Situlpawwa rock temple
with a history of over 2200 years is one of the significant Buddhist sites built in
the 2nd Century BC. We visited this
temple on 30 January 2010 located
deep within the Yala National Park within the Hambantota
district in the deep south of Sri Lanka,
Sithulpawwa rock temple has a stunning
setting. There
are two temples perched high atop hard volcanic rock outcrops. Maha
Sithulpauwa rock is 400 feet in height. . The dagoba is situated on top of the rock and is
reached by a difficult steep climb, aided by steps cut into the
rock. The dagoba is believed to have been built by king
Kawantissa. It houses an intricate cave complex
The name Sithulpauwa
is derived from the
word 'Chittalapabbata' which means the hill of the quiet mind.
The rock temple was a place of worship for devotees as well as a
centre of Buddhist scholarship. It is believed that in ancient
times this rock temple once housed a total of 12,000 Arhats or
monks who achieved the highest mind level in Buddhism. The
life that the Arhats lived in Sithulpawwa was a hard one, with
silence and solitude. The rock temple is famous for its early
Brahmi script, ruins of the preaching house and the fragments of
paintings that can be viewed at the image house.
Inside Situlpawwa are a number of gal len (rock caves), dagoba
(pagodas), Poya geval (chapter houses), bodhigara, pilimageval and pokunu
(ponds).
Sithulpawwa rock temple
houses an intrincate temple complex. The caves inside have been built to make it suitable for the monks to live.
In addition to the main dagoba, a number of small dagobas are found inside
Situlpawwa rock temple. The main cave temple walls consists of paintings belonging to Anuradhapura
period and this is a significant feature as not many paintings belonging to
this period have been found.
The climb up the further Sithulpawwa rock temple is not an easy one but the
sense of achievement on reaching the top is stupendous.
See Picture Gallery below. Also see Kirinda
Rock Temple which is also build on a rocky outcrop and which offers
magnificent panoramic sea views along the entire coastal stretch.
