302 - 330 AD). During excavation for reconstructing the present wall, the rubble wall with its foundation created by King Gotabhya, and the rock-laid terrace together with a lattice wall constructed by King Kirthi Sri Meghavarna were found. These were preserved at place, and were opened to public in January 2010. Incidents Two branches of the sacred tree were broken during separate storms in 1907 and 1911. An individual called Katuwawala Jamis, cut down a branch in 1929. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam shot and massacred a number of Sinhalese-Buddhists on the upper terrace