Palabaddala Raja Maha Viharaya

Sri Rajasinharama Purana Raja Maha Viharaya (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී පලාබද්දල ශ්‍රී රාජසිංහරාම පුරාණ රජමහා විහාරය) is a Buddhist temple situated in Palabaddala village in Ratnapura District, Sri Lanka. It is located on the wayside of one of the pilgrimage routes to the Sacred Mountain of Sri Pada.

History
The Stupa of this temple is believed to have been built during the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1747-1781 A.D.) of Kandy (Bogahawatte, 2020). The old chronicle Pujavaliya states that King Parakramabahu II (1236-1270 A.D.) of Dambadeniya built a forest hermitage for the Buddhist monks in Palabaddala village during the 13th century (Bogahawatte, 2020). As per beliefs, it was the venue where a Buddhist monk named Vedeha Thera composed Samanthakoota Warnana, a 13th-century Sinhala literature book containing detail about the career of the Buddha and his three visits to Sri Lanka (Bogahawatte, 2020). According to locals, the stone columns around the present Palabaddala Stupa have been brought from that ancient forest hermitage later (Bogahawatte, 2020). 

References
1) Bogahawatte, D., 2020. A Study of the spatial experience of Siripada Pilgrimage. An Essay submitted to the  Liverpool John Moores University and   Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology  as a fulfillment of the Module 6111ARSRI- CDP Research  of the B.Sc. (Hons.) Architecture Degree Program. pp.8,22.

Location Map
This page was last updated on 7 July 2023
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