The Central Cultural Fund’s website is down and tickets to Sigirya, Polonaruwa and Anuradhapura must be purchased from one of their offices. Their head office is located at Bauddhaloka Mawatha but I prefer the branch at Thambiah avenue as it has a bookstore/souvenir shop.
The CCF used to sell all inclusive tickets to the Cultural Triangle sites but now you have to purchase individual tickets to each of the sites. Ticket prices (inclusive of photography) are as follows:
Anuradhapura: USD 25
Polonnaruwa: USD 25
Sigiriya: USD 30
The Store
The store has a decent collection of books on Sri Lankan archaeology and history – but mostly concerning Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Ritigala and Kandy – you’d be hard pressed to find any material on the North and East of Sri Lanka here.
There are some beautiful paintings for sale. For the most part the paintings are of traditional Sinhalese/ Buddhist motifs and include detailed replicas of temple murals. The shop has Buddha statue galore including miniatures, made from various materials including granite and clay. I’m not very familiar with the general prices but Rs. 450 seems quite reasonable for a typical miniature statue.
The store itself doesn’t really warrant a visit unless you are purchasing tickets from the office. However there some unique traditional pottery items which appear to be very well crafted.
