“Among the carvings, there are 125 series of decorations, 256 liyawel, 64 lotus designs in Pekada, 30 decorative patterns on timber, roof members, making a total of 514 such exquisite carvings.”

“The ‘Madol Kurupuwa’ is one of the finest examples of medieval carpentry excellence. It is a wooden pin (this Madol Kurupuwa) which holds together 26 rafters at the hipped end of the roof of the Digge of Embekke Devale.”

During this journey I needed to visit at places in Warakapola-Karawanaella, Galapitamada-Nelundeniya and Ruwanwella-Galigamuwa roads. Ancient Seethawaka kingdom was situated over this area. Although I had a tight schedule before the journey, the evening shower ruined some of my plans.

Hence beginning of January we thought to travel to Polgahawela and Dedigama for a one day trip to visit few ancient temples and sites.
Starting at about 9.30am on the 7th of January 2013 we drove via Kandy road and turned off at Ambepussa to the Kurunegala Road up to Alawwa. At Walakumbura near the now famous train crossing with accidents you find the turn off road to Waduwawa.

This time our main focus was to explore the east. Our crew consisted of 4 including my-self. And others had explored batticalo, Oluvil area prior to meeting up with me on a Friday evening at Arugam bay Muhudu maha viharaya. After meeting up we enjoyed the beautiful landscape of Arugam bay coastal shores and hurried up towards the lagoon along the beach until we reached the newly built bridge and waited until the sun disappeared beyond the horizon.

Our first travel location, the historic temple at Thalagama was located at a distance less than a kilometer from Ambepussa, the first train destination of Sri Lanka. The temple was consisted with three levels. The Sangawasaya, Dharma Shalawa and other general buildings used by Bhikku are located at the lower level.

We started after dinner, from Maharagama around 10.00 pm and reached Udawalawa Dam by 2.00 am. The barrier was closed. However after checking our credentials, they allowed us to pass through with a warning about the bad road condition. Closing the Dam at 10.00 pm seems to be a formality now.The road condition from Udawalawa to Thanamalwila was really bad. It was under construction and it took nearly 2 hours to pass that stretch. Our 5th member was to join us at Okkampitiya. We reached Buttala by early morning and reached his home for breakfast.

Thusitha asked me to park the vehicle at a suitable place for the brake-fast, having observing my eyes were locating the face (dial) of the wrist watch. We were going on a trip with Thusith’s family; since it was the August vacation for kids. In the next moment we were under a tree near the construction site of proposed Zoo at Pinnawala. At that point; we had almost reached the first travel location of the journey, the elephant orphanage at Pinnawala.