Kudumbigala - most scenic vistas in Sri Lanka's southeast
Kudumbigala is the name of a monadnock and one of Sri Lanka's most remote forest hermitage in the dense jungles near Kumana National Park. Actually, in the southeast of the island Kudumbigala is the most significant heritage site of its kind, a typical Sri Lankan rock monastery. It looks back on a history of over two thousand years. Over 200 rock shelters are said to be found in this area, many of them were once used as monks’ dwellings. In the period of Sri Lanka's (then Ceylon's) independence the reclusive monk Thambugala Anandasiri settled down in the caves of Kudumbigala. After the place was deserted in times of civil war, it's now inhabited by forest monks again and attracts Buddhist pilgrims. Visitors should be dressed modestly and remain silent to avoid disturbing the hermits. The climb to the top of the highest rock is rewarding. The strangely shaped brick stupa on the summit is pretty picturesque and the vast 360 degree panorama is fantastic. Kudumbigala is usually visited along with nearby Kumana National Park and Okanda Beach on excursions from Arugam Bay.
Location of Kudumbigala
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Kudumbigala is located close to the main entrance gate of Kumana National Park. It belongs to the dry zone area of the island. You can reach the Kudumbigala temple by branching off from the coastal dirt road to Kumana National Park, the junction is close to Okanda. From there a cul-de-sac leads further inland. The distance from Panama to the monastery at the foot of Kudumbigala rock is 14 km (9 miles). The total road distance from Arugam Bay is 27 km (17 miles).
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The Kudumbigala forest monastery is situated within sight of the coast of Okanda and on the edge of the Kumana National Park, in a jungle landscape dotted with mighty granite rock boulders. Kudumbigala is the largest rock visible from the main road, recognizable by the dagoba at the top.
Kudumbigala belongs to the poorly developed Panam Pattuwa region. A road runs along the coast from Pottuvil to the namegiving main settlement in the region, Panama. Behind Panama there are only dirt roads. Until recently, the area behind Panama was uninhabited, a least during the long decades of civil war. Panama's surroundings are populated again now, but Kudumbigala remains to be one of the remotest areas of Sri Lanka. Though the place is tranquil at large, from time to time it can occur that busloads of Buddhist pilgrims arrive her to visit the forest monks. There is a small parking lot at the foot of the main path that runs through the forest monastery. |
Encounters with bears are not uncommon in Kudumbigala. So far there have been no attacks on people. Nevertheless, if you see a bear, you should retreat calmly and slowly without making any hectic movements. Under no circumstances should you give in to your curiosity to get as close as possible to the cute wild animal. |
What to see in Kudumbigala
When walking on the path to the monks' caves and to the top of the mountain, it is important to remain calm so as not to disturb the sacredness of the place.
At the beginning of the footpath there is a new stupa in the brilliant white that today's Sinhalese love so much. The first part of the forest path, which is about a kilometer long, ends in front of a first walled-up cave that is a kind of sanctuary. From here a path leads to the left to the monks' accommodations in further caves.
At the beginning of the footpath there is a new stupa in the brilliant white that today's Sinhalese love so much. The first part of the forest path, which is about a kilometer long, ends in front of a first walled-up cave that is a kind of sanctuary. From here a path leads to the left to the monks' accommodations in further caves.
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The path to the right leads to the top of the highest rock. After another half kilometer through the forest hikers arrive at the foot of a bare granite hill. Steps carved into the rock, the most weathered of which date back to ancient times, lead up to the top. On steeper passages, the staircase is secured by a railing. It is still better not to touch the steel cable, as it is often torn and rusty and you could easily injure your hand. The path is now under the blazing sun, the ascent is manageable for normal walkers, but not without some physical effort. It leads to the summit in two stages.
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The highest point of the group of hills is crowned by an ancient stupa. On the stupa terrace, like everywhere else at Buddhist sanctuaries, you have to take off your shoes, even though you are in the middle of the wilderness.
From the summit you can enjoy a great 360 degree panoramic view. Actually, this is the best vantage point for scenic vistas in the southeastern region of Sri Lanka's coastal plains, this is to say, in the region of Pottuvil ans Arugam Bay and Panama and Kumana.
Lookin to the north, you can see a natural basin in a saddle of the granite massif. Depending on the amount of precipitation, the water collected in it form a small pond, which was certainly used by monks as a washing facility in ancient times, because wherever such natural pools were missing, forest hermits created artificial ones, and there are no such artificial ponds in Kudumbigala.
From the summit you can enjoy a great 360 degree panoramic view. Actually, this is the best vantage point for scenic vistas in the southeastern region of Sri Lanka's coastal plains, this is to say, in the region of Pottuvil ans Arugam Bay and Panama and Kumana.
Lookin to the north, you can see a natural basin in a saddle of the granite massif. Depending on the amount of precipitation, the water collected in it form a small pond, which was certainly used by monks as a washing facility in ancient times, because wherever such natural pools were missing, forest hermits created artificial ones, and there are no such artificial ponds in Kudumbigala.
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In the east you can see the deserted stretch of coast south of Panama and the Okandarawa Lagoon. The area to the south and southwest the bushland is dotted with isolated rocks. This jungle area stretches into the Kumana National Park. In this direction, already within the national park boundaries, is the Buddha of Bambaragasthalawa in a rock niche.
To the west from Kudumbigala you can see the forested plains of the Wilayu Oya river, which flows into the sea near Panama.
To the west from Kudumbigala you can see the forested plains of the Wilayu Oya river, which flows into the sea near Panama.
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Most notable, of course, is the brick stupa at the highest point. This dagaba is of an uncommon shape. It is neither the typical hemispherical so-called "bubble shape" (Bubbulukara) that one encounters almost everywhere else in Sri Lanka today, nor the classic "rice heap shape" (Dhanyakara) with a more conical outline, which was very popular in ancient times. It is also not the “bell shape” (Ghantakara) known from Southeast Asia. The stupa most closely resembles the ancient “pot shape” (Ghatakara), in which the main body of the stupa, called the anda, tapers towards the bottom. But strictly speaking, the Dagoba of Kudumbigala does not correspond to any of these classical four stupa forms. Rather, the outline is cylindrical, only slightly tapering towards the bottom, and with a bend at two-thirds of the height, from where the Anda body finally tilts inwards. This shape is most reminiscent of that of Chhorten in the Himalayan region. Mahayana influence from northern India and Tibet would not have been impossible in southeastern Sri Lanka. Anyway, this is the only cylindrical stupa on the island. The three-tiered substructure of the Anda is typical of ancient Sinhalese stupa architecture.
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The pile of stones is also reminiscent of the Himalayas, every pious visitor of the peak contributes another stone. These piles of stones and the same custom can be found in the Himalayas primarily on mountain passes, in honor of the mountain gods, under whose protection alone one can pass the heights. In Mongolia, too, such heaps are common. The Mongolian piles of stones are called Obo. They should not be confused with the Mani stones, each of which has a blessed mantra carved into it to invoke Buddhas. However, stone piles at temples are also known from Theravada countries. For example, they can be seen at the eastern side of Angkor Wat.
Ancient History of Kudumbigala
There are said to be around 200 caves in the rocky outcrops of this region, i.e. overhanging rocks that offer people and animals protection from the weather. As elsewhere in Sri Lanka, such rock shelters attracted Buddhist monks who wanted to devote their lives to meditation in forest solitude. Many of them are believed to have achieved Nirvana here and thereby having become Buddhist saints. Being a place of ancient arahants is one reason why Kudumbigala is a magnet for Sinhalese pilgrims today.
As at most such rock groups with rock shelters, dedicatory inscriptions in Brahmi letters were found above several of the Kudumbigala cave entrances. They can be dated back to the pre-Christian period, particularly at the recently discovered cave Maha Sudharshana Lena. From its stone inscription it can be seen that this shelter was prepared for the local reclusives by a donor called Nandimitra Yodaya.
As a tourist, you don't necessarily have to know a gentleman with the name Nandimitra, but in Sri Lanka he is a well-known legendary figure, or rather: for the well-read locals he is even a historical figure, namely one of the ten friends of the Sinhalese national hero Dutthagamani in the second century BC, accompanying his campaign to liberate Anuradhapura, The ten companions helped him to victory with their heroic deeds and advice. These ten friends are said to have been giants. They are called “Dasa Maha Yodayas”, which literally means “Ten Grand Warriors”. Some Sinhalese are proud to know each of the ten by name. And Nandimitra is the best-known of those friends. His gigantic powers were revealed in his childhood. When his mother left the house, she tied him to a large millstone with a long chain so that he could not run off to cause mischief. But when she returned, she found that Nandimitra had simply taken the millstone with him. However, it is not yet evidenced that he took the millstone with him to Kudumbigala.
As a tourist, you don't necessarily have to know a gentleman with the name Nandimitra, but in Sri Lanka he is a well-known legendary figure, or rather: for the well-read locals he is even a historical figure, namely one of the ten friends of the Sinhalese national hero Dutthagamani in the second century BC, accompanying his campaign to liberate Anuradhapura, The ten companions helped him to victory with their heroic deeds and advice. These ten friends are said to have been giants. They are called “Dasa Maha Yodayas”, which literally means “Ten Grand Warriors”. Some Sinhalese are proud to know each of the ten by name. And Nandimitra is the best-known of those friends. His gigantic powers were revealed in his childhood. When his mother left the house, she tied him to a large millstone with a long chain so that he could not run off to cause mischief. But when she returned, she found that Nandimitra had simply taken the millstone with him. However, it is not yet evidenced that he took the millstone with him to Kudumbigala.
Modern History - since Thambugala Anandasiri Thero
Forest retreats of historical monks were often abandoned for centuries after the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods. Only in the 20th century the ancient abodes of forest monks were gradually reactivated, so to speak, by pious monks who were looking for the same reclusiveness as their predecessors two thousand years ago, namely a quiet and protected place in solitude for a life of meditation or for the purpose of pastoral work in remote regions. And they found the same places suitable that once served their predecessors and discovered their traces. Many monks went into solitude alone, some in small groups. Kudumbigala is such a place that became a forest monastery again, a revived so-called Aranya Senansanaya.
This search for the ideal place for Buddhist practice was not quite as world-renouncing as it might seem, but often it had a religious-political background. Around 1900, the revival of ancient practices was part of the Buddhist counter-mission against the colonial rulers' Christianity. The Buddhist modernism, however, was largely a lay movement, but monks also contributet to the revival of the country's traditional religion through preaching and teaching. After Ceylon's independence, however, this "inner mission" served a new political purpose, namely the demonstration of the Sinhalese-Buddhist claim to all parts of the island, no matter how remote, including in Tamil-Hindu or Muslim-dominated areas.
The rediscoverer of the ancient forest monastery and founder of today's Kudumbigala monastic community was the monk Thambugala Anandasiri Thero. He was assisted by lay follower Maithri Upasaka from Negombo, who had converted from Catholicism to Buddhism.
Ven. Thambugala Anandasiri and Maithri Upasaka came to Kudumbigala in 1954. For the first few years they lived here all alone in the wilderness. Ven. Thambugala Anandasiri later wrote an autobiography called “25 years of life in the jungle” about his life in Kudumbigala. It is considered a miracle that confirms the sanctity of the place that he and his lay helper were never attacked by the many local elephants, leopards or bears inhabiting this region.
The following story is also said to prove the supernatural powers of the place: A small band of treasure hunters and grave robbers came to Kudumbigala, disguised as a group of pilgrims. After dusk they began digging at the stupa with the equipment they had brought with them. But soon a huge cobra appeared and straddled itself in front of them. The treasure hunters fled, scared to death, leaving behind all their tools. The next morning they went to Maithri Upasaka in repentance and vowed never to commit such sacrilegious acts again.
According to his last will, the remains of Maithri Upasaka, who died in 1971, were displayed in glass sarcophagus in a rock cave. But in 1994, in the civil war period, marauders of the Tamil terrorist group called LTTE smashed the glass and threw the bones into the jungle. It was in that same year that LTTE guerillas carried out a brutal attack on the fishing village of Panama, hacking 17 people to death. The other residents then left the region and without support from laypeople, the young monks living in Kudumbigala at the time also had to give up their forest monastery, especially since the LTTE had also sent clear warning signals against them by desecrating Buddha statues. Only one monk named Sivuralumulle Dhammasiri Thero continued to venture to Kudumbigala regularly. He then fell victim to kidnapping.
Since the end of 2004, when a ceasefire agreement came into effect that was later broken, the non-governmental organization Living Heritage Trust, an initiative dedicated to the preservation of Sri Lanka's heritage, has been involved in the Okanda and Kudumbigala area. Since 1986, in addition to protecting natural resources, it has primarily been trying to motivate and educate farmers how to cultivate crops according to traditional and ecological criteria. The farmers are primarily supported through training in effective organic farming and ancient craft techniques. Conversely, the NHT systematically collects agricultural knowledge from experienced farmers so that it can be used in such training classes. In the spirit of this cultural protection, the Kudumbigala region was declared a “Heritage Conservation Zone”, also called the “Okanda-Kudumbigala Heritage Reserve”.
Although the LHT's activities can also be understood in the spirit of rebuilding the Eastern Province under Colombo's control, the trust is not ideologically strictly Sinhalese-Buddhist in orientation, but rather emphasizes that a pre-war tradition, especially in the Panama area, is the close coexistence and cooperation of different communities of different faiths. For this purpose, the old local traditions and institutions of dispute resolution are taught and reactivated, which are called “Asana Dekka Bana”. Joint work is particularly indispensible for irrigation, which in Sri Lanka has traditionally been a joint task organized at the community level, needed also to clarify distribution issues. Social cohesion through shared festivals and customs is called “Magul Uthala”. A starting point for this pproach, particularly in the “Okanda-Kudumbigala Heritage Reserve”, is looking after pilgrims from different religious communities. This is to say, from the perspective of the LHT, the traditions that should be preserved also explicitly include those of non-Buddhist communities.
The following story is also said to prove the supernatural powers of the place: A small band of treasure hunters and grave robbers came to Kudumbigala, disguised as a group of pilgrims. After dusk they began digging at the stupa with the equipment they had brought with them. But soon a huge cobra appeared and straddled itself in front of them. The treasure hunters fled, scared to death, leaving behind all their tools. The next morning they went to Maithri Upasaka in repentance and vowed never to commit such sacrilegious acts again.
According to his last will, the remains of Maithri Upasaka, who died in 1971, were displayed in glass sarcophagus in a rock cave. But in 1994, in the civil war period, marauders of the Tamil terrorist group called LTTE smashed the glass and threw the bones into the jungle. It was in that same year that LTTE guerillas carried out a brutal attack on the fishing village of Panama, hacking 17 people to death. The other residents then left the region and without support from laypeople, the young monks living in Kudumbigala at the time also had to give up their forest monastery, especially since the LTTE had also sent clear warning signals against them by desecrating Buddha statues. Only one monk named Sivuralumulle Dhammasiri Thero continued to venture to Kudumbigala regularly. He then fell victim to kidnapping.
Since the end of 2004, when a ceasefire agreement came into effect that was later broken, the non-governmental organization Living Heritage Trust, an initiative dedicated to the preservation of Sri Lanka's heritage, has been involved in the Okanda and Kudumbigala area. Since 1986, in addition to protecting natural resources, it has primarily been trying to motivate and educate farmers how to cultivate crops according to traditional and ecological criteria. The farmers are primarily supported through training in effective organic farming and ancient craft techniques. Conversely, the NHT systematically collects agricultural knowledge from experienced farmers so that it can be used in such training classes. In the spirit of this cultural protection, the Kudumbigala region was declared a “Heritage Conservation Zone”, also called the “Okanda-Kudumbigala Heritage Reserve”.
Although the LHT's activities can also be understood in the spirit of rebuilding the Eastern Province under Colombo's control, the trust is not ideologically strictly Sinhalese-Buddhist in orientation, but rather emphasizes that a pre-war tradition, especially in the Panama area, is the close coexistence and cooperation of different communities of different faiths. For this purpose, the old local traditions and institutions of dispute resolution are taught and reactivated, which are called “Asana Dekka Bana”. Joint work is particularly indispensible for irrigation, which in Sri Lanka has traditionally been a joint task organized at the community level, needed also to clarify distribution issues. Social cohesion through shared festivals and customs is called “Magul Uthala”. A starting point for this pproach, particularly in the “Okanda-Kudumbigala Heritage Reserve”, is looking after pilgrims from different religious communities. This is to say, from the perspective of the LHT, the traditions that should be preserved also explicitly include those of non-Buddhist communities.
Sri Lanka's Ape-Men
Finally, we want to make mention of stories about prehistoric people or ape-men of Sri Lanka, who are said to have lived in Kudumbigala well into historical times, but who are only known from myths, first of the Weddas and later of the Sinhalese and Tamils: The Nittaewos (also “Nittewos” or “Nittavos”) were described as small, pygmy-like creatures with thick reddish hair who lived in simple tree huts in the local jungle until ancient times. In a way, they are to Sri Lanka what the Yetis are to the Himalayas.
There are different versions of legends explaining how the Nittaewos became decimated or extinct. Sri Lanka’s aboriginal Weddas were enemies with the Nittaewos. And when the latter carried out attacks on Wedda youth, the Weddas exterminated them by gathering all Nittaewos into a cave, at the entrance of which they set fire. The inhabitants of Panama attribute the extinction of that mythical human species to the wrath of the gods, because the Nittaewos used torches burning with the fat of killed pigs on their pilgrimage, which was an outrage to the peaceful nature of the Kataragama festival.
However, the Nittaewos have not completely disappeared to other accounts. In 1984, a Spanish anthropologist named Dr. Salvador Martinez claimed to have spotted one. And when bones of an extinct small human species were found on the small Sunda island of Flores in 2004, which scientists then named “hobbits,” Nittaewo speculation found new fuel in Sri Lanka. Nittaewos are also said to have been a separate human species, smaller and more ape-like than Homo sapiens. But bone finds are pending. And it is extremely unlikely that such a species would have survived for so long on an island where, unlike Flores, Homo sapiens was also present, and only in the recent past disappeared completely without leaving any trace. If the Nittaewos existed more than ever, as a race of people alien to even the Weddas, they were more likely to be an ethnicity comparable to those of the Andaman Islands, a different race, but Homo sapiens, not a different species of human beings like Homo erectus or Homo neanderthalensis had been.
However, the Nittaewos have not completely disappeared to other accounts. In 1984, a Spanish anthropologist named Dr. Salvador Martinez claimed to have spotted one. And when bones of an extinct small human species were found on the small Sunda island of Flores in 2004, which scientists then named “hobbits,” Nittaewo speculation found new fuel in Sri Lanka. Nittaewos are also said to have been a separate human species, smaller and more ape-like than Homo sapiens. But bone finds are pending. And it is extremely unlikely that such a species would have survived for so long on an island where, unlike Flores, Homo sapiens was also present, and only in the recent past disappeared completely without leaving any trace. If the Nittaewos existed more than ever, as a race of people alien to even the Weddas, they were more likely to be an ethnicity comparable to those of the Andaman Islands, a different race, but Homo sapiens, not a different species of human beings like Homo erectus or Homo neanderthalensis had been.
