Embekke Dewalaya

 Embekke dewalaya

EMBEKKE DEWALAYA

 Around 13 km from the Kandy city, a Buddhist temple dates from the 14th century is situated in the villege "Arathtana". It is decorated by wooden columns richly carved with animals, dancers, and wrestlers.

A drummer in this village, who had a skin disease, decided to go to the Temple of Katharagama - a temple in the southern part of Sri Lanka to get a cure. His illnesses  were cured after promising to worship the temple annually. Due to his old age, he's unable to continue annual ritual travel .So he praied the god that , as he was too old. Then the god of katharagama made a prediction of a miracle near Arathtana and ordered him to perform rituals  there.

Gardener of the flower garden in Embekke of Queen Henakanda Bissobandara tried to remove a "Kaduru" tree from the garden. When he cut it a stream of blood began to flow from the tree. After knowing it,drummer  perform the rituals there as he was ordered to do by the god. He built a small temple called the "Embekke Devalaya".After some days the king Wickramabahu in Senkadagala era, ordered to build a three story building there and  gave land, queens'  jewelry  and elephants as gifts. Since then the temple of Embekka is worshiped by people.Today, the drummers' relatives perform rituals in Embekke.

Embekka is unique,because it owns some of the greatest carvings in Sri lanka. There are total of eight buildings built for the temple of Embekka. Six buildings are in the inner temple, and two of them outside. The structure that are inside the surrounding wall are known as the 'inner temple'. The structures that are outside the wall are known as the 'outer temple'. about embekke dewalaya