Cultural Show at Damabna

Sri Lanka’s Aborigines’, or the Veddha’s meaning “people of the forest” of Sri Lanka has a history much older than prince Vijaya’s landing in 5th century BC and the origins of the Sinhala race. Archaeological evidence suggest that modern Veddha’s Neolithic ancestors inhabited this island as far back as 10,000 BC with. Once roaming the Great Plains’ of the north central region to the central mountains, today the remaining Veddha population are confined to Dambana which is close to Maduru oya sanctuary.

They are essentially hunter gatherer forest dwellers without much change in their life style from Stone Age to modern times. The language used by them is an ancient dialect of Sinhala, staple diet being venison, Veddha’s are allowed to hunt legally to sustain themselves within certain areas, are also expert fisherman. Veddha’s also collect bee’s honey and exchange it with the locals for axe blades and cloth./p>

Sorabora Wewa

The famous Sorabora Wewa, the massive irrigation reservoir of ancient Bintanne lies about 1 km from the current Mahiyangana town and a must see destination for visitors of Mahiyangana Rajmaha Viharaya. Sorabora Wewa which was called the Sea of Binthanne in the ancient past, is unique to all other ancient reservoirs a this is considered the only existing reservoir which does not make use of a Bisokotuwa, the heart of all other large reservoirs of the country. This ground breaking invention was the single factor which enabled the ancients to build massive reservoirs since 4th century BC.

Generally all the reservoirs have the sluice gates which regulate the water flow out of the reservoir on the massive embankments. It was the Bisokotuwa which regulated the water pressure at the sluice gates inside the tank and protected the embankment from erosionThe Sorabora Tank is built damming the Diyawanna Oya with a 1590 feet (485 meter) embankment. The tank covers 1100 acres ( 4.5 sq km) and holds 11800 acre feet ( 14.6 Mn sq meters) of water at full capacity. The slice gates are expertly cut in to the natural rock and is about 5 feet wide.

The tank is believed to be built during the 2nd century BC when the warrior prince Gemunu was warring with the Tamil invader Elara by a relatively unknown general called Bulatha. When army of the prince Gemunu with his 10 generals (giants) was marching towards Anuradhapura, the army is said to have camped at the village called “Kadali Pathra” (today known as Keselpatha) near Mahiyangana, It was at this time a strongman called Bulatha (Balathirala) from the village of Kiripattiya in Ududumbara joined the army of the Gemunu.

Mahiyangana Temple

Mahiyangana According to Mahavamsa, Sivuhelaya (Sri Lanka) was peopled by Sivu-Helayos. The Yakkhas (clan) were living in Mahiyangana at the time. It says that the Buddha held a discussion on Dhamma with them. A Yakkha chieftain named Saman (who is now regarded as a deity) attained Sotapanna (First stage in liberation) after listening to the Buddha’s discourse and requested a token from the Buddha that they could worship in his absence. The Buddha gave him a handful of hair relic from his head, which was later enshrined by Saman in a small stupa, 10 feet (3.0 m) in height. This was the first stupa to be built in Sri Lankaduring the life time of Lord Buddha. After the parinirvana of the Buddha, an Arhant named Sarabhu brought the Buddha’s left shoulder bone, which had been recovered from the funeral pyre. This relic was also enshrined and the Stupa was enlarged to a height of 18 feet (5.5 m). Since then several kings renovated and enlarged this Stupa. King Dutugamunu raised it to a height of 120 feet. Rulers as Voharikatissa, . Sena II, Vijayabahu I and Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe have maintained the temple. In 1942, a society was formed for the renovation of the temple under Rt Hon. D. S. Senanayake the first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. Reconstruction work began in 1953 and ended in 1980 with the completion of a new pinnacle for the Stupa.