Sanghamitta

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Sanghamitta arriving in Sri Lanka with the Holy Bodhi Tree

Theravada

Countries
	Nepal • Sri Lanka Cambodia • Laos Burma • Thailand
Texts
	Pali Canon Commentaries Subcommentaries
History
	Pre-sectarian Buddhism Early schools • Sthavira Asoka • Third Council Vibhajjavada Mahinda • Sanghamitta Dipavamsa • Mahavamsa Buddhaghosa
Doctrine
	Saṃsāra • Nibbāṇa Middle Way Noble Eightfold Path Four Noble Truths Enlightenment Stages Precepts • 3 Jewels
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Sanghamitta (Sanghamitra in Sanskrit) was the daughter of Emperor Ashoka and his Buddhist queen Devi. Together with Venerable Mahinda, her twin brother, she entered an order of Buddhist monks. The two siblings later went to Sri Lanka to spread the teachings of Buddha. Ashoka was initially reluctant to send his daughter on an overseas mission, but because of the insistence of Sanghamitta herself, he finally agreed. She was sent to Sri Lanka together with several other nuns to start the nun-lineage (Bhikkhunis) after some female royalty from Sri Lanka court requested to be ordained as nuns.

Other sources believe the name to be Sanghmitra (or Sanghamitra or Sangamitra), and that she was the younger offspring of King Ashoka, the elder being Prince Mahindra. After the war of Kalinga, when King Ashoka took the path of Buddhism, along with his Buddhist wife (who named the daughter so, as she wanted the daughter to have a Buddhist name), he decided to send his children away, to foreign land, to preach the teaching of Buddha. Her day of honor is every Winter solstice.