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The Aluvihare Temple near Matale is said to have been the location of the 4th Theravada Buddhist Council, which for the first time layed down the Pali Canon of the Holy Scriptures in written form to preserve it for future generations. A museum for palm leaf writings is attached to the ancient temple. The caves have typical Kandyan paintings. A newly decorated cave has gaudy illustrations of hell punishments like a chamber of horrors. Another cave is believed to have been the abode of Buddhaghosa, Church Father of Theravada Buddhism, who lived in the 5th century AD. He is the most famous commentator of the Tipitaka, the Buddhist Holy Scriptures. A stairway along his cave lead to the top of a rock, which is crowned by a small stupa. This is an excellent vantage point overlooking the rocks of the Aluvihare Temple and the surroundings of Matale. The name of the temple, which is situated close to the Kandy-Dambulla-Jaffna road A9, is also spelt Aluviharaya or Aluvihara.

Today, Nallur is the northeastern suburb of Jaffna city, but in a sense Nallur is the ancient Jaffna, as it was the residence and temple town of the Tamil kings during the period of the Jaffna kingdom in the late Middle Ages and early Modern Age. The Portuguese Christians destroyed the major Hindu temple and erected a church on the original site. However, the Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil – dedicated to the highly venerated Tamil deity Murugan, as the name „Kanda“ for „Skanda“ indicates – was reconstructed in the 19th century 1.5 km further west and again has become the spiritual centre and main sanctuary of Tamil Hindus on the Jaffna Peninsula. Besides the impressive temple, built in the the typical Dravidian style, remnants of palaces of the ate Jaffna kings can also be seen in Nallur.

Find our comprehensive article on Nallur and ist attractions here...

In recent years, Kirinda Beach in the very east of Sri Lanka’s Southern Province has deceloped into a new holiday destinations. A wide range of accommodation is available now. Several high-standard hotels have modern pools and are situated at the beach front. The popularity of Kirinda is not surprising. It not only offers nice sandy beaches but it’s a perfect starting point for safaris in Yala and Bundala National Park. Both of them are quite as near as from Tissamaharama, the tradtional starting point, and even nearer than from Kataragama, which has been the traditional alternative to Kataragama. Of these three headquaters for safari enthusiasts, Kirinda is the only one at the seashore. So not surprisingly, more and more holiday makers, particualrly families, fall in love with Kirinda, which offers both wildlife excitement and beach relexation. Kirinda in the very east of Hambantota District has a dry climate that differs much from the seasons of Sri Lanka’s southwest coast beach resorts in Galla District. There is much less annual precipitation in Kirinda, and the dry season falls into the northern hemisphere summer months, which are monsoon in the area of Bentota and Hikkaduwa.

Faxian Cave is a rarely visited temple and archaeological site in Kalutara District, to the north of Sinharaja Rain Forest. The Sinhala translation of Faxian (Fa Hsien) is „Pahiyan“, the rock is therefore alson known as „Pahiyangala“. The cave is named after the famous Buddhist scholar and pilgrim Faxian from China, who also visited Sri Lanka and studied in Anuradhapura. He is said to have spent some months in the cave when he visited the Holy Mountain Siri Pada (Adam’s Peak). Pahiyangala is of utmost archaeological significance, as it is the finding place of 33,000 years old human fossilized skeletal remains of the Balangoda culture from the Late Pleistocene.

Dova rock temple, situated at the Badulu Oya between Bandarawela and Ella, is the only place in the highlands where a large rock-cut Buddha statue can be found. It is unfinished and weathered, but well recognizable. Dova is an ancient rock temple in the first place. The painted caves are somewhat gaudy, but include many traditional motivs of Kandy paintings and dozens of Buddha statues. The Dova rock temple is said to be fiunded in King Valagambha's era. The Dova temple also owns a Bo-Tree terrace and two ancient stupas, one of which is situated inside the rock temple as mentioned earlier. More about Dova rock temple here...

Vilgam Rajamaha Viharaya, also known as Velgam Vehera, is a less-visitied historical Buddhist temple complex near Kanniya Hot wells to the northwest of Trincomalee. The Tamil name of Vilgam Rajamaha Viharaya is Natanar Kovil. Kovil is usually the name of a Hindu temple, which indicates that the Buddhist site is also venerated by Hindus.

Although Vilgam Rajamaha Viharaya was founded during the Anuradhapura period, the remnants of the structure that can be seen at the site today are mainly from the subsequent Chola period (11th century). This is remarkable insofar as the the Chola invaders from Southern India destroyed other Buddhist temples, but they renovated this one. More than that, they introduced a type of building that became predominant in the subsequent Polonnaruwa period, the large image house (Patimagara). Image houses had already been an integral part of Buddhist monasteries earlier on, but they now were increased and became the predominant building of the complex. In Vilgam Rajamaha Viharaya, the image house is not only much larger than ist predecessors from the Anuradhapura period, it also forms the single center of the entire complex. A Buddha statue is still in situ.  

Although Vilgam Rajamaha Viharaya is a sacred place to local Tamils, too, the archaeological site was attacked several times by the LTTE separatists during the civil war.

The waterfall known as Diyaluma Ella is 171 m high and the third or fourth highest waterfall in Sri Lanka. It’s situated 6 km away from the tea village Koslanda. Diyaluma Falls can be seen from the A14 highway. The waterfalls are formed by the Punagala Oya stream, which is a tributary of Kuda Oya, later on entering the large river Kirindi Oya. There is a famous etiological tale, known in a variety of versions, explaining the existence and the name of Diyaluma Falls.

Kurunegala, which served as the island’s capital for a short period in the late Middle Ages, is now a provincial capital and a major traffic junction in Sri Lanka. The roads from Colombo and Negombo to Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee via Dambulla and from the northwestern coastal towns to Kandy and the Central Highlands cross in Kurunegala. A large bus station forms the center of the town close to the British clock tower, which was built in commemoration of the province’s victims in Worl War I.

Kurunegala’s main attraction is the impressive monadnock known as „elephant rock“ or „Etagala“ in Sinhala. In the begin of the 21st century, a 27 high sitting Buddha has been placed at its slope overloking the city. It’s one of the best vantage points in the Northwestern Province (Wayamba) and easy to reach, as a sealed road winds up to the statue.

At the foot of the rock is a very special attraction, the tomb of a local Muslim saint, which is also frequented and venerated by Buddhists.