BELLANWILA RAJAMAHA VIHARAYA
Situated in the outskirts of the city of Colombo, in the village of Bellanwila, just three kilometers from the city limits, Bellanwila temple has a long and hallowed history. The great sanctity attached to the temple is due to its sacred Bodhi-tree. There is authorative literary evidence in ancient texts such as the Sinhala Bodhivamsaya which records that this Bodhi-tree is one of the thirty two saplings that sprang from the sacred Bodhi-tree at Anuradhapura planted in the 3rd century B.C.E.
The entrance of the temple is beautifully created with a Makara Thorana. The modern image house of the temple is built after the architecture of Jetawana image house Polonnaruwa. It houses several gigantic Buddha statues representing standing, meditation and reclining postures. Standing Buddha statue is measured to be 18 meters in height and a copy of Aukana Buddha statue. The reclining Buddha statue follows the architecture of Galvihara and it is 27 meters long. Large number of paintings in the image hose represents the incidents of Buddha’s life, important incidents of Sri Lanka history, and the history of temple as well as incidents noted in Mahawamsa. The image house houses number of other figures of several Kings namely Devanampiyatissa, Dutugemunu, Parakramabahu, Vijayabahu, NIssanka Malla and Parakrama Bahu 6th
Its
history shrouded by the mist of time, gets a little clearer by about
the 15th century, when Kotte not far away from Bellanwila, became the
capital under the reign of King Parakramabahu VI (1412-1476). But the
subjugation of the maritime provinces by the Portuguese, in the latter
part of the 17th century, adversely affected Buddhism in the region,
and these circumstances made Bellanwila temple to go into oblivion
again.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment