Pahiyangala - Fa Hien's cave & major prehistoric site
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The rarely visited archaeological site of Pahiyangala in Ratnapura District is worth mentioning for two very different reasons. Firstly, the huge semi-cave is one of the most important excavation sites in South Asia. Remnants of prehistoric human settlers of Sri Lanka’s Balangoda culture have been found in the Pahiyangala abri. Pahiyangala is the finding place of the oldest complete skeleton of a modern Homo sapiens in all of South Asia, around 37,000 years old according to radiovarbon dating. The rock shelter of had been inhabited already about 45,000 years ago. From that period geometric microliths were found which are among the earliest known outside Africa. Secondly, Pahiyangala is believed to have been an abode of the famous Chinese pilgrim Faxian, a Buddhist monk, who visited Sri Lanka in the early 5th century. Actually, Pahiyangala is better known as “Faxian-Lena” or “Fa Hien Lena”, named after the famous Chinese Indian pilgrim Faxian, who in the early 5th century on his journey to India also traveled to Sri Lanka for his Buddhist studies.
Fa Hsien Lena - Abode of the Chinese Pilgrim Faxian
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Faxian is said to have visited Sri Pada, the pilgrim mountain Adam's Peak, on a pilgrimage journey from Anuradhapura and to have spent several months in Pahiyangala on the way. A vessel unearthed at Pahiyangala is said to be his.
A local monk named Porogama is said to have later cleared the cave from the thicket of the wilderness to establish a temple. The almost two-meter-long chisel he used, called Yakula, is now at the foot of the 13-meter-long reclining Buddha. The iron is so heavy that its alleged handling by a human is revered as a miraculous deed. |
Pahiyangala = Fa Hsien Lena
The “x” in the Pinyin transcription for Chinese consonants is an ich-laut, similar to the German “ch” in “ich“ or Mexican Spanish „x“ in „Mexico“. There is no equivalent to this sound in the spoken nor in the written Sinhalese language. An „F“ is also missing in actual Sinhalese and was only subsequently added to the Sinhalese alphabet for foreign words, but never fully integrated. In most cases, a “P” is still written where foreigners speak “F”. And so the two apparently different names of the cave are ultimately identical: “Pahiyan” is “Faxian” in Sinhalese translation, and the suffix “gala” means “rock”, while “lena” means “rock shelter, semi-cave, abri”. In short: All the various place names always mean the same thing in German: “Faxian Rock Cave”. "Faxian" is the very same Chinese name in Pinyin transcription as "Fa Hsien" in Wade Giles transcription of Chinese characters. |
Large Rock Shelter of Pahiyangala
A part of the huge rock shelter is used for the said small Buddhist shrine. Because of its attractive location under the gigantic outcrop of granite rock in a wooded area, a visit to Pahiyangala in the hinterland of the tourist southwest coast is definitely a worthwile day trip. From the cave halfway up the mountain you also have a distant view of the Singharaja rainforest.
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The cave passages of Pahiyangala, which cut deeper into the rock, are largely inaccessible today. Hundreds of bats live in those darker tunnels.
Pahiyangala, like almost all of the so-called “caves” (Lena) in Sri Lanka, is less of a closed underground space and more a rock shelter, a protected space under an overhanging rock, possibly with a small passage into the mountain that looks more like an elongated niche or a narrow, short tunnel. All over the world, rock shelters are often sites of findings of prehistoric relics. Archaeologists often use the term „abri“ for such rock shelters. This term is less misleading than “cave.”
The main abri of Pahiyangala is one of the largest rock shelters in South Asia, with a length of 90 m (300 feet) and a height of up to 48 m (160 feet). This semi-cave is said to have a capacity of sheltering 3000 people at once.
Pahiyangala, like almost all of the so-called “caves” (Lena) in Sri Lanka, is less of a closed underground space and more a rock shelter, a protected space under an overhanging rock, possibly with a small passage into the mountain that looks more like an elongated niche or a narrow, short tunnel. All over the world, rock shelters are often sites of findings of prehistoric relics. Archaeologists often use the term „abri“ for such rock shelters. This term is less misleading than “cave.”
The main abri of Pahiyangala is one of the largest rock shelters in South Asia, with a length of 90 m (300 feet) and a height of up to 48 m (160 feet). This semi-cave is said to have a capacity of sheltering 3000 people at once.
Balangoda Man - South Asia's oldest find of Homo Sapiens
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In this largest of the four sectors of the Pahiyangala shelters, archaeologists carried out excavations, of which a deep shaft can now still be seen.
They found a human skull, that was subjected to radiocarbon studies in the USA. This resulted in an unexpectedly high age of 34,000 or even 37,000 years. This means, this skull from Pahiyangala is the oldest bodily remain of Homo sapiens known in the entire South Asian subcontinent to date. For further comparison: In Southeast Asia the first traces of Homo sapiens are charcoal remains near Krabi at the Bay of Pukhet in Thailand, which are estimated to be 38,000 to 37,000 years old. Measuring 1.74 m (5.7 feet), the Balangoda man was as tall as his European contemporary, the Cro-Magnon man, and taller than the average Sri Lankan today. The Balangoda woman reached 1.66 m (5.4 feet). Features of the Balangoda man are prominent brow-ridges, depressed noses, heavy jaws, short necks, and noticeable large teeth when compared to other anatomical modern humans. Based on such features, today's Weddas (Veddahs), often referred to as Sri Lanka's "aboriginal population", are considered descendants of the Balangoda people. |
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Tools and weapons made of stone and bone were also found in Pahiyangala. The bones of Balangoda people allow conclusions to be drawn about a good diet through a diverse range of foods. The prey included deer, monkeys and porcupines. Snails were collected, too. The diet also included breadfruit. The remain of a few animal bones that can be seen at the site today are of much later periods .
Two other finds of early humans from the Batadomba Lena 30 km further east are 31,000 and 18,000 years old, followed by a 16,000 year old one found at Beli Lena, which is another 30 km north of Batadomba Lena, as the crow flies. From this period prior to the Holocene, there is all in all better study material of human fossils from Sri Lanka than from India.
After the first discovery of the remains of a Homo sapiens from the Paleolithic, these “prehistoric people of Sri Lanka” are called Balangoda people. Archaeologists today prefer to speak of „Balangoda culture“ rather than „the Balnagoda man“, since, in addition to human bones, tool finds also allow conclusions to be drawn about the way of life, the prehistoric culture.
Two other finds of early humans from the Batadomba Lena 30 km further east are 31,000 and 18,000 years old, followed by a 16,000 year old one found at Beli Lena, which is another 30 km north of Batadomba Lena, as the crow flies. From this period prior to the Holocene, there is all in all better study material of human fossils from Sri Lanka than from India.
After the first discovery of the remains of a Homo sapiens from the Paleolithic, these “prehistoric people of Sri Lanka” are called Balangoda people. Archaeologists today prefer to speak of „Balangoda culture“ rather than „the Balnagoda man“, since, in addition to human bones, tool finds also allow conclusions to be drawn about the way of life, the prehistoric culture.
Earliest Known Geometric Microlithic Tools of South Asia
And the tools of the Balangoda people are of such a complex nature that people in Sri Lanka do not agree with the classification “paleolithic”. The cultural stage of the Balangoda people in Sri Lanka is preferred to be attributed to the Mesolithic rather than the Paleolithic. This astonishingly early dating of a Mesolithic period is not a peculiarity of Sri Lankan archeology, the term is also used in India, but it does not meet with unanimous approval, since almost comparably fine tools that are very close to Mesolithic microliths are also known from other parts of the world and are still assigned to the Paleolithic there.
However, the specific kind of microlithic tools called geometric is an indicator of the Mesolithic period in Europe. The geometric microliths of Pahiyangala, more than 45,000 years old, are usually less than 4 cm long flakes made of quartz, slightly larger than the geometric microliths from the European Mesolithic period. For more information about early microlithic tools, please visit our pages about the other two most important finding places of the prehistoric Balangoda culture, Batadomba Lena and Beli Lena.
However, the specific kind of microlithic tools called geometric is an indicator of the Mesolithic period in Europe. The geometric microliths of Pahiyangala, more than 45,000 years old, are usually less than 4 cm long flakes made of quartz, slightly larger than the geometric microliths from the European Mesolithic period. For more information about early microlithic tools, please visit our pages about the other two most important finding places of the prehistoric Balangoda culture, Batadomba Lena and Beli Lena.
