MABOTUWANA TAMPITA VIHARAYA

(Mabotuwana Sri Sumanarama Purana Wilgamu Rajamaha Viharaya)

Mabotuwana temple is located in the Southern province, Galle district, 3 Km away from Wanduraba junction within the Baddegama AGA's division.

According to a folk tale, this temple was surrounded by a number of lakes, full of lotus and people used to call this temple Wilgamu Raja Maha viharaya. The world "Wil" and "Gama" in Sinhala means "Lake" and "village", respectively. It had slowly changed to "Wilgamuwa'".

It is believed that this temple was built in 1240 AD by a minister named Devapathiraja, under the reign of King Parakramabahu during the Dambadeniya period. According to ancient reports, minister Devapathiraja had made three "Tampita Viharas" in the Southern Province, and Willgamuwa is the largest, and the only one exits today.

Mabotuwana temple is built on nine stone pillars. The walls are plastered out of a mixture of bee honey, sugar cane ("Latu) and ant-hill clay ("Humbasmatti"). The paintings on the external side of the wall depict the values of the donations, but only one such painting panel remains today.

Inside the image house, there are five statues, three of Lord Buddha, one of God Vishnu and the other of God Kataragama. There are paintings of God Ghana and God Sumana Saman on the inner walls.

The staircase had initially constructed out of timber, and it had been converted to concrete during repair works. New concrete beams had been added around the deck for strength, and a "Beeralu' railing had been fixed around it, distorting the originality of it.

(Architecture of Tampita Viharas in Sri Lanka by D. P. Chandrasekara and D. M. K. D. Silva, 2002, p145)

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Mabotuwana Sri Sumanarama Purana Wilgamu Rajamaha Viharaya

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