Rankoth Vehera is a colossal Stupa located in the Ancient City of Polonnaruwa. Built by King Nissankamalla, it is the tallest Stupa in the city.
Rankoth Vehera (Polonnaruwa) R ankoth Vehera , also known as Rankoth Vihara, Ruwanweli Dagoba of Polonnaruwa (Sinhala: පොළොන්නරුව රන්කොත් වෙහෙර) is a colossal Stupa located in the Ancient City of Polonnaruwa , Sri Lanka. Built by King Nissankamalla (1187-1196 A.D.), it is the tallest Stupa found in this ancient city (Wikramagamage, 2004). History According to the account given in Pujavaliya , this Stupa is one of the edifices constructed by King Nissankamalla. The great chronicle Mahawamsa also states that Nissankamalla built the Ratnavali-cetiya (Ruwanweli in Sinhala) to a great height and adorned it with a golden pinnacle. An inscription by Nissankamalla in front of this Stupa claims that he is the builder of it (Jayasuriya, 2016; Nicholas, 1963). In the Sinhalese language, the name Rankoth Vehera means gold-pinnacled Stupa (Wikramagamage, 2004). The word Ran (pronounce as run) means gold and Kotha means pinnacle while Vehera means either Stupa or temple. It is considered that this is the last mega Stupa built by a S…
