Buduruvagala

Interesting facts

The carved rock face is roughly 93 metres long and over 20 metres high, and its outline is often likened to a kneeling elephant with lowered head.

Scholars disagree widely on the date: estimates range from the late fifth century, proposed by Senarath Paranavitana, to the ninth or tenth century.

The colonial archaeologist H. C. P. Bell read the figures quite differently, seeing characters of the Vessantara Jataka and gods such as Vishnu and Kataragama.

Each of the six attendant figures stands about six to seven metres tall, dwarfed by the central Buddha.

Slots and grooves cut into the rock suggest that a protective roof once sheltered the sculptures.

According to local legend, the oily seep comes from a sealed chamber inside the rock that holds a royal treasure.

The site came to official attention when the surveyor and historian R. L. Brohier reported it to the Archaeological Department.

The style of the carvings shows the influence of the Pallava art of southern India.

A small archaeological museum opened near the site in 1988 to display finds from the surrounding area.

Why it is worth it

A single granite face in the dry scrub of south-eastern Sri Lanka carries seven figures cut in high relief, and the one at the centre is a standing Buddha about 16 metres (51 feet) tall from head to toe — the tallest standing Buddha image on the island. Its name, Buduruvagala, is simply descriptive: it joins the Sinhala words for Buddha, images and stone. Nobody knows what the place was originally called, and almost no written record of it survives; scholars generally place the carving in the 9th or 10th century and suspect the rock once sheltered a hermitage of monks.

What makes the group unusual is its allegiance. The sculptures belong to the Mahayana strand of Buddhism, which flourished only briefly in a country otherwise shaped by Theravada tradition, and the attendant figures are bodhisattvas rather than disciples. On the Buddha's right, a figure still coated in white is identified as Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, with a female figure in the graceful thrice-bent pose beside him who is usually read as Tara; local tradition calls the third member of that trio Prince Sudhana. On the other side a crowned figure is taken to be Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, flanked by Vajrapani holding his hourglass-shaped thunderbolt — a rare glimpse of Tantric imagery in Sri Lanka — and by a figure that may be Vishnu or the god Sahampath Brahma. Several of them raise the right hand with two fingers folded down in a gesture of beckoning.

The great Buddha has kept fragments of its original stucco robe, and a long streak of orange on the stone hints that the whole figure was once brightly painted. Elsewhere on the same rock a flame-shaped hollow, roughly a metre wide and a little taller, is always damp with an oil that smells of mustard; local belief treats its unexplained seep as part of the site's mystery.

Getting there

Buduruvagala lies about 6 km south-east of the town of Wellawaya in Monaragala District. The nearest larger city is Badulla, about 32 km away in a straight line. The nearest airport is Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (HRI), about 45 km to the south.

From the encyclopaedia

Buduruwagala is an ancient Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka. The complex consists of seven statues and belongs to the Mahayana school of thought. The statues date back to the 10th century. The gigantic Buddha statue still bears traces of its original stuccoed robe and a long streak of orange suggests it was once brightly painted. The central of the three figures to the Buddha's right is thought to be the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. To the left of this white painted figure is a female figure in the thrice-bent posture, which is thought to be his consort-Tara.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Buduruvagala

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

On these lists

From the encyclopaedia