
Ambalama Heritage
Galagedara Yatiwawala Ambalama
Central Province
Kandy District
7°19'44.4"N 80°36'44.4"E
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STAND INSIDE IT — 360°
THE PLACE
Yatiwawala Ambalama is a compact square shelter of brick and mortar, its four corner pillars raised on a cement base to carry a tiled roof. Low perimeter walls run around it at slightly different heights — the entrance walls lowest, the rear wall about ten centimetres higher, and the wall on the right higher again — a graduation some read as a trace of seating hierarchy, though nothing beyond the stonework itself confirms it.
It stands in front of a paddy field in Yatiwawala, in the Galagedara area of Harispattuwa, reached by a short walk along Polwatte Mawatha from the village cemetery — a rural setting roughly twenty minutes from Kandy by way of Katugastota. No date or builder is recorded for it. It has been suggested, without confirmation, that it once served travellers on the road between Kurunegala and Kandy; what is certain is only that it kept the plain, open form of a village rest, not a monument.
THE PHOTOGRAPHS
THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S NOTES
The ambalama is reached along Polwatte Mawatha in the Yatiwawala area. Park considerately, keep the shelter clear for local users and avoid damaging the plaster or roof supports.
- Viran de Silva
UNIQUE SRI LANKA
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CONTACT
Photographs © Viran de Silva
info@virandesilva.com
uniquesrilanka.com

