Akbopura Viharaya

Sri Agbo Purana Raja Maha Viharaya
Sri Agbo Purana Raja Maha Viharaya, also known as Sri Akbopura Raja Maha Viharaya (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී අග්බෝ පුරාණ රජමහා විහාරය) is a Buddhist temple situated in Tissapura village in Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka.

History
Ancient stone sculptures belonging to the Anuradhapura Period have been unearthed from this site during the surveys done in the 1960s (Haramoto et al., 2015). Of these sculptures, the 7th-century dolomite Buddha image seated on a Naga is considered special and it was kept at the time for public view at the Trincomalee Archaeological Museum which is now closed (Haramoto et al., 2015; Schroeder, 1990).

The site
The site consists of a brick-built dilapidated Stupa and several other ancient remains such as statues of Buddha and Bodhisattva and pedestals of standing images (Haramoto et al., 2015). The Stupa mound, in its existing state, is roughly 3 m high occupying a 20×20 m area (Haramoto et al., 2015).

A protected site
The ancient Dagaba, ruins of buildings and other archaeological evidence in the premises of Sri Agbo Purana Vihara belonging to Thissapura village situated in Grama Niladhari Division No. 228 G, Mollipathana - North in the Divisional  Secretary Division, Thambalagamuwa are archaeological protected monuments, declared by a government gazette notification published on 8 July 2005.

References
1) Haramoto, T.; Inouchi, C.; Koizumi, Y.; Fukuyama, Y., 2015. Survey Report on the Protection and Utilisation of Cultural Property in the Northern and Northeastern Provinces of Sri Lanka. Japan Consortium for International Cooperation in Cultural Heritage. pp.63-64.
2) Schroeder, U.V., 1990. Buddhist Sculptures of Sri Lanka. Visual Dharma Publications Ltd., Hong Kong, 1992. pl.27.
3) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka: Extraordinary. No: 2299/61. 30 September 2022. p.3A.

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This page was last updated on 4 May 2023
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