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Tour Around in Vavuniya & Mannar

Madukanda Viharaya in Vavuniya

Vavuniya has a number of historic temples and sites belonging to the Pre Christian era up to the 7 Century AD. Vavuniya Madukanda Viharaya is one of them.
Madukanda village is located in the Vavuniya District and is about 3 miles off Vavuniya town along Horowpothana road. The village itself has historic significance. One can find old Madukanda walauwa with its court where the last Rate Mahaththaya resided.
The importance of the temple goes to various eras in history; this village was the birthplace of Nandimitra who was the earlier giant (General) with King Elara and subsequently turned towards King Dutugemunu. The other importance is that, this is one of the places where Hemamali and Dantakumaru stayed with the sacred tooth relic. It was also the learning centre for Buddhist monks. Still one can witness the two meditating (Sakman maluwa) .
The present Vavuniya Madukanda Viharaya is the only place for the Advance level students to learn the subjects and sit for the Advance level exam on Art subjects. There are no other places for the student in Vavuniya to sit for the Advance level in the Sinhala Medium.
The village is closely knitted with the temple. Advice on their day to day family matters, agricultural development and social development comes through the leadership of the dedicated, educated priests in the temple.
This place is a common place of rest for the pilgrims and travellers to Jaffna and Vavuniya. The temple provides accommodation and other basic facilities to pilgrims and other traveller’s free of charge.

History of Madukanda Viharaya in Vavuniya
The construction of the temple started during the era of Nandimitra. They have brought lime for construction from Chunnakam. Nandsimitra was a nature lover. He had a flower garden at Kokilai to supply necessary flowers to the temples in the area. There had been a huge Bo tree adjoining the villa. Bodhi villa later became became Bodhivill and subsequently ‘Pothuvil’. There is a village close to the area called ‘Maha Kachchikudal’ which had been famous for copper. Also there is a village called ‘Thapaswela the name derived from the ‘Thambawela’. There are lots of archeological evidences found in Thapaswela to show that there was a successful copper industry at Mahakachchikudai area during Nandimitra’s time.
Further to that, there are about 3-rock inscriptions in and around the area. The most famous one is Thonigala rock inscription, which describes the Madukanda Viharaya. Amongst the 83 rock inscriptions 58 belong to the era of Nandimitra while the others belong to the fifth Century and 12th Century. Among the 83 rock inscriptions the Sinhalese Language is also visible, which gives evidence of Sinhalese settlements from around 200 BC.
This area has faced tremendous cultural, social and religious changes due to the arrival of the ‘Tooth Relic” from India (Kalinga Deshaya). King Guhaseeva was the ruling king at the time. His daughter was Hemamali and son-in-low was Prince Dantha who brought the sacred tooth relic to Sri Lanka. The village Madukanda got its name due to the construction launched for the reception of the sacred tooth relic in this area. During this time Minister Deva was ruling the Vanni region. Also RL Brohier and Codrington had elaborated this in their research papers.
The evidence of the first bank in Madukanda, too goes back to the fifth Century. The evidence is coming from the same Thonigala rock inscription, and that the bank had been giving 50% interest for their deposits shows the level of development and economic status of the area. The bank was specially designed for the requirements of farmers.
There are various forms of unidentified buildings and some of the advanced water distribution systemy are still functioning. There are four ponds for bathing. All the arts depicted on the walls, belong to the “Guptha Sampradya” culture in the country during the time.

Mannar Island is part of Mannar District, Sri Lanka. It is linked to the main island of Sri Lanka by a causeway. It has an area of about 50 square kilometers, mainly covered with vegetation and sand. Between 1914 and 1964, there was a train and ferry link from mainland India via Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar toColombo, but this was not resumed after the disastrous damages caused by a cyclone in 1964. The Palk Strait bridge was proposed in June 2015, to link mainland India to Mannar.

The Shrine of Our Lady in Madhu is a Roman Catholic Marian shrine in Mannar district of Sri Lanka. With a history of over 400 years, this shrine acts as a center for pilgrimage and worship for Sri Lankan Catholics.[1] The site is considered as the holiest Catholic shrine in the island[2] and is a well known place of devotion for both Tamil and SinhaleseCatholics.[3] A former Pattini-Kannaki shrine,[4] the church has been a symbol of unity not just between Tamils and Sinhalese, but also between people of different religions, including Buddhists, Hindus and Protestants.[5] Attendance for the August festival at times touched close to a million people before the outbreak of the Sri Lankan Civil War.[1] Situated in the heart of the conflict zone, pilgrimage to this shrine was dramatically affected by the Civil War with the presence of refugee camps around the shrine complex.[2] It was shelled a number of times.

The Giant tank in Mannar is one of the largest tanks in the island and was It was built by King Dhatusena (459-477) by damming and diverting water from the Malwatu-oya. Known as Manawatu Wewa in the ancient times, the tank is fed by an 8 mile (13 km) ancient canal, recently restored, which carries water from the Malwatu Oya river.

The Doric at Arippu Once ghost towns along the Puttlum – Mannar coastal line bordering Wilpattu National Park, these small towns and villages are slowly waking up from a 30 year slumber after the end of the LTTE terrorist occupation. This stretch of sea was world famous for thousands of years for for producing finest pearls in the world but today a waste land with few fishing villages due to over exploitation.Portuguese, Dutch and British all had considerable interest in the region and the best example is the massive bungalow of the British Governor, Sir Frederick North (1798-1805) built for the supervision of pearl fishery operations in the region.

Thanthirimale is a prominent Buddhist sacred place, situated about 40 kilometers north-west to the city of Anuradhapura. The easiest access from Anuradhapura is to take Mahavilachchiya road.
Alternatively, it can be accessed from Medawachchiya-Mannar road too, by turning at the Gajasinghe junction. The road conditions are moderate and can be reached within an hour or so from Anuradhapura. Tourists may have to bear the inconveniences caused by the road renovation work on the road through Gajasinghe junction, these days. Thanthirimale was officially declared as a sacred city in Poson season in 2007, by the government.

Tree with the largest trunk in Sri Lanka
The baobab (also refereed to as biobab boab, boaboa, bottle tree, upside-down tree, and monkey bread tree) is a native tree to Africa, Madagascar and Australia. There are 8 species of boabab, 6 in Madagascar, 1 each in Africa and Australia. The tree is also referred in Sri Lanka as the Ali-Gaha ( Elephant Tree) since the bark of the tree resembles a skin of a Elephant and the Tamils refer to it as ‘Perukka’.
The baobabs in Sri Lanka is believed to have been brought by Arabian Traders. According to a study done in 2003, there are about 40 Baobab Trees surviving in Sri Lanka, out of which 34 has been identified and measured in Mannar. Most of the trees were calculated to be 300-400 years old. The oldest and the largest baobab is at Pallimunei which is said to be about 800 years old. This tree was calculated 723 years old in the 2003 study. The circumference of the tree is is 19.5 meters and its 7.5 meters tall. This is most popular of the all ( see images taken in May 2008) due to its size and age.

Mannar Fort It was built by Portuguese in 1560. The fort fell to the Dutch in 1658, and they rebuilt the fort in 1696. In 1795 the British occupied the fort following the surrender by the Dutch.
It is a square shaped fort with four bastions and is located next to the new bridge that connects the mainland with the Mannar Island.