Where the shore is white and wide

By Damitha Hemachandra

Arugam Bay is a page from a surfer's dream book where the shore is white and wide, surf is high and the waters clear. Arugam Bay in Pottuvil was created to fit this dream and even today it stands the same with untouched beach lines stretching for miles.

Arugam Bay is at its best at sunrise when the sky and the beach provide a festival of colours. Fishing boats returning after the night catch, famous jumping fishes heading towards the beach and fisherman waiting with baited lines all join hands to make the perfect picture of a day break.

Most of the people in Pottuvil are fisherman and have returned to their vocation with the dawn of peace. Thus, Pottuvil is also the seafood paradise today with delicacies like prawns, cuttlefish and crabs available at every food outlet!


The beaches are also ideal for sea baths although the waves could be too strong for an amateur.

The surfing season in Arugam Bay starts in April and ends in October. There are four main surf points in Arugam Bay including Arugam Point and Crocodile Rock. Although all of them provide diverse experience of the sea, the sand and surf the ultimate experience is the Peanut Farm or Pottuvil Point.

The best, lesser known and hard to get is the Peanut Farm to where the journey takes you through a forest in habited with elephants. Nearly 20 minutes drive through forest brings you to the clearest and the most beautiful beach ever to be created.

A long, deserted, sandy beach dotted with some huge boulders at the waters edge make these waves a favourite with some of the seasoned veterans. Pottuvil Point provides 800 metre rides from the outside section right through to the beach on the inside.


The magic about these waves is that for the most of it, a surfer can be working a four foot face and be only a few metres from the beach as the wave grinds down the sandy point. The outside section sucks up and throws out as the swell raps into the point giving a 30 metre wall to work with before it fades as it hits deeper water for about 10 seconds. The surf increases into the day so be sure to be at beach by 10 in the morning.

Surfers and visitors are often helped and hosted by small communities of fishermen who live in wooden huts among the forest but who are keen to maintain the beach which is still heavenly.


Getting there

Arugam Bay is nearly 340 kms away from the capital of Colombo and is nearly 2.5 km away from Pottuvil. Peanut Farm is situated half an hour north to Arugam Bay and one must have a bike, motorbike or hire a three-wheeler to get there since public transportation is not at its best in Pottuvil.

The road to Peanut Farm is written on sand and is only visible as tyre tracks through the forest and could be easily missed. However, any villager could give you directions to the point.

Sacrilege at a sacred site

By Damitha Hemachandra
Pictures by Manoj Ratnayake

The battle between the past and present in Pottuvil is about to leave one of the most important archaeological sites of eastern Sri Lanka destroyed forever.

Muhudu Maha Viharaya, situated in the heart of Pottuvil, is believed to be the place where Princess Devi, the legendary mother of King Dutugemunu, is said to have landed at the kingdom of Ruhunu ending her journey from the Kelaniya kingdom. Historians and archaeologists have discovered numerous villages and places which claim a direct connection to Princess Devi. They say that she is known as Vihara Maha Devi due to her arriving at a temple.

Yet the historical facts are heavily clouded with myths and legends. The story based on the arrival of Princess Devi claims that she was first spotted at a village near Pottuvil but when the king arrived at the spot the craft carrying the princess had drifted to the ocean and the disappointed king questioned the villagers 'Ko Kumari?' which eventually gave the village its name 'Komari'. "Later the princess drifted ashore at Arugam Bay and the villagers told King Kawantissa that the princess had landed at 'Ara Gama' which later changed into 'Arugam', " a villager at Pottuvil explained.

Shasthrawela Viharaya situated in Pottuvil is believed to be Devi's school while Magul Maha Viharaya is said to be the place where Princess Vihara Maha Devi got married to King Kawantissa. Although the legend has it all explained, the story is yet to be backed by archaeological evidence. But veteran archaeologist, Ven. Ellawala Medhananda Thera, the only archaeologist to conduct research at the site, is convinced about its authenticity.


According to Ven. Medhananda Thera, the temple is one of the oldest temples in the country with its history dating back to the early Anuradhapura period.

He believes the temple to have been constructed by an early line of kings.

"The temple could be almost 2000 years old," he pointed out, while adding that the majority of the artifacts still lie under the sand . During the initial excavations nearly 100 stone pillars were discovered buried under the sand suggesting a large Buddhist monastery and a temple complex buried under the sands of time.


Most of these stone pillars are no longer on site and were sold as artifacts to foreigners and antique dealers while the chief incumbent of the temple, Kataragama Siriratana Thera, watched helpless.

"Although the Archaeological Department appointed a watcher, much harm is being done by him than good," the Ven. Thera pointed out. He said that the Archaeological Department authorities have not taken any step to stop the deliberate sacrilege unleashed on Muhudu Maha Viharaya.

These planned acts of vandalism began in the mid '90s when a leading politician of the SLMC bulldozed nearly 1000 years of a stupa in the temple, he pointed out.

"The stupa was strong proof that there was an age of temples and monasteries in the area and this politician who was planning to eliminate the traces of a temple, destroyed the stupa overnight leaving just a pile of bricks at the premises," said the Ven. Thera. The uninvestigated archaeological reservation, which surrounds the temple, amounts to 30 acres according to the gazette notification issued in 1965. "The majority of the temple's artifacts were discovered during a two year excavation initiated in 1960 and the area was gazetted as an archaeological reservation after the discovery of wide spread monasteries buried underground," said Sirirathana Thera.


However, the archeological reservation of the Muhudu Maha Viharaya has been diminished to a mere five acres today with planned and rapid encroachment by many Sri Lanka Muslim Congress MPs in the area, he pointed out. According to Sirirathana Thera, the encroachment started in the early 1980s when the East was a focal point of terrorism and violence.


"The chief incumbent and many priests living in the temple were forced to abandon the temple due to the rising violence," he said. On his return in the early '90s he found the temple land encroached upon.

"However, I did not complain since I did not want to deprive the encroachers of a living space," he said. But the dimension of the problem dawned upon the Ven. Thera when Muslim Congress MPs started distributing the temple land among more and more people and encroachment surrounded the archeological conservation left, right and centre.


The encroachers are using most of the invaluable artifacts for their home construction while destroying proof of a temple on site.


An encroacher who destroyed two statues at the statue house of the temple believed to be of King Kawantissa and Queen Devi later pleaded insanity and was released by the court on directions to follow a course of treatment. "This man was not insane and he is not following any treatment," Ven. Sirirathana Thera said adding that it was act vandalism. Meanwhile repeated complaints to the Department of Archaeology, Cultural Ministry and Ministry of Buddasasana have gone unheard or unattended.


According to the Department of Archaeology, the Ampara regional archaeological director has informed the main office that no such encroachment is taking place and authorities are negotiating with the incumbent Thera to give the temple another 30 acres with no archaeological value.


However, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Ministry of Buddasasana has initiated another inquiry against the chief incumbent of the temple on a complaint made by a former SLMC MP


In his letter to the authorities he had pointed that he is greatly distressed by the vandalistic acts of the monk in charge of the temple. He alleges that the Ven. Thera is selling the artifacts of the temple and is involved with drug dealing and smuggling.


The Pottuvil police have failed to find any evidence to back these allegations. The Ven. Thera has had several death threats since the '90s. A chat with the encroachers revealed that they had been 'planted' at the temple site which is close to Pottuvil town, from other areas. Many of them are Muslims and believe that the declaration of an archaeological reservation is just leaving good land wasted.


Many were eager to distance themselves from vandalism but felt that more temple land should be spared to built an access road to their homes. The unspoilt beach line behind the temple is becoming rapidly encroached thanks to the politicians.


An inhabitant of Peanut Farm, one of the few beach lines in Pottuvil, which still remains the same, told us the 'secret' behind the encroachment. According to him, two former ministers had tried to remove them (a small fisherman group) from their own lands in the forests of Peanut Farm on grounds of conservation "while we came to know that they were planning to sell the lands to a Korean hotelier." A lengthy court case has stopped the threats at Peanut Farm but the threat looms the same in Muhudu Maha Viharaya, where environment and history are at the mercy of political encroachers and
vandals.

A temple unlike any other

By Damitha Hemachandra


It is a place where history was made when the daughter of King Kelanitissa, the ruler of the Kelaniya kingdom married the King of Rohana, King Kavantissa, which unified Sri Lanka.


Built to celebrate this union which changed the face of Sri Lankan history forever, Magul Maha Viharaya hosts many characteristics not found in many a temple.


Situated in Lahugala, amidst an elephant infested forest reserve of Lahugala Kithulana, Magul Maha Viharaya carries the look of a lost city hidden amidst the towering trees of the jungle.


The 200-acre archaeological site scattered with temple complexes and granaries sets it apart from any other temple.


According to the chief incumbent of the Magul Maha Viharaya, Ven. Hulannuge Ratanasara Thera, the temple had been home to 12,000 arahants some 2000 years ago.


According to him, the temple had been designed to serve the purpose of a monastery and a fortress where food, weapons and animals were kept in preparation for the Dutugemunu-Elara war.


Moreover, the temple complex itself consists of three courtyards, exterior, interior and centre.


The outer yard comprises a heavy stone wall with seven ponds which provided water to the temple. The interior was house to the bhikshus who inhabited the temple, while the central courtyard comprises of the main interests of the temple.


The image house with an unusual sandakadapahana where the mahout accompanies the elephant and a bodhi-ghara, which was originally the poruwa of Princess Maya and King Kavantissa, are the main attractions of the central courtyard.


The central courtyard or the vihara maluwa also comprises a vihara geya, with a statue of the Buddha sculptured in moonstones, and a dagoba, which is greatly tried by time and weather. The side entrances to the Vihara Maluwa stand upright while the main entrance is a pile of ruins today.


The story of Princess Maya and King Kavantissa is yet to be proved by archaeological evidence. The oldest archaeological evidence found in the form of a stone inscription states that the temple was constructed by King Datusena and was renovated by a second Vihara Maha Devi, who was the wife of Buwanakabahu 4 and Parakramabahu 5 during the 14th century.


" Although the historical importance of the temple was known to the authorities the Cultural Ministry and the Archaeological Department is yet to take strong steps to protect the site," said Ven. Ratanasara Thera, pointing to the rare sandakadapahana covered by earth.


While blaming the authorities for their inaction to preserve the artifacts the Thera also accused the authorities of hindering the development work at the temple site.

"We are not allowed to build or develop inside the archaeological reservation," he said adding that attempts to build a resting place for the pilgrims outside the reserve grounds too were not allowed by authorities.


The temple grounds are being encroached by farmers in Pottuvil who are searching for more farming land.


Ven. Ratanasara Thera, the last of five generations who were the guardians of the temple, seems to be fighting a losing battle with nature, authorities and encroachers.