{"id":154921,"date":"2026-02-26T16:25:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=154921"},"modified":"2026-02-26T16:25:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:25:29","slug":"the-ancient-medical-systems-of-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/02\/26\/the-ancient-medical-systems-of-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ancient Medical Systems of Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>History Undug<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Long before modern hospitals and surgical science, ancient Sri Lanka developed one of the world\u2019s most advanced medical systems. This documentary explores the Mihintale Hospital Complex, believed to be the oldest known hospital in the world, revealing how advanced healthcare, surgery, pharmacology, and public medicine existed over 1,000 years ago. We also uncover the remarkable story of King Buddhadasa, the legendary physician-king who personally performed complex surgeries, treated animals, wrote advanced medical texts, and created a nationwide healthcare system built on compassion and scientific understanding. Through archaeology, ancient texts, and historical evidence, this film reveals a forgotten medical civilization that challenges everything we think we know about ancient science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Ancient Medical Systems of Sri Lanka\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r4aHW330ZDw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>History Undug Long before modern hospitals and surgical science, ancient Sri Lanka developed one of the world\u2019s most advanced medical systems. This documentary explores the Mihintale Hospital Complex, believed to be the oldest known hospital in the world, revealing how advanced healthcare, surgery, pharmacology, and public medicine existed over 1,000 years ago. We also uncover [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154922,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154921\/revisions\/154922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}