Lankatilaka Vihara

About Lankatilaka Vihara

Lankatilaka Vihara is the grandest surviving building of the Gampola kingdom: a temple of 1344 that seems to grow out of the great bare rock it stands on, its white walls and cascading Kandyan roofs visible across the valley like a ship riding a grey stone wave. The design is a deliberate embrace: the central shrine holds a serene seated Buddha beneath a ceiling of lotus paintings, while wrapped around the same core are devales to four guardian gods of the island - Buddhist and Hindu devotion built into one structure, as the era's kings intended. An inscription in the rock itself records the founding in Sinhala and Tamil. Reached by a flight of steps cut straight into the stone, with the drummers' pavilion and bo tree on the terrace, Lankatilaka delivers the most dramatic arrival of the three-temples loop - and its finest interior.

Top Activities

• ✓The rock-cut stairway and terrace
• ✓Painted image house and seated Buddha
• ✓The four guardian devales
• ✓Rock inscriptions in two languages
• ✓Three-temples loop with Embekka and Gadaladeniya

Nearby Attractions

Closest Places in This Guide

Straight-line distances; allow considerably longer by road, especially in the hills.

• Royal Botanic Gardens, PeradeniyaNature · Family · Romantic4 km
• National Railway Museum, KadugannawaHeritage · Family5 km
• Ceylon Tea MuseumHeritage · Cultural · Family8 km
• Nelligala International Buddhist CentreCultural · Nature9 km
• Bahirawakanda Buddha StatueCultural · Heritage9 km
• Ambuluwawa TowerAdventure · Nature · Cultural10 km

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