Hokandara Purana Viharaya (Sinhala: හෝකන්දර පුරාණ විහාරය) is a Buddhist temple situated in Hokandara in Colombo District, Sri Lanka.
Archaeological monuments
The image house and the belfry are the main attractions of this temple with archaeological value. The image house is an octagonal-shaped building and consists of two sections: the inner shrine and the outer part. A large seated Buddha statue accompanied by two images of Sariputta (left) and Moggallana (right), the two chief disciples of Gautama Buddha, are found inside the inner shrine. A small Devalaya shrine has also been built in the outer part of the image house.
The belfry
The belfry is located in front of the image house. At the bottom of this bell tower, there are two plaques probably containing the years denoted in Buddhist and Christian eras. Of them, one plaque displays the number "2479" (if this number is taken as a Buddhist year, its complementary Christian year should be 1936) while the other plaque contains the number "1858" (if this is taken as a Saka year, the corresponding Christian year of it is also 1936). These numbers may denote the construction date of the belfry (probably including the image house) or other establishment of the temple.
A protected site
The image house and the belfry located in the territory of the Hokandara Purana Vihara in Hokandara village in the Grama Niladari Division of Hokandara-North in Kaduwela Divisional Secretary’s Division are archaeological protected monuments, declared by a government gazette notification published on 20 June 2014.
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References
1) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. No: 1868. 20 June 2014. p.503.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 9 June 2023