Tour Article Number Thirty One - Buddhangala Monastery

Buddhangala Monastery lies in the thick jungle about 7 kilometers off Ampara. Monastery covers nearly 1200 acres. We can see remains of the ancient monastery covering 5 rocks. This area was belongs to Digamandulla Kingdom which was started by Dighayu in the 4^th century BC. According to Ven. Ellawala Medhananda thero, this monastery was older than the Digamadulla Kingdom.

This area was covered by thick jungle for thousands of years and in 1964 by a brave Bikku called kaluthara Dhammananda was cleared this area and again started the monastery. When the escalations goes on the original Stupa, they found the relics that believe that belongs to Saripuththa and Moggallana who is the chief disciples of Buddha. But here the real name was unknown.

 

When the terrorist era they were trying to destroy the monastery. And tamils and muslims try number of times to destroy the monastery and to build a tank called “Hijra”. Because of the rock looks like Buddha’s laying position the tamils and musslims used to called it as “Buddhankalei” and then Sinhalease also called it as “Buddhangala”. Inside the jungle there are lots of ruins. But in my travels I am unable to travel for these ruins. But I will give details later for you.

Here you can see some photographs which I have taken.