Welgamvehera: A sacred place that promotes unity-by M.A.R.Manukulasooriya, Hiriyala group corr.

Welgamvehera is a historical Buddhist Temple in Kanniya in the Trincomalee district. To reach this sacred site, you have to travel seven miles on the Trincomalee-Anuradhapura road, turn South and travel another three miles. This sacred site is famous as a site that had been protected during the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa eras. There are shrine rooms, Buddha statues, Guard stones and Dagobas belonging to the period from the Anuradhapura era to the 12th Century, in the temple.

A notice board put up by the Department of Archaeology at the site states the following.

“The founder of this temple is unknown. It is stated in the King Bhathiya’s ( 143-167 A,D,) stone inscription found in the top of the nearby hillock that the old name was Welagama Abagara Vihar. With the invasion of Cholas from India in 993 A.D. many Buddhist shrines were destroyed. Velgam Vehera managed to survive unscathed. The Cholas instead renovated the temple adding their own structures and renamed it Rajarajaperum Palli after the Solie Emperor Rajaraja. Perum Palli means “the large temple.”

According to the Tamil inscriptions belonging to the 10-11 centuries, this sacred site had been venerated by both Sinhala and Tamil devotees. Dr. Senarath Paranavithana has stated in one of his books that this site was a Buddhist temple of the Tamils.

Following the collapse of the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa kingdoms, the population migrated to the Southern part of the country which resulted in the temple being abandoned and fell into ruins.

The abandoned temple was rediscovered in 1929 by the Department of Archaeology and was declared as an archaeological protected reserve in 1934. History records that King Vijayabahu I (1055-1110A.D.) had taken many steps to improve this sacred site. There are brick dagabas with plain stone guards, guard stones, plain moonstones, stone bowls, Tamil inscriptions, Yantra Gals and image houses are scattered in the site.