Weliwatta Vijayananda Pirivena Weliwatta Vijayananda Pirivena (Sinhala: වැලිවත්ත විජයානන්ද පිරිවෙන) is a Buddhist temple situated in Weliwatta village in Galle District, Sri Lanka. It is considered the place where the first religious school ( Daham Pasala ) and the Pirivena were begun in the country. History This temple was established in 1851 by a Buddhist monk named Akmeemana Sri Sobhita Thera and at the time it had served as the headquarters of the Ramanna Nikaya (Abeyawardana, 2004). In 1880, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), an American who played a major role in the revival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the latter part of the 19th century, became a lay Buddhist devotee at this temple in the presence of an enormous audience (Abeyawardana, 2004; Ranchagoda, 2015). The first religious school ( Daham Pasala ) and the Pirivena in Sri Lanka were established in this temple on 5 August 1895 (Ranchagoda, 2015). A protected site The ancient Dharma Shalawa (preaching hall) situated within the premises of Wijayananda Piriven …
