Beligala, situated 16 km west of Pinnawela Orphanage by road, is not an attractive place to visit, but it’s of some historical significance as it was here where the national palladium, the Sacred Tooth Relic, was kept in hiding, when the Indian invader Kalinga Magha devastated the Polonnaruw Kingdom. The local Sinhalese principality possessing the Tooth Relic soon became the new major dynasty of Sinhalese Kings, in the so-called Dambadeniya period. The Tooth Relic was finally shifted to Dampabdeniya by them. The Bo-tree of the Beligala Rajamaha Viharaya is quite impressive, woth a stop, when you are travelling along this vilaage anyway. The main attraction is the moonstone. It’s of a quite unique shape, indicating a transition between the moonstone styles of Polonnaruwa and Kandy. The centre of the moonstone is significantly elevated like in the Kandy period, but the outline is still hemispherical like that of Polonnaruwa moonstones and unlike triangular Kandyan moonstones.
Find Beligala Bo-Tree image and location here...
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AuthorNuwan Chinthaka Gajanayaka, Categories
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June 2020
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