Tantra finally gained official recognition and patronage during the reign of Sena 1 (833-853) who, we
are told, had taken the bodhisattva vow. This monarch was interested enough in new trends in Buddhism
to establish an ecumenical institute named Virankurarama, where 25 monks from each of the four major
sects in Sri Lanka could study the new ideas coming from India.
While we usually think of Sri Lankan and Tibetan Buddhism as unrelated, this essay highlights that they have, in fact, had intermittent contact over the centuries.