Mihintale monastic hospital
Hospital monástico de Mihintale
- Date
- c. century IX · confidence medium
- Place
- Mihintale, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
- Credited to
- Buddhist monastic community
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Remains of a hospital with wards around a courtyard, medicinal baths and a body-shaped stone tub carved for immersion in oils. It is among the oldest hospitals with an excavated floor plan.
Ashoka's Edict II (3rd century BCE) already mentions the provision of medicines for people and animals; Baghdad's bimaristan (805) is of a similar date.
What it led to
- institutional healthcare in Theravada Buddhism
- monastic hospitals at Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa