CAFE ROBOT – Seeduwa

 

We are living in a technological era. Time to time technology is rapidly changing. Everything is adapted on the technology. So many developed countries use robotic technology for make their work easy. Can you imagine how it is? Do you think it is a dream or miracle? No, it is happening. It is a reality.
This is a time to stop imagine. Now you all can have such kind of robotic experience in our country also. It will be a great experience for you. That is a café; CAFÉ ROBOT. This is a first ever robotic café and experience in Sri Lanka. This robotic innovation is done by a student at university of Moratuwa. We should give our support and encourage for this kind of innovative different approaches. They use minimum of human engagement and most of services are done by robots such as taking orders, serving foods. This café is calm and romantic by its nature. In there, you can try different types of delicious foods at affordable price such as Italian foods, sea food, cakes, burgers, pizza, cocktail, desserts, wine and soup etc. I think, it will be a great and magical experience for you. Go and enjoy.
Address: 795/A, Liyanagemulla, Seeduwa.
It is open from 12.00 pm to 10.30 pm
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Important Ancient Village in Aththanagalla - Alawala

Alawala is an ancient rural village located by Western province, Gampaha district at an ancient region of Aththnagalla in Sri Lanka it has a historical background as well.

There are various places in Alawala village have an ancient value. Such as Pothgul Len Viharaya, Alawala caves and Alawala Devin Panna Ella etc.

 

The discovery of the remains of two pre-historic humans and other artifacts in a cave in Alawala, Gampaha has got a group of Archaeology students and other specialists digging for more clues to our mysterious past. The discovery of the remains of two pre-historic humans and other artifacts in a cave in Alawala, Gampaha has got a group of Archaeology students and other specialists digging for more clues to our mysterious past.

 

 

For the team from the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya this cave near the Alawala village in the Gampaha district is a treasure trove. The team members have about them the air of detectives, who with patient and plodding work are unravelling mysteries many thousands of years in the making. Around 52 students from the Masters' programme are working with specialists including, archeo-chemists, botanists, geologists and biospealeologists in an attempt to recreate the lives of these two pre-historic humans and their finds might challenge many of our conventional ideas about how our ancient ancestors lived.

Alawala Pothgul Len Rajamaha Viharaya at Gamaha carries a history starting from Anuradhapura Era up to the Kandyan Era. The temple premises of 60 acres encompass the three caves that are located in the surroundings: Vihara Lena, Potgul Lena and Thapo Lena. The main attraction of the temple is the massive cave called Vihara Lena. The main reclining Buddha statue lying along the length of the cave belongs to the Kandyan Era but has been reconstructed following damage caused by treasure hunters. The On either side are two seated statues, one belonging to the Anuradhapura era (beginning 377 BC) and the other to the Kandyan Era (beginning 1500s).

This is a 45m tall  Alawala Devin Panna Ella Falls (also known as “Dunu Mala Ella” and “Uduwaka Ella” waterfall) and the surrounding area are of great historical importance and steeped in legend.

Near the Devin Panna Ella there are three large caves, one stretching back for a distance of about 0.5km and according to local villagers the nearby town of Ratnapura can be reached through it. In ancient times Sri Lanka’s King Vijayabahu III is said to have made a home of two of the caves. Along similarly royal lines, the ashes of Sri Lanka’s ancient King Parakamabahu II are said to be enshrined in the Dambadeni Seya Stupa in the nearby Attanagalla Raja Maha Viharaya (temple).

Also, near the fall itself five holes that are found in a rock are believed to have been used by ancient queens to play the indigenous game known as Pancha. According to local villagers, the streams that serve the fall have never dried up, even in spells of the most severe drought, and a nearby deep pool known as Alipalawalla was used hundreds of years ago to bath elephants.

At the present people come to the Alawala village at the weekends and other holidays to bath, swim and be enjoy. Due to these reasons there are various problems can be seen in the present. People don’t think and care about these places and these things must be protect for the future generations. They eat and drink near these places and throw garbage at these places. Due to these reasons the Divisional Secretariat at Aththanagalla has been taken number of actions to protect these places.

 

 

 

 

Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home and Udawalawe National Park

 

Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home.

Eth Athuru Sewana or the “Elephant Transit Home” is the Asia’s first rehabilitation center for elephants. Established in 1995 by the Wild Life conservation Department the center lies on a 200 the Udawalawe National Park.

Baby elephant are sometimes injured by human laid traps or gunshot wounds. Some calves are orphaned when the mother dies or is killed. The center takes in the sick, wounded or orphaned baby elephants and feeds them until they are able to live alone and release them to various national parks. Around 220 (elephant) calves have been brought to Eth Athuru Sevana since its inception.

 

Elephant transit home public viewing of feeding is premitted daily at 9.a.m , noon, 3.p.m and at  6.p.m. Managing thr health and welfare of elephant calves with very little support from the labs and the lack of medial knowledge and experience in the country is also another challenge facing ETH officials. The ETH welcomes any contribution forward feeding the calves which can be inform of cash or milk powder.

 

 

 

Udawalawa National Park 

Udawalawe National Park is in the southern dry-zone of Sri Lanka. Udawalawe National Park established in the year 1972, with the objective of protecting the catchment area of Udawalawe reservoir, which provides water for agriculture and hydro-power generation spreads over an area 30821, resembles an African game park it is mainly thorny shrub Jungle with grasslands.

 

Udawalawa National Park is one of the world’s best places to see wild elephants. It is famous for large population of elephants. The Udawalawe reservoir is situated within the boundaries of the park, and draws its water from the Horton plains reserve, the peak wilderness sanctuary and the Haputale area. The Reservoir has become an important area for breeding aquatic birds.

 

The main attraction of the park are the water Buffalo, Wild boar, spotted deer, Jackal, Samber, Black-naped hare, mongooses, bandicoots, foxes, the endemic Toque Macaque and Gray Langers. 10 leopards live in Udawalawe National Park Most travelers visiting the Udawalawe National Park do this by booking an organized tour at their accommodation you can go into the park with a guide who can tell you everything about the park and the animals inside the park. In addition to the elephants you might also see kingfishers, crocodile, Eagles, peacocks and deer on an Udawalawe Safari drive.

One of the most insidious impacts of the pandemic on wild life conservation in Sri Lanka has been the rise in poaching during the lockdown, as well as illegal logging and gem mining. Reports in the local media estimate that around 600 wild birds and animals have been killed each day since the beginning of the lockdown. The lack of food security and loss of employment are among the reasons for the rise in poaching. With no one out there to protect it, wildlife is more vulnerable than ever.

As one of the leading tourist destinations in Sri Lanka, Udawalawe National Park and Elephant Transit Home contribute to enhancing the overall brightness and importance and provide a major boost to Sri Lanka’s economy. Regional communities in particular benefit from the thousands people who visit Udawalawe National Park each year, through job creation and money spent on accommodation, fuel and food.

Kataragama

 

  Kataragama is a multi-religious sacred city as it contains an Islamic mosque within its temple complex as well. Kataragama is one of Sri Lanka’s holy places where Hindu, Buddhist and Muslims visit on religious pilgrimage. It is a large Complex with the ‘Mahadewala’ – Main Hindu shrine being the most important place. This shrine of God Skanda, the Hindu war God who is worshipped as the Kataragama Deviyo is venerated by pilgrims of all three religions.

It is believed that King Dutugemunu the warrior king and Sinhala folk hero built a shrine here for worship of the Kataragama God in the 2nd century BC. There is also a first century BC Buddhist Dagoba – ‘Kiri vehera’ at this site. According to the legend, Lord Buddha, on his third and the last visit to Sri Lanka, was believed to have met the King Mahasena who ruled over the Kataragama area in 580 BC.

Tamil Hindus of Sri Lanka and South Indian refer to the place as Kathirkamam and it has a famous Hindu shrine dedicated to Lord Kathirkaman. The presiding Deity is Lord Murugan or Skanda. Out of love for Lord Murugan and to lessen bad fate, bhakters pierce their cheeks and tongues with vels, pull large chariots carrying Murthi of Murugan with large hooks that have been pierced through the skin of their backs. This practice is known as Kavadi. The annual Hindu Kataragama festival is held in July and August.

The local river namely Manik Ganga (River of Gems) is a sacred place where the pilgrims take a bath

to purify oneself. Local residents declare that one can be healed of ailments by bathing in it not only from its high gem content but also the medicinal properties of the roots of various trees that line the river through the jungle.

In spite of the differences of caste and creed, many Sri Lankans show great reverence to God Kataragama. They honour him as a very powerful deity and beg divine help to overcome their personal problems or for success in business enterprise.

Things to do in Kataragama

• Visit the Kataragama Temple
  
  
  
• Visit the Kirivehera
• Visit the Maha Devale
• Take part of view the Kataragama Festival

But at present Many problems have arisen at the sacred place of Katharagama. Those are the wandering of a lot of beggars, charging a lot of money for sacrifice trays, selling low grade sacrifice trays and biased charging for parking. It is important that the authority pay attention to this problems.

 

Sigiriya

 

 

Sigiriya is the wonder of the nature.Also it named as a 8th world wonder by UNESCO.Sigiriya also known as the Lion's rock is a rock fortrees and it located in Mathale district of Sri lanka.Sigiriya is most famous visiting place among the locals and tourists .Sigiriya was built by king Kashyapa for his kingdom .In earlier sigiriya was a rock- shelter mountain  monastery  which was donated by buddhists. Also after king Kashyapa's death.it was again use as monastery.King Kashyapa renovated the sigiriya  by building gardens and places. sigiriya has wonderful irrigation technology and architectural plan .Mainly we can identify most importantly things about sigiriya when we going to gether the data .frescoes is the most important thing in the sigiriya . There are only two pockets of painting on the western face of the rock.

Those called as " Sigiri Apsaras".how ever a lot of these paintings have been wiped out when this place was  convert into monstery .Second valuable thing is the gardens. Sigiriya has divided into four main parts as water gardens, caves, boulder gardens and terraced gardens. mirror wall  is one of the most popular tourist attraction in sigiriya.In the past, the place got its name from  the fact that the king could be seen his portait of king walkinh in infront of the mirror wall.But the wall is now partially covered with verses scribbled by visitors to the rock.Finaly ,As a Sri Lankan I would like to say we must protect the proud of the nature.

Ratnapura Maha Saman Devalaya

 

Maha Saman Devalaya or the Sumana Saman Devalaya also called Great Saman Temple is a shrine dedicated to Deity Saman, situated at Rathnapura District of Sabaragamuwa Province in Sri Lanka. Who is the presiding deity of the Sri Pada Mountain (Adam’s Peak) which is also called Samanthakuta meaning the mountain of Saman which is believed to have the left foot impression of Buddha which he kept in his visit to Sri Lanka. An architecture types of Sumana Saman Devalaya is Devalaya and which was founded by King Parakramabahu Ⅱ. Every architecture task was completed in 1270.

The Saparagamuwa Maha Saman Devalaya is considered the main devalaya of deity Sri Sumana Saman except for the shrine at top of Sri Pada, who considered as one of the guardian gods of Sri Lanka, Deity Saman is deeply venerated in the region of Rathnapura and related areas in the Province of Sabaragamuwa of Sri Lanka, he is recorded to have been a district administrator of the region contemporary to Buddha who he met on the former's visit to Sri Lanka. According to the Mahavansa the chronicle of ancient Sri Lanka, it is mentioned that the Administrator Saman, attained the first level of enlightenment Sotapanna at the end of the Sermon of Buddha. After the demise of Saman, the administrator of Deva Clan he has started to be venerated as a God or a Deity.

The shrine is believed after the demise of Saman, his Clan of Deva started to venerate him by erecting a shrine for him. And it's believed there had been a Temple called Saparagama Viharaya, in the same premises in the Anuradhapura era of Sri Lanka, as it's mentioned in Mahavansa that monks from the said temple attended to the opening ceremony of Ruwanwelisaya of King Dutugamunu. Anyway, the present shrine is said to have built by a court minister is Dambadeniya era of Sri Lanka named Aryakamadeva, in the patronage of king Parakramabahu Ⅱ, in 1270 AD, as a fullfillment of his vow to erect a shrine in the name of deity Saman, if his effort to find gems is successful.

The Perahara (Procession) is during the time that Tooth Relic of Buddha was transferred to Delgamuwa Raja Maha Viharaya, in a war time, during king Parakramabahu 6's period the shrine held the Esala Perahara or the Procession of the Tooth Relic for 11 years. Later under king Rajasinghe, the Saman Perahara joined to the Esala Perahara. Since then the Maha Saman Devalaya hoists the Esala Perahara in the month of August-September annually.

 

Prior to the festival's commencement, age-old rituals like the Pirith Ceremony chanting of Buddhist sutras for protection, Kap Situveema called a symbolical wooden tower being planted are held and the smaller processions called Kumbal and Dewele Peraharas are held. After that, the main procession takeplace and it concludes with Diya Kapeema. (The symbolic water cutting ceremony) All of which are held for 13 days under the supervision of the chief incumbent called Basnayake Nilame of the shrine. So, the procession is filled with cultural items and dancing from different regions of Sri Lanka as well as features many elephants decorated in different garments. The main cultural item of the Saman Dewa Perahara in Sumana Saman Dewalaya is called "Mahababa Kolama" which is indigenous for Sabaragamuwa Province. The perahara festival is visited by thousands of people from all over the Sri Lanka as well the world, and while the final perahara is telecasted, all Perahara's are online broadcasted via You tube.

It is our absolute duty to preserve such a precious place, but it has suffered the same fate today. We heard to know that there are a lot of lands and properties belong to Dewalaya and some of the harvest of Gem obtaining from those lands should give to Dewalaya due to God Saman. But we got know that those harvest are used by Nilame positions worked in Dewalaya. It should not to be let to do so and I think those should be owned by the government. Those Nilames are living in comfortably from the gains of Dewalaya.

Beside Kalu Ganga situated behind the Dewalaya is now destroyed due to sand industry and river banks are in very dangerous situation. Due to the rubbish of Dewalaya directly added to the river, those environment had face to a so miserable situation and also devotees come to the Devalaya should responsible for that matter. The places to be repaired since some years ago, but those are not repaired yet and government offices should focus their attention to preserve such a valuable heritage to our next generation.

  

 

The crowning glory of Buddhism - Jaya Sri Maha bodhi Anuradhapura

 

 

 

 

The sacred city of Anuradhapura has been nominated by UNESCO as world heritage because of the Jaya Sri maha Bodhi. The Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi has been planted in the historical maha megavana royal park in Anuradhapura in the month of "uduwap",236BC. the present age of the Anuradhapura Jaya Sri Maha bodhi is 2,247 years. this tree belongs to the family of trees known as "asvastha" in Sanskrit,"asvattha" in pali,"asathu" in Sinhala. botanists have named is "ficus religiosa".loard gauthama budfa attrined Samma sambodhi enlightment seated with his back against it under the Jaya Sri maha bodhi tree of Bodhgaya, India. the Jaya Sri maha bodi of Anuradhapura bring the southetn branch of that secred bodhi tree. Anuradhapura mahaviharaya is a highly venerated sacred monastery.

 

consisting of a large number of sacred places including the Anuradhapura atamasthanaya. most venerable atamasthanadhipathi nayaka thero maintainer those atamasthanaya in a most responsible manner. but the pilgrims who come to worship the Jaya Sri maha bodhiya. they do not dispose of their waste properly and through flower syaks and waste foods here and there. because of that monkey population is increasing rapidly around the Jaya Sri maha bodhi. finally, as a Buddhist, I kindly request the pilgrimed to carry out their duties without polluting the area around the shrine. because we must bequeath our national resources to the future generation.

 

Fading Eco-tourism village in Madurawala- Ampitigala

 

 

Madurawala is an ancient rural village located by one of four main rivers in Sri Lanka named "Kalu" and it has a historical background as well.

Madurawala -Ampitigala Eco-tourism village was started by the "Discover Madurawala" Eco-tourism project managed by the Madurawala Tourism Development foundation, costing 116 lax in rupees.  The purpose of this project was to use ecotourism as a tool to preserve the environment and biodiversity to assure maximum socio-economic benefits to the community and minimizing poverty, preserve the age-old culture and heritage of the community for the next generation, and to provide in-depth education and information about quality development of tourism for all stakeholders. With the support of the SRI LANKA ECOTOURISM FOUNDATION, Erasmus program of the European community with its project "Sustainable Tourism agents for the rural Societies" under the Mahinda Chinthana in 2008.

Until 2012, Madurawala village was a sleepy village, and many people of the village including Buddhist monks, schoolteachers, the elderly local community did not like tourism to come to their village. But after conducting series of regular awareness and training programs on ecotourism, villagers slowly understood how it is valuable.

By this project, a good income was being generated and shared amongst the community of the village through homestay program, operating tours to the cultural and heritage sites, regeneration of traditional crafts, such as pottery, ironwork, weaving scale of handicrafts, dairy and agricultural products were the most important income-generating ecotourism activities.

However, many local industries including pottery and textiles which were operated for local and foreign tourists were collapsed and those buildings are rundown today due to low maintenance.

Today, many of the people who are living in this tourist village have to face many financial and other problems after the Easter attack and the restriction of tourist arrivals due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Madurawala tourist village was a destination for local and foreign tourists and school children on educational trips have won the best tourist village award presented by the ministry of tourism once every six-year. So this is a valuable heritage for us to protect on behalf of our next generations as well. So, this is one of the villages that have always been a tourist attraction, and a valuable resource for our country to generate more foreign exchange. There’s no point in looking for another attention to this, If we can see, this problem as a Sri Lankan regardless of race, religion, party, or position, we can secure our losing resources like this.