Hanguranketha Pothgul Maliga Viharaya

Hanguranketha Pothgul Maliga Viharaya
Hanguranketha Pothgul Maliga Viharaya (Photo credit: DaRcAssan Zirekile, Google Street View) Hanguranketha Pothgul Maliga Viharaya (Sinhala: හඟුරන්කෙත පොත්ගුල් මාලිගා විහාරය) is a Buddhist temple situated in Hanguranketha town in Nuwara Eliya District, Sri Lanka. History Hanguranketha was known in ancient times as Diyatilakapura or Digiliya Nuwara (Abeywardana, 2004). King Senarath (1604-1635 A.D.), as recorded in Rajavaliya , established this town and several later kings including Rajasingha II (1635-1687 A.D.), Sri Vira Parakrama Narendrasinha (1707-1709 A.D) and Sri Vijaya Rajasinha (1739-1747 A.D.) resided in Hanguranketha from time to time (Abeywardana, 2004). The Pothgul Viharaya at Hanguranketha was established on the present site in about 1830 by a Buddhist monk named Poholiyadda Thera who bought the temple land from its owner H. J. Soysa (Wijesinghe, 2015). Poholiyadda Thera started the construction of the temple using some of the stone remains of the Hanguranketha Royal Palace bu…