Ritigala, a 766m mountain in Sri Lanka's Anuradhapura District, houses ancient Buddhist monastery ruins and is a strict nature reserve since 1941.
Ritigala Monastery Ruins & Strict Natural Reserve Ritigala or Aritthagiri (Sinhala: රිටිගල) is a mountain [753 m (2,470.47 ft. amsl)] with the ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery, situated in Anuradhapura District, Sri Lanka. Etymology
The name “Ritigala” comprises two words; ‘ Riti ’ and ‘ gala ’. In the Sinhala language, ‘ gala ’ means ‘the rock’. The word ‘R iti ’ has five possible meanings (CCF, 1983). (i) ‘ Riti ’ may have derived from the Pali word ‘Arittha’ (Sanskrit: Aristi) which means ‘safety’. The chronicle Mahavamsa mentions this place as ‘Arittha Pabbatha’ (in the Pali language, ‘Pabbatha’ is used to denote a ‘rock or mountain’), and this identification is confirmed by H.C.P. Bell’s discovery of the name ‘arita-gama’ in two of the inscriptions that found in Ritigala premises; one at Kuda-arambadda-hinna and the other at Vevel-tenna (Wickremasinghe, 1912).
(ii) The word ‘arittha’ can also be translated as ‘dreadful’, so, it may give the meaning as ‘the dreadful rock’ (CCF, 1983). The villagers in the neighbourhood of Ritigala beli…
