Sapugaskanda Viharaya image house (Photo credit: Sajith Hemal Jayasekara, Google Street View)
Sapugaskanda Raja Maha Viharaya (Sinhala: සපුගස්කන්ද රජමහා විහාරය) is a Buddhist temple situated in Sapugaskanda near Kiribatgoda town in Gampaha District, Sri Lanka.
History
The history of this temple can be dated back to the Kandyan Period (Gamage, 2010). It is believed to have been built around 1760 or during the latter part of the reign of King Sri Vira Parakrama Narendrasinha (1707-1739 A.D.), the last Sinhala king of the country. A Buddhist monk named Porathugoda Thera is said to have renovated this temple in 1790.
The British Governor Edward Barnes (1824-1831) signed the deed of this temple in 1825.
A protected site
The ancient image house of the Sapugaskanda Raja Maha Vihara in the Kelaniya Divisional Secretary’s Division is an archaeological protected monument, declared by a government gazette notification published on 1 November 1996.
References
1) Gamage, L.S, 2010. Sapugaskanda Rajamahavihara: A monograph of an eighteenth century peripheral temple of Sri Lanka and an exposition of the architecture and visual narratives of its image house (Doctoral dissertation, Northern Illinois University).pp.1-3.
2) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. No: 948. 1 November 1996.
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This page was last updated on 12 February 2023