The Maligatenna temple, Varana, and the Gal Vihara at Attanagalla were three historic places of Buddhist interest that we visited not long ago.

Not far from Colombo, about two miles from the Tihariya junction turning to the right, we came to Maligatenna rock cave temple, our first destination. We could see a small dagaba, right on top of a high mountain, shining white amidst the green foliage, set against a clear blue sky.

It was one of those glorious early mornings, and as we reached the Caves of Varana Rajamaha Viharaya, the first rays of the sun were lighting it up, highlighting its peculiar formation. The paddy fields around it were glowing green after the rains and from its flat plains rose a splendid but modest rocky outcrop. At the bottom of the rock facing the road was a cave with an impressively high drip ledge cut high on its brow. This was enough of a landmark that we had arrived at the Varana Raja Maha Vihara

After our (Tony and Me) first run through the Siyane Korale, which was a grand tour, we decided to continue from where we stopped covering the remaining archaeologically important places in Gampaha District. 14 January looked like a perfect choice coz we both were free, unfortunately we missed Hari’s hike to the Sacred Sri Pada via scenic Maray Watta and Sandagala Thenna route as we both had to work the following day despite it being a Poya Day. This made Hari as mad as a lone Elephant in Maduru Oya.

We called it a day at Maligathenna the other day after a marathon run of exploration of Siyane Korale, Tony vowed to come back to do the rest of it and that’s exactly what we did at the end.