Right throughout the year in Sri Lanka there is an exodus of pilgrims on pilgrimage to Dambadiva, where the hallowed sites connected with the life and times of Siddharta Gautama before and after His Supreme Enlightenment are found.
However Punchi Dambadiva (Little Dambadiva) is located along the Colombo - Ratnapura - Pelmadulla - Embilipitiya main highway - near Nonagama Junction off the 22nd km post from Ratnapura. From there lies its turn off along a mountain winding metalled narrow road running to about 12 km.
This Punchi Dambadiva reposes itself in the lap of the Sabaragamuwa Province, where in the hazy distance loom the holy mountain profiles of Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak), the holiest peak of all the peaks in our fair isle.
The verdant valleys are saddled copiously with carpets of tea, rubber, cocoa, coffee gardens, interlaced with lush jungle, terraced rice fields set against the backdrop of wooded hills, where whispering rills, cascade down falling into boisterous rock pools.
Amidst such awe-inspiring mountain capes, there comes into view this fascinating Punchi Dambadiva peeping out of a hillock harbouring a sprawling complex of lofty mansions filling the spread out landscapes far and wide.
It is fascinatingly skirted by the meandering Rath Ganga flowing lazily by.
Ven. Girimale Chandraloka Thera is the dynamic Viharadhipathi - Founder of this temple named Rathganga Asu Maha Shrawaka Pas Visu Rajamaha Viharaya.
As time grew by, he still strived indefatigably to bring this Punchi Damabadiva into a plurality of buildings modelled out on the very such Buddhist sites found in Dambadiva like Buddhagaya, Jethawanarama, Kusinara, Lumbini and the like.
The first Buddhist Convention during the Buddha’s life times was held at Jethawanaramaya in Dambadiva in a conclave of eighty Arahants (highest Buddhist Sages). Among them were Deepankara Buddha, Kassyapa and Gautama Buddha and so on.
This sanctified event had been spectacularly modelled out in clay plaster and lime in the form of statues in glittering decor, while the murals are fascinatingly adorned with the lively episodes of Jataka Stories depicting the life and times of the Bodisatta and then the Buddha.
Hence it has been fittingly named as Suvisi Vivarana Vihara Mandiraya. It comprises of the replicas of Suvisi - (24) Buddha statues, together with 80 other
statues which are consecrated under one roof, are considered to be the only such models found not
only in Sri Lanka, but in the world.
