Mysterious Rocks of Wellawaya, Sri Lanka

This is one of the wonderful locations for all those people who like surprises in the last part of an off compressed track in a forest that breezes your mind away. There is a temple named Buduruwagala, this is an ancient Buddhist temple that can be noticed at the last part of an off beaten track close to Wellawaya district in one of those unusual surprises that expects you in the center of a forest.

This historic place is near by an out of this world lake which is known for the unexplained sculptures that are engraved around the temple. The lake is man made and it is almost as old as the sculpture conveys a beauty to the seven mysterious sculptures of the Buddhist tribe standing as tall as 51 feet building them the world’s tallest piece of rock sculpture.

As there are no printed essays or any type of dedication around the carvings, it is fairly hard to utter how old they probably are. The rocks themselves are bizarrely shaped in the form on a bended elephant with its head bent down, as if trouncing under the trunks.

But it has been initiated that it possibly belonged to the era of King Valagamba of the Anuradhapura Kingdom in 10th century. The tall statue of Buddha stands in the middle as three other forms stand on same side of the statue making them seven on number.

One of these statues is the Avalokateshwara who is considered to grant welfare to those who are powerless. Alongside this statue stands his wife, Tara, who is appeared to be carrying the flower of Ambrosia and supposed protect natural calamities such as earthquakes and floods and so on.

Most of the statues are representing the Bodhisatva, which was common at the time of the Mahayana tribe, like the Vajrapani or God Sakra that is carved beside the giant statue of Buddha and others.

To verify the truth these sculptures looked at the time of the Mahayana sect, one of the sculptures also comprise, Maithri who was one more of the Bodhisatva. So although there are no apparent records, it is fairly transparent that they were possibly made at the 10th century.