Neelagiriseya, the colossal Buddhist Stupa is now situated in the middle of the dense forests of the Lahugala Forest Reserve. Belonged to the Ancient Ruhunu - Maagama kingdom, Neelagiriya is the largest Buddhist Stupa in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka where it currently belongs.
Neelagiriseya conservation work is now in-progress. You can visit the site easily now. However, our journey was not to see the Neelagiriseya. Our purpose was to see some of the places hidden deep in the jungles beyond the Neelagiriseya archaeological site, mainly to see the classical age paintings. So we obtained permission from the Department of Archaeology and the Department of Wildlife Conservation.
After walking for a couple of hours into the dense forest we reached our destination ; an ancient granite stairway leading towards a huge rock boulder with a drip ledge cave where the remnants of found which can be believed as an ancient image house of a Buddhist monastery. The cave roof and walls is covered with a layer of plaster and decorated with paintings. Most of the paintings are now almost vanished. The plaster and the remains of paintings are damaged by the people who visited over the last 50 - 60 years ; scraped and written their names. However, still it is visible some leftovers of the beautiful paintings ; a truly masterful work with impressive fine lines, brush strokes, figures and colors. The paintings carry the characteristics of the classical age paintings of Sri Lanka.
Around this cave were another few caves with drip ledges, inscriptions, remains of buildings, etc. While walking another few kilometers into the jungle we came across more ruins scattered here and there. Almost all of these already have been destroyed by the treasure hunters.
Before turning back we came to a place which made our jaws dropped. Some we had never seen, something we had never heard or imaged of. On a rock surface we saw an attempt of carving a reclining statue of the Lord Buddha. When we say an attempted one, this is not a half carved statue or a one which is not properly completed as you would find in some places. There was only a sketch of the statue on the rock surface. The basic outline of the face, the bent arm below the head, the body, the waist line, the arm rested along the body was done. But the sketch is not completed. Maybe they abandoned it due to some reason not known to us. Or we thought, perhaps, this could be a work of an apprentice who did a practice session. We don't know, we were just wondering and coming up with wild guesses. Anyway, that was something amazing. It was quite evident that treasure hunters have not missed this place either. On top of the rock there were evidences of attempts of treasure hunting. They don't miss any of these places.
Although all these what we saw are now covered with dense forest and belongs to an area where there are no any human habitats for many miles, this area could have been a populated and frequently used part of the ancient Ruhunu - Maagama kingdom. We saw a large amount of broken clay pots, clay bricks, iron ore along the dried up streams inside the jungle. These are evidences of human activities and human habitats. Besides, such large amount of ruined places and a colossal Stupa like Neelagiriseya could not exist if it wasn't an populated region.
About NeelagiriSeya :
The massive stupa is believed to be build by King Kawantissa (3rd Centaury BC) or King Bhatikabaya (20 BC-9 AC) who ruled the Ruhunu - Maagama kingdom and has been renovated on the 7th centaury. This has been called as "Uttara Seevali Pabbata Viharaya" in ancient times.[3] According to an inscription belongs to the 1st century, found during the archaeological excavations done in 2011, describes about a grant to the temple by the Maharaajinee Chula Sivalee Queen, a daughter of the King Bhatikabaya. In historical resources Bhatikabaya is described as a viceroy, who reigned in Ruhuna when King Kutakanna Tissa (42-20 BC) was ruling the country.[5] Another inscription recovered from the site in 2011 excavation, also reveals about donations made by king Jettatissa I (263-273) or by the King Jettatissa II (328-337 CE).
The first reference about the Nilgiriseya in modern history could be found in the early decades of the 20th century. A.M. Horcart, who had visited this place in 1928, has published some details about the Stupa after 2 years later of his journey.
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