Colombo

Colombo

Located on the west coast of the island, Colombo is Sri Lanka’s largest city and its commercial hub. It was the administrative capital of the Portuguese,Dutch and British when they ruled the island, and its national capital until the 1980’s. The brand new premises of the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka
are located in its outskirts and is comprised of lecture halls, classrooms,a three storey library and other common facilities. Prominent temples in the Colombo area include the Kelaniya Temple, the Gotami Temple and the Bellanwila Temple.

The Kelaniya Temple

This temple is located in the village of Kelaniya just a few kilometres away from Colombo and close-by to the Kelani River. It is famous for being visited by the Buddha during his legendary trips to Sri Lanka. In the
15th century, when King Dhammaceti of Burma doubted the purity of the ordination in his country, he sent monks to Kelaniya to re-ordain under the Sri Lankan Sangha.
                                                                The temple was destroyed by the Portuguese in the 16th century
but rebuilt in the 18th century when the island was under the more tolerant Dutch. A prominent feature of the temple is a tall and graceful statue of Ganga, the goddess of the Ganges, India’s most sacred river. It is also renowned for its extensive and beautiful wall murals depicting scenes of Buddhism’s early history and development inSri Lanka.

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