Sigiriya Rock Fortress

Sigiriya in Google map


View Larger Map 

Sigiriya is a one of the famous and most attractive place in Sri Lanka. Sigiriya means lion’s rock. Hight of the rock is around 200 meters.  According to the history of Sri Lanka this rock used as a kingdom in Sri Lanka by king Kashyapa in 5^th century.  This rock is one of the UNESCO heritages in Sri Lanka. Sigiriya consists with all features in the kingdom such as flower gardens, lakes, caves etc. According to the Mahawansha (main Chronicle of Sri Lanka) king kashyapa built his kingdom in Sigiriya to protect from his brother king Mihidu.  But legends says that king Kashyapa  subsided during the war between his brother. Sigiriya provides evident for the great technologies in ancient Sri Lanka.  Several ponds are located in the top of the Sigiriya. Water for this water gardens come from the underground pipes system. This system is also active in rain season. 

Drawings of Maidens

Most of the people climb Sigiriya in order to watch these drawings. Those are very beautiful. Most of the peoples believes those drawings shows the ladies who was gone for warship the Buddha. But some peoples give various interpretations for these paintings. They says those paintings describes Angeles. According to the legends and references there was 500 paintings in Sigiriya, but today 22 drawings only exists.

The mirror wall

The mirror wall is a face of the rock polished as the mirror. This is another example for great technique in ancient Sri Lanka. In this wall peoples who visit Sigiriya wrote thousands of poems to describe their experience. Those are describing the beauty of the drawings. These poems wrote in ancient language in Sri Lanka.   

Read More

Kandy

Kandy is a one of the ancient kingdom of Sri Lanka. It can be describe as the final kingdom of ancient era. Kandy city is located in 116 km away from Colombo and travel time is around 4 hours. Kandy city was mostly affected by the prutugesi   Dutch and British era in 16 th to 18 th century. Kandy is the last independent   capital of Sri Lanka .Kandy became the kingdom of the last independent king of Sri Wicrama Rajasinha . Kandy remain as capital of Sri Lanka until it become a under the British rule by agreement at 1815.

Lots of No of temples is located in Kandy Such as

·         Temple of Tooth

·         Lankathilaka Viharaya

Temple of Relic Tooth

Temple of Relic Tooth is the most well-known attractive place in Kandy. in Sinhala, it mention “Daladha Maliyawa”. Buddha’s Relic Tooth was bringing to Sri Lanka in the King Nishshankamalla’s time. After that it became a symbol of royal and peoples of Sri Lanka thought that ownership of the relic tooth is a requirement to be a king. So every king tries to protect and honor it, therefore when the shifted the kingdom, also sifted the relic tooth for new kingdom.  

Relic tooth was first brought to Kandy during the king Vimaladarmasooriya’s time in the 17^th century and he built a temple for it. This temple was destroyed due to Portuguese attacks. After that king second Rajasinghe repowered the kingdom, built a building for relic tooth by him. When the concentrate on the present buildings, most of them are built by king Veera Narendrasinghe and those are modified by subsequent kings and at presently those building are maintaining by the government of Sri Lanka.

Relic tooth is kept inside a reliquary with more protection. Presently, temple of Relic tooth administrated by Malvathu and Asgiri Maha Vihara. There are having two times services for s sacred relic tooth at morning and evening. Temple of relic tooth conducts a perahara festival in July month which can be considered as the huge cultural festival in Sri Lanka, even south Asia. 

Read More

Dambulla

Dambulla

This is one of the cave temples in Sri Lanka. It called as Golden Rock temple. Temple is situated in 4 km s south  from the Dammulla town. Distance from the Kandy is 72 km and also distance from the Colombo is 150 km.

According to the chronicle, King Wlagamba was living in this caves with several  monks  because protect from enemies. After the returning power to him, he built a temple in caves which gave protection to gratitude to monks who protected him and after the temple was further developed by king Nissankamalla era.

This temple was well known for the ancient drowning which was drowning at the Kandy era in between 18^th and 19^th centuries.  Those drawings covers more than 2000 square meters wall on the cave, so Dambulla temple is a recommended place for anyone who investigating the ancient drowning of Sri Lanka. There are more than a hundred statues can be shown at the temple. Lot of statues represents Buddha and several statues represent ancient kings of Sri Lanka.

Read More

Anuradhapura

Located in the north-west of the island, Anuradhapura was the capital of Sri Lanka for 1,400 years. It is situated in more than 200 kilometers from Colombo and a drive of around now 4 hours. Anuradapura contributed lot of heritages for Sri Lankan Buddhism. It can be described as a central of the Buddhism of Sri Lanka, because numbers of ancient temples are situated in this area including ‘Ruwanveli Saya’, ‘Sri Maha Bodhi’ which is considered as the sacred symbols of Buddhism.  The three greatest monasterist of Sri Lanka, the Mahavihara, the Abhayagiriya and Jetawana, were all located in Anuradhapura. Visitors can see mainly the ruins of these monasteries and other structures with them. Anuradapura kingdom has been decadence after the south Indian attack in the 9^th century. After that next kingdom was Polonnaruwa. After the 11^th century Anuradhapura lost its importance and it has showed like a forest for thousands of years. Beginning with the 19^th century, importance of these places are increased again after the rediscovered ruins of Anuradhapura   

Ruwanvwlisaya (Ruwanveli Pagoda)

This stupa is one of the huge pagoda in Sri Lanka and it also introduces as the Great Stupa, was built by King Dutugamunu in his control period in 161 BCE. Although king Dutugamunu start to build stupa, he unable to live until completion of stupa.  Therefore stupa was complete by the king Saddhathissa, brother of Dutugamunu. This stupa can be identified as the one of the wonder of the ancient Sri Lanka. Height of the stupa is 91 meters and diameter is 90 meters at the base. Several small pagodas ituated around the Great stupa. Some peoples believe that relic of the Buddha had enshrined inside the stupa.

According to the Mahawansha (the book about history of Sri Lanka), King Elara from south India had attacked to Anuradapura kingdom. but king Dutugamunu won the war. There are have some statues those are represent the war between king  Dutugamunu and Elara.

Sri Maha Bodhi 

Sri Maha Bodhi is a Boo Tree which planted in more than 2300 years ago. when the concentrate on the beginning of this tree,  After the arrival of the Ven. Mihindu thero with the Buddhism, king Devanampiyathissa and lot of peoples converted to Buddhism. Some peoples converted as Sanga of the Buddhism. Mindu thero and others could ordain only male party. So lot of numbers of women wanted to become nuns, but it was difficult because at that time Buddhist priesthood granted for only males. Because of this, king Devanampiyatissa requested to royal family in india, after that , Sangamiththa the sister of the Ven. Mihindu thero came to Sri Lanka in order to establishment of bhikkuneis (Women monks). When she came, she brought a one of the branch of the scred Bodhi tree from india. This branch was planted in Anuradapura, Mahamewna temple in 288 BCE. So Sri Maha Bodhi  is believed as the oldest tree of the world. 

Anuradhapura in Google map with direction from Colombo

View Larger Map

Read More

Polonnaruwa

Polonnaruwa

Polonnaruwa considered as the second ancient capital of the Sri Lanka. It became capital city after the Anuradapura era. Polonnaruwa located in 100 kilometers away from Anuradapura and 216 km away from Colombo. Polonnaruwa had been prominence as the capital city of the Sri Lanka for 300 years. Lot of Buddhist structures were built at these years. When compare with Anuradapura, Polonnaruwa is small in size but those structures are significant as well as Anuradapura. 

In the 13^th century Polonnaruwa became instability with the power because south Indians called “chola” attracked to kingdom. Meanwhile this incident, civil war was started, and lot of budhist temples destroyed because of war. After that subsequent kings gradually moved their capital toward south west part of Sri Lanka.

The Sea of Parakrama

This is a huge tank which constructed during the King Parakramabahu in the late 12^th centuries for the purpose of irrigation and drinking. This tank can be describe as Hugh tank or it more like as inland ocean. Tank covered more than 20 square kilometers and it consists with three huge waterfalls for transmission of water. According to the present figures more than 72 square km of paddy fields irrigates by using water of this tank. There is a statue near the tank which is believed it represent King Parakramabahu. 

The Gal Viharaya

Gal Viharaya is famous among Buddhist peoples around the world, because this temple have four Buddha statues which are made by stone (rock) according to the showing the characteristics of Buddha, such as kindness. Those four images are covered by from the face of the single rock. One of the image is represent the standing posture of the Buddha , two statues are represent the seated posture and other image represent the reclining. These images provides evidence for the skills of ancient stonemason of Sri Lanka.  

Read More