Gothami Viharaya was established in 1900, with the donation of temple land to Dodanduwa Sri Piyarathana Thera by the mother of Sir James Pieris.
Gothami Viharaya (Borella) G othami Viharaya (Sinhala: බොරැල්ල ගෝතමී විහාරය) is a Buddhist temple situated in Borella, Colombo District, Sri Lanka. History Gothami Viharaya was established in 1900, with the donation of temple land to Rev. Dodanduwa Sri Piyarathana Thera by Apalonia de Soysa Pieris, the mother of Sir James Pieris (b.1856-d.1930) who is considered a prominent figure in Sri Lanka’s independence movement (Dalmia, 2016; Rajapakshe et al., 2018). Temple Murals After about 40 years, with the guidance of Rev. Telwatte Amarawamsa Thera and the invitation of Harald Pieris, George Keyt painted the outer walls of the ambulatory of the image house depicting the life episodes of the Buddha (Zoysa, 2016). He started the painting works in 1939 and completed them in 1940 (Dalmia, 2016; Dharmasiri, 1990). The walls for these paintings are said to be prepared by an architect called Andrew Boyd (Rajapakshe et al., 2018). The Gothami Viharaya is the only Buddhist temple in the country which has a valuable collection …
