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A temple with Dutch influence-BY MAHIL WIJESINGHE Source:Sundayobserver The attention of any visitor to the Southern Province is immediately drawn to the city of Galle and its maritime heritage of Galle Fort. Being a maritime province, it has lived through 350 years of colonial rule by first, the Portuguese, then the Dutch and finally, the British. Inevitably, contemporary artistic and architectural styles were influenced by European standards and values, which are mirrored in the buildings, especially, in Buddhist temples in this maritime region of the 18th to the last quarter of the 19th centuries. Among these buildings, the most awe-inspiring and intrinsic Buddhist architectural finds are in the small hillock, widely known as, Kumarakanda, a couple of kilometres past Hikkaduwa on the land side of the Colombo-Galle highway at Dodanduwa, a picturesque tourist sea resort area close to the southern capital of Galle. Having parked the vehicle in the car ...