Lewke Tempita Viharaya and Walawwa

Lewke Tempita Viharaya (Sinhala: ලෙව්කේ ටැම්පිට විහාරය හා වලව්ව) is situated on the premise of Lewke Walawwa in Lewke village in Kegalle District, Sri Lanka. This is considered the only Tempita shrine in the country found within a private residential plot of land (De Silva & Chandrasekara, 2009). History Walawwa Lewke Bandara, a Disawa (governor) of Sathara Korale hailed from a generation of chieftains who had their roots extended to the Dambadeniya Kingdom (Abeyawardana, 2002). During the  Kandyan Period , the Maha Disawa position of Sathara Korale was given to Lewke to take the front vanguard in the army of that region (Abeyawardana, 2002). Accordingly, his ancestral home at Galatara in the Galboda Korale was shifted to Lewke village and the parts of this building along with the Tempita Buddha shrine are still visible at the site (Abeyawardana, 2002). The last descendent of the Lewke generation, Lewke Wijayawardana Bandara was executed by King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha (1798-1815 A.D.) af…