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Year and Month | March, 2010 |
Number of Days | Two day trip |
Crew | Only me |
Accommodation | My second home |
Transport | Public Transport: 231 route (Gampaha-Kirindiwela) bus and three-wheelers |
Activities | Photography, Exploring some Archeologically important sites related to king Walagamba (Wattagamini Abhaya ) 05 Months- ( 1st ruling time ) 103 BC Anuradhapuraya & 12- Years ( 2nd ruling time ) 89 – 76 BC Anuradhapuraya |
Weather | Sunny, clear sky |
Route | Colombo -> Yakkala -> Kiridiwela road -> Yakkala – > ColomboDirections:
Travel 1Km on Yakkala- Kiridiwela road and you will come to a “Y” junction(battagolla), if you turn to the Right and travel 1km and take the next road to the left you can reach Pilikuththuwa. and if you take the road to the Left from Battagolla you will come across Koskandewela(3Km from Yakkala) . before the 5Km post you will find a road going to the Right(Ambagaspitiya) which leads to Maligatenne (you can reach Pilikuththuwa from this road too). if you proceed further on the road (231 bus route) passing the turn off to Maligatenna you will reach Nelligahamula, take the left turn from here if you wish to get to Varana(2Km away) or proceed towards Dikkanda and take the Urapola road(Left) from the Dikkanda junction to reach Pettagam Gala. |
Tips, Notes and Special remark |
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Related Resources |
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Author | Ashan |
Comments | Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread |
Siyane Korale Heritage: Key to the map below
1) Maligatenna Raja Maha Viharaya(Red star on the map)
2) Pilikuththuwa Raja Maha Viharaya(Blue star on the map)
3) Varana Raja Maha Viharaya(Green star on the map)
4) Koskandawala Maha Viharaya(Purple star on the map)
5) Petta-gam Gala Aranya Senasanaya(Dikkanda caves)(Brown star on the map)
Few notes about King Walagamba
1. අනුරාධපුර යුගය.
2. සොළී/චෝල ආක්රමණය.
3. වසර 12ක් සැඟව සිට සේනා සංවිධානය කර නැවත සිරිලක රජකමට පත් වීම.
3.1 සිරිලක දෙවරක් රජ වීම.
4. සතුරු ආක්රමණය හමුවේ රජු පලායද්දී ගිරි නම් නිඝණ්ඨයා මහා කළු සිංහලයා පළා යන බවට අවඥා කළ බැවින් ඔහුව මරණයට පත් කිරීම.
4.1 පසුව රජවූ කල එම ස්ථානයේ අභයගිරි මහා චෛත්යය කරවීම.
5. සතුරු ආක්රමණය හමුවේ රජු පලායද්දී, රථයේ බර වැඩිවී වේගයෙන් යා නොහීයි බියෙන් සෝමා දේවී නම් රජුගේ බිසව රථයෙන් බැස සොළී/චෝල හමුදාවට යටත් වීම.
5.1 පසුව රජවූ කල තම බිසව රථයෙන් බැස ගිය ස්ථානයේ සෝමාවතී මහා චෛත්යය කරවීම.
6. සොළී/චෝල ආක්රමණය නිසා දිවයිනේ වත්මන් මධ්යම, දකුණු, සබරගමු, බස්නාහිර, ඌව ආදී අනුරාධපුරයෙන් දකුණුදිග පළාත්වල සැඟව සිට සේනා සංවිධානය කිරීම.
6.1 පසුව රජවූ කල එම සියළුම ස්ථානවල විහාරාරාම කරවීම.
7. බැමිනිතියා සාය.
8. එතෙක් කටපාඩමින් පවත්වාගෙන ආ බුදු දහම මාතලේ අළුවිහාරයේදී ග්රන්ථාරූඪ කරවීම
There were few places that I have visited previously that I thought of visiting again. It was a bit of a different journey for me(out of the routine) compared to my previous once! I really wanted to see the sun rise at Maligatenna but I got a bit late, nevertheless I reached there at around 7am and climbed up until I came to the Meda Maluwa & set my self off to the top of Maligatenna. The scenery was awesome as always. As I know this is the highest place in Gampaha District and one can enjoy the breath taking view of Siyane Korale from top of it! The only negative thing I noted was the sound of Dynamite blasts and sound of trees falling due to deforesting! After relaxing for few minutes on top of the rock I decided to take the “Kele route” to Pilikuththuwa but since I was alone & the area was very dry the risk of a snake bite was high so I didn’t attempt it! After getting down I decided to go in search of the Dikkanda caves.
Maligatenna Raja Maha Viharaya [More about Maligatenna Raja Maha Viharaya]
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Got to Dikkanda by bus and traveled 1Km towards Urapola(left) and came to Galboda. From here you can see the Pettagam Gala Aranya senasaya across the paddy fields, there is a road to the right that one needs to take to reach this rock, after traveling 1Km on that road you will notice a small road to the left with the name board. This road is motarable with difficulty and it leads to the top of the rock. After getting permission from the high priest I had a look around the temple premises and afterwards reached the “Petti Gala”. To reach the caves you need to climb downwards from this Petti Gala and there is no clear path on the rock surface(Bit dangerous). This cave was formed in between two huge rocks and there were plenty of bats! the cave was simply fascinating! At the top of Pettagam gala I noted Maligatenne & Varana far away. The only sad sight was seeing that half of the rock of Pettagam Gala was blasted away .
Pettagam Gala Aranya Senasanaya
I traveled back to Nelligahamula by bus and took the Varana road to reach Varana Raja Maha viharaya which was 2Km away from my second home. after going trough the interesting archeologically important sights at the temple I ended my day happily at 12 Noon
Varana Raja Maha Viharaya [Read more about Varana Raja Maha Viharaya: Link1, Link2, Link3]
Next day morning I went to Pilikuththuwa Raja maha viharaya, after looking around and enjoying the historical paintings, wooden bridge I went in search of the giant Pus Wela and the caves and after that it was the journey to the top of the rock. It was very easy to climb up but since there are many foot paths one might get so confused and get lost so better to get directions from some one.
Pilikuththuwa Raja Maha Viharaya [Read more about Pilikuththuwa Raja Maha Viharaya]
On the way back to Nelligahamula we stepped in to a Old archeologically important temple called Koskandewala, the temple was surrounded by a rock wall on one side and there was a peaceful forest patch near by too. In the evening I left back to Colombo happily as always!