Lankathilaka Viharaya is a medieval Buddhist temple in the hills to the west of Kandy. The Lankathilaka temple, not to be confused with the image house of the same name in Polonnaruwa, is the most magnificent edifice that has survived from the Sri Lanka’s 14th century Gampola period. It was constructed on order of a chief minister called Senalankadhikara during the reign of King Bhuvanekabahu IV (1341 – 1351). The architect is said to have been from South India. Inscriptions carved in the rock just south of the main edifice have both Sinhala and Tamil sections. The layout is that of a Buddhist image house, which opens to the east, surrounded by a ring of five Hindu chapels, the aisles of which can be entered from the west. This Hindu Devales form an integral part of the mainly Buddhist temple, making Lankathilaka a unique ensemble of shrines of the Buddha and the five major deities also venerated by Sinhalese. The combination of a brick temple inspired by Drawidian stone temples from Tamil Nadu and tiles roofs inspired by the wooden temples of Kerala is unique, too. In the 18th century, the walls and the ceiling of the Buddhist main shrine room have been decorated with Kandy paintings. Indeed, Lankathilaka is the best example of a a temple interior in the Kandyan stye which is not a cave but a constructed image house.

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Pinnawela is one of Sri Lanka's most popular tourist destinations, it has the largest herd of elephants in Asia, almost 100 animals. (Wasgomuwa, Minneriya or Kaudulla have more elephants gathered only seasonally). But the Pinnawela herd is artificial. The elephants do not belong to a natural enlarged family, they are domesticated.

The elephant camp in Pinnawela is not only a breeding ground for elephants, it is a nursery in the first place. Trapped elephant babies left by their families would be doomed to death. Rescued in time they will be transferred to one of Sri Lanka's three elephant orphanages, two of them will return them to the wild later on, but Pinnwela will domesticate them Pinnawela also integrates injured adult elephants. It is a sheer miracle that the Pinnawela herd accepts alien babies and adults.

You can observe several activities of domesticated elephants in Pinnawela. At about nine o'clock in the morning you can take part in the bottle feeding of babies and at 10.00 am you can see the herd bathing, two restaurants offer perfect observation platforms. You can study human elephant interaction. Mahouts help washing the elephants, it would not be necesarry, but strengthens social ties. Female adults and babies take their bath together. But male adults have to be led to a separate bathing place.

You can not take part in elephant rides in the Pinnawela Elephant Orphange. But there are smaller private elephant camps in the surrounding organizing elephant rides in the jungles. You can join half an hour, one hour or two hour excursions. You can also wash animals yourself here, they are used to it, oder study exhibitions. But be aware, this is not included in the Pinnawela Orphanage ticket.  

Yapahuwa between Kurunegala and Anuradhapura is famous for Sri Lanka’s most ornate ancient stairway with excellent sculptural decorations. Due to the location of the former fortified city at and on a rock, Yapahuwa is sometimes called “Sri Lanka’s second Sigiriya”. Actually, it could be also called a “Little Dambulla”, because a typical Sinhalese cave temple with paintings and sculptures from the Kandyan period can be seen on ground level. The monastery, reestablished by Kandy’s King Rajadhi Rajasinha in the late 18th century, is called Yapawwa Raja Maha Viharaya, Yapawwa being the more accurate but less known transliteration of Yapahuwa. The living monastery actually is highly important for safekeeping and maintaining the entire archaeological site in Yapahuwa. When asked for the key, the monks or helpers are usually very kind to allow visitors to enter the main cave temple. The roofed front room of the main image hall and Buddhist cave is gaudily painted. But historical paintings and sculptures can be found in the main cave of Yappawa Rajamaha Vihara.The murals in the caves are mainly from the 18th century and restored with additional blue colour much later, presumably as late as in the second half of the 20th century. But traces of earlier paintings can be found. And the typical themes of the Kandyan paintings were not changed during the restoration. The main shrine in the rear of the cave has a large sitting Buddha and a bronze sculpture from the late 13th century, the period when Yapahuwa was Sri Lanka’s capital.

Yapahuwa is a multi-faceted heritage attraction in a magnificent natural setting, a historical site representing various periods  of history, with monastic cave dwellings and a stupa from the  Anuradhapura period, a fortified city and palace and tooth temple from the Middle Ages and a Kandyan temple. If you come to visit this less-crowded place of interest and have enough time, don’t miss to visit the living monastery and its Kandyan cave temple, too.


Our Yapahuwa main page provides much more detailed descriptions of all the attractions of the rock and citadel and temple. But please understand and excuse: It could take some time to load the page, due to the high number of comparitively large images. To see them, please click here...