Wewurukannala Vihara near Dikwella

In the decades after independecen, several new giant Buddha statues have been built in Sri Lanka, surpassing the ancient ones in size but not in quality. One of the earliest and still the largest of this modern sculptures is not far from the south coast and easy to reach. The 50m tall seated Buddha figure of the Wewurukannala Viharaya is is situated 1 km inland from Dikwella, towards Beliatta. The temple was founded in the Landyan period. The accessway to the new huge Buddha statue is called the tunnel of hell, a gaudy hall of graphic life-sized models of hell’s demons punishing sinners. A temple museum is atteached to the multi-storey house of the seated Buddha staute, too. A large clock was built by a local craftsman in 1926.

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