Mahiyangana

Mahiyangana
මහියංගනය
Town

Mahiyangana Clock Tower
Mahiyangana
Coordinates: 7°19′00″N 80°58′58″E / 7.31667°N 80.98278°E / 7.31667; 80.98278Coordinates: 7°19′00″N 80°58′58″E / 7.31667°N 80.98278°E / 7.31667; 80.98278
Country Sri Lanka
Province Uva Province
District Badulla
Time zone Sri Lanka Standard Time Zone (UTC+5:30)

Mahiyanganaya is a town situated close to the Mahaweli River in Badulla District, Uva Province of Sri Lanka. It is said that Gautama Buddha visited Mahiyanganaya on the full moon Poya day of January in order to settle a dispute arose between Yakkas and Nagas (two tribes then inhabited this area) and this was his first ever visit to Sri Lanka. Then the Buddha preached Dhamma to Sumana Saman, a leader in this area, to whom the Buddha gave a handful of his hair relic so that people could worship. After that Sumana Saman (now the god Sumana Saman) built a golden chethiya in which the sacred hair relic was deposited. Later on about seven chethiyas were built over the original golden chethiya from time to time, the last one being built by the King Dutugemunu. As such, this historic town is a very sacred place for Buddhists.

a panorama view of sorabora wewa

The majority of the people in this area are engaged in paddy cultivation being the main economic activity.

The name

Mahiyangana is a Pali word (in Sinhalese Bintenna) which means flat land. It is situated eastwards to the steep eastern falls of central hills. The relative flatness of the area can be seen while traveling on the road from Kandy to Padiyathalawa across Hunnasgiriya and famous 18 hairpin bends.

Transport

The nearest railway station is Badulla. Mahiyangana is connectend to cities and towns like Kandy, Badulla, Polonnaruwa, Ampara and Monaragala by main roads.

See also

References


    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 2/11/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.