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)

Siyane Korale Heritage 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]

Maligatenna Meda Maluwa	Kutiya – Maligatenna Raja Maha Viharaya
Meda Maluwe Dhageba	Path running through a cave
steps through a rock chasm	Final steps

Path to Heaven

Scenery of Siyane Korale

Paddy fields

Scenery of Siyane Korale	Scenery of Siyane Korale
Framed	Top of Maligatenne
Uda maluwe Dhageba	The top of Maligatenne

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

Pettagam Gala Aranya Senasanaya

Varana seen far away from Pettagam Gala	Maligatenna as seen from Pettagam gala
The Chaithiya	The Petti Gala
The caves	The caves

Blessed!

The cave rock

The rock blasted away

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]

Varana Raja Maha Viharaya

Varana

Dharma Shalawa	The roof of the Dharma Shalawa
A rock painting	Shelter to the inscription

The ancient inscription

Meda Mluwa	uda maluwe Dhageba
Uda maluwa	Kutiya

Another cave

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]

Dhageba at Pilikuththuwa Raja Maha Viharaya	Click image for larger picture
Inside the Len Viharaya	Inside the Len Viharaya
Ancient paintings of the Len Viharaya	Ancient paintings of the Len Viharaya
Ancient paintings of the Len Viharaya	Sri pathula at Pilikuththuwa Raja Maha Viharaya
Old wooden bridge	The palanquin used by Ven. Hikkaduwe Sumangala Thero
The pond	The path to the top
The Giant “Pus Wela” (Second largest in SL?)	Caves
Another cave	The top

Siyane Korale as seen from Pilikuththuwa Raja Maha Viharaya

On the opposite side of the rock

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!

Koskandewela Maha Viharaya	Vihara geya
The Bo tree bordered by the rocky wall	A peaceful place
Architecture	The unusual rock wall