Visiting ritigala has been on the cards for a long time now and the closest I got was a planned trip last August but had to cancel it at the last moment due to unavoidable circumstances. Yapahuwa too has been lingering in my mind for some time but never materialized.

Due to the above reasons my initial idea was to do a 2 day trip but for that too work commitments got in the way and on the ‘thaipongal’ weekend on Saturday I hastily decided to do a one day trip the next day(Sunday) to visit the above places which I’ve never been to.

Having left Delgoda at 4am my first stop was at Dambadeniya to pick my 2 cousins.

The road condition from Kadahapola to Wariyapola was not in a good state and my target of being at Yapahuwa at about 6.30am was delayed by a bit.

Twilight past Katupotha…

Sun rise

Sun rise over the stream at Ella dewalaya..

We reached Yapahuwa by about 7.15am.

Yapahuwa

Quote from Amazing Lanka
The Yapahuwa rock and its surrounding area became the capital of the island for a short time in the 13th century. It is known that King Buvanaikabahu 1 (1273-1284) made this rock, rising loftily out of the outskirts of Kurunegala his capital. There is no mention of anything about Yapahuwa beyond 13th century in Sri Lankan historical sources.

The outer rampart	.
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Views from the top of Yapahuwa (Click Image to Enlarge)

Views from the top of Yapahuwa

After breakfast at Ambanpola we proceeded towards Galgamuwa hoping to visit Haththikuchchi viharaya as initially planned but we missed the turnoff and when asking for directions, got to know that the road leading to the viharaya was closed for repairs. The alternate route was a “parangiya kotte giya” one going around the rajanganaya wewa so we decided to visit ritigala and then go to pidurangala.

The progress from Galgamuwa onwards was slow as the road was being repaired.

Business as usual for others..

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Ritigala

Quote from Amazing Lanka
Historically, this has been called as Arittha Pabbatha (the mountain of Aritta) which can be translated as ‘Dreadful Rock’ or ‘Safety Rock’ or even ‘Riti trees’ growing upon it. Around 3rd Century BC, Aritta , who was the Chief Minister of King Devanampiyatissa, who later was ordained as the First Sri Lankan Monk and became an Arahath, spent his monastic life at Ritigala.

There are many monastic ruins of stones, terrace ways, circular terraces, a stone bridge, and remains of a giant stone banked pond built across a water stream.

Ritigala from a distance	.
“banda pokuna”	“Banda pokuna”
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Sakman maluwa	.
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Bhavana kuti

Our next destination was Pidurangala

Pidurangala

Quote from Amazing Lanka

This 13 acre extended monastery Complex illustrates religious attitude of king kashyapa (477-495 A:D) who built world renowned Sigiriya Rock Fortress during his reign. Pidurangala ancient monastery which is located adjacent to the Sigiriya rock is believed to be the Royal Temple where the king Kashyapa worshipped. According to legend when kashyapa arrive Sigiriya rock to built his rock fortress capital, the caves around here was occupied by Buddhist monks who observe meditation. The king shifted that “Sigiriya monastery complex” to Pidurangala. As the legend goes referring the meaning for “Pidurangala” as “offered+monastery+rock”. But some inscriptions says pidurangala was also a monastery beyond Kashyapa period.

According to historical chronicles, Pidurangala has been existed as a well civilized, ancient place. All these details have been well confirmed by Brahmin inscriptions, rock inscriptions on the rock shelters. More over these bear witness that this viharaya was built according to the panchavasa concept and about 500 monks resided in a pirivena (educational institute of Buddhist monks) in ancient era. Panchavasa concept is “Bodhigaraya” (boo tree chamber), “Image house”,” Chapter house”, “Dagoba”, and meditation chamber. That all has been been discovered and now restored. All area have been well surrounded by brick rampart.

Bodhigaraya	.
.	Pohoya geya
Pilima geya	.
.	Steps Leading to the Top
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A panoramic view from the top of Pidurangala

Sigiriya from Pidurangala

Sun set

Sigiriya at sunset as seen from pidurangala

By about 7pm we were back on the road heading home after a very satisfying journey.