Pethangoda Uyana

The Bamboo Grove at Pethangoda Park (Photo credit: Sudaththa Ariyasena, Google Street View)

Pethangoda Uyana (Sinhala: පෙතන්ගොඩ උයන) is a bamboo garden situated in Waththegammeda near Ruwanwella in Kegalle District, Sri Lanka.

History

Located between the streams named Gurugoda Oya and Athalawa Ela, this site is believed to be the royal pleasure garden that served as a resting place for royals who were travelling between the country and the Sitawaka Kingdom (16th century A.D.). The garden had been protected from wild animals especially the elephants by constructing a moat and by planting beyond the moat a thorny bamboo variety brought from South India. Two groves of these bamboo trees are still visible at the site.

During the time of the Sitawaka Kingdom, there was a lake close to the garden but it has now turned into a paddy field. It is said that King Rajasinha I (1581-1593 A.D.) sustained a bamboo thorn prick while resting in this park on his return from Kandy after a losing battle with Konappu Bandara who later became the ruler of the Kandyan Kingdom by the name Vimaladharmasuriya I [(1590-1604 A.D.) Abeyawardana, 2002; Mendis & Susantha, 2020]. According to some sources, the physician who treated the king performed black magic and applied the wound poisonous substances to kill him (Mendis & Susantha, 2020).

A protected site

The two clusters of thorny bamboo in the Pethangoda Uyana in the Pethangoda Grama Niladhari Wasama, of the Ruwanwella Divisional Secretary’s Division are archaeological protected monuments, declared by a government Gazette notification published on 22 July 2011.