Funday Times

A series by Gaveshaka in association with Studio Times
In the distant east coast
Nilaveli north of Trincomalee is one of Sri Lanka’s most popular and most beautiful beaches. Further north is Kokkilai, the starting point of a 200- mile long stretch of the east coast ending up at Arugam Bay in the south-east. To quote the Studio Times publication, ‘Handbook for the Ceylon Traveller’: “It is a magnificent coast. A lonely coast. It offers superlative sea bathing when the west coast of the Island is lashed by the south-west monsoon. The only way to become aware of its charm is to experience it.”

Ten miles to the north of Nilaveli is Kuchchaveli, which also boasts of lovely beaches, the waters of which the writer John Still describes as ‘warm as tea.’ Drive another thirty miles north and you come to Kokkilai, the starting point of the east coast as mentioned earlier, a paradise for bird watchers. In between is Tiriyaya, famous for its ‘vatadage’.

‘Cetiyaghara’ is another term for ‘vatadage’ which is a stupa around which a domed roof was erected on pillars in diminishing height. Historians believe this was to give shelter to the devotees. Stone columns have been used in the circular platform to support the roof. A few of these columns can be seen around the stupas belonging to this category. The Thuparama in Anuradhapura, the first stupa in the royal city, has been a ‘vatadage’ and even today some of the stone pillars can be seen.

At Tiriyaya, the ‘vatadage’ is located on a hill to the west of the village. The aerial picture identifies the location clearly while indicating exactly how the entire complex had been designed. A flight of steps leads to the summit, which had been leveled to build a small dagoba. The hair relics of the Buddha have been enshrined in the dagoba. It is believed that it had been enlarged around the 7th or 8th century A.D and turned into a ‘vatadage’. There is inscriptional evidence to indicate this change.

As seen in the other picture, two concentric circles of pillars had been constructed round the dagoba and at the end of the platform is a stone screen wall about six feet high with holes at intervals for pillars. At the steps leading to the dagoba is a ‘sandakadapahana’ and the traditional ‘mura gal’.

Among other specimens of a ‘vatadage’, the Ambasthala dagoba in Mihintale is a good example. Here the stupa had been closed with a domical wooden roof supported on two rows of stone pillars. The ‘vatadage’ at Medirigiriya close to Polonnaruwa dating back to the latter part of the Anuradhapura period had three rows of stone pillars of receding height to support its roof. The design reached its peak of development during the Polonnaruwa period where one can see the ‘vatadage’ built by King Nissanka Malla as a circular relic house, which contains a small stupa in the middle. In the four directions are four Buddha statues. It had a roof supported by two circles of stone columns.

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