The Brazen Palace was a monastery built by King Dutugemunu circa 164 BC for the accommodation of 1000 Buddhist monks who attended the sacred Bo tree. It was nine storeys high and supported by 1600 granite pillars which were all that remained of the palace when Constance Gordon-Cumming visited the site in 1873.
She wrote 'At the time of our visit to Anuradhapura the pilgrims had assembled in vast numbers to celebrate the festival of the midsummer new moon, and their simple camps - yellow tents of great taliput palm-leaves...formed a very picturesque feature in the scene...with reverent steps they trod the green forest glades, marking the course of the main streets of the Holy city, and guided by the yellow-robed Buddhist priests many of the pilgrims carried small flags and banners, and one group carried a miniature ark containing a Golden Lotus Blossom, to be offered to the sacred Bo tree' (C.F.Gordon-Cumming, Two Happy Years in Ceylon, London, 1892, I, p.403)
A cutting from the original Bodhi tree under which the Buddha was enlightened is said to have been taken to Sri Lanka and planted at Anuradhapura, then the capital. Although many cuttings were transported around the world from the original tree, the one in Sri Lanka is the only "second generation" tree still in existence today, The original tree, at Bodh Gaya in India having long since died