Suduhumpola Rajamaha Viharaya

Suduhumpola Rajamaha Viharaya is a Buddhist temple in the Hanthana foothills on the western edge of Kandy. The older image house holds carved timber work, wall paintings in the Kandyan tradition arranged in three rows - worshipping monks, the twelve sacred pilgrimage sites, and symbols such as Sri Pada - and a seated Buddha in Dhyana mudra on a vajrasana with an elaborately painted nimbus; the statue is original but has been repainted in modern times. Four carved jak-wood pillars in the inner hall are said to resemble those at Embekka Devale, and the pansala has twelve cells for visiting monks set around a central courtyard. On a high rock within the grounds is a carved footprint of the Buddha. The temple is said to have been built by Mungwatte Rajakaruna Wijewardhana Navaratne Wasala Mudiyanse Ralahami under the patronage of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha, and offered to the Sangha in 1771 with Kaduwela Nagasena Thero as its first head priest. It was designated one of four temples in Kandy, with Nittawela, Dalukgola, and Gangaramaya, required to house monks who travelled to the city for higher ordination and to worship the Tooth Relic; the king granted it 65 amuna, about 52 acres, of farmland to maintain the temple and feed them, and roughly two-thirds of Suduhumpola village is still said to be temple property. The village name itself comes from a smaller gesture: when the king visited, a white cloth was laid on the ground for him to step on. The monk Wariyapola Sri Sumangala Thera, deputy chief of the Asgiri chapter, lived here for much of his life. He is remembered for taking down the British flag and raising the Sinhalese lion flag at the Temple of the Tooth around the 1815 Kandyan Convention, though the record is disputed, and for carrying the Tooth Relic to safety during the Uva Rebellion of 1817-18 before handing it to the rebels. The British later executed him, on charges that remain contested.