Udamuna Purana Viharaya (Sinhala: උඩාමුණ පුරාණ විහාරය) is a Buddhist temple situated in the Veraduwa area in Matara District, Sri Lanka.
History
This temple have been constructed during the Kandyan Period and the Vihara-ge (the image house) of the temple is probably a work of the first decade of the 19th century (Abeyawardana, 2004; Wikramaratne, 2015). It is said that a Buddhist monk named Galle Medhankara Thera built the temple in 1805 (De Silva & Chandrasekara, 2009).
The date 1857 with the British crest has been found engraved over one of the doors at the residence building of the monks (Abeyawardana, 2004).
The image house
The limestone-built image house is considered the oldest building of the temple complex (De Silva & Chandrasekara, 2009). It consists of two sections, viz: the inner chamber and the outer part. The inner chamber preserves the oldest murals of the temple and a seated statue of the Buddha with two statues of standing Buddhas on either side are found within it (Abeyawardana, 2004). The murals in the outer part have been repainted recently.
Attribution
#) LankaPradeepa.com extends its gratitude to Lalith Kekulthotuwage for providing the necessary photographs required for this article. All the photos are published here with the permission of the author.
References
1) Abeyawardana, H.A.P., 2004. Heritage of Ruhuna: Major natural,
cultural and historic sites. Colombo: The Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
ISBN: 955-575-073-4. pp.77-78.
2) De Silva, N.; Chandrasekara, D.P., 2009. Heritage Buildings of Sri Lanka. Colombo: The National Trust Sri Lanka, ISBN: 978-955-0093-01-4. p.58.
3) Wikramaratne, I., 2015. Pauranika Sthana Saha Smaraka: Matara Distrikkaya (In Sinhala). Department of Archaeology (Sri Lanka). ISBN: 955-9159-54-2. p.29.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 14 October 2023
