Ritigala was built by Pamsukulika forest monks – ascetics who deliberately rejected the wealth and royal proximity of the great monasteries of Anuradhapura and chose instead the rigorous discipline of forest solitude, constructing their meditation platforms and library halls on a remote granite hillside in the dry zone interior. The ruins of those structures are still visible beneath the medicinal forest that has grown over them since the monastery’s abandonment in the 11th century, their stone pathways still connecting platforms and pavilions in an arrangement that makes the meditative logic of the complex legible even in its ruined state. The effort required to reach Ritigala is, from the SiriLanka Tours perspective, entirely appropriate to a site whose historical identity is founded on the value of the journey undertaken in the spirit of genuine seeking.