Place · Buddhist temple complex · Sri Lanka
Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo
Also known as Sri Gangarama Mahaviharaya, Śrī Gangārāma Mahāwihāraya, Padawthota Gangaramaya Viharaya, Seema Malaka
Gangaramaya is one of Colombo's principal Buddhist temples, founded in the late nineteenth century beside Beira Lake by the shipping merchant Don Bastian de Silva Jayasuriya Goonewardane for the monk Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera. Its dagaba, gateway and moonstone were modelled on Anuradhapura, and its Bo tree grew from a sapling of the Sri Maha Bodhi there. Its Seema Malaka, an assembly hall on platforms in the lake, was redesigned by Geoffrey Bawa in 1976.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 6.916, 79.856
Worth knowing
The Seema Malaka was rebuilt with money from a Muslim businessman, S. H. Musaji, in memory of his son, and its corners hold shrines to Shiva, Vishnu, Kataragama and Ganesha, with a figure of Guanyin at the entrance.
About the place
Placed at the coordinates given on the Wikipedia article; the Seema Malaka is a few hundred metres east.
Connections (4)
- Site withinColombo
Gangaramaya stands by Beira Lake in central Colombo, on marshy land bought from three Moors and filled at great expense by the nineteenth-century shipping merchant Don Bastian de Silva Jayasuriya Goonewardane for the scholar-monk Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera. Wikipedia's Colombo article names it one of the most important temples in the city. It runs a museum, a library, a pirivena and welfare work from the same premises, and its Seema Malaka sits in the lake a few hundred metres east.
- Sacred transplantAnuradhapura
Gangaramaya's founder modelled its entrance on Anuradhapura, building a dagaba, a decorative arch and a sandakada pahana, or moonstone, copied from those of the ancient capital, and planting with his own hands a Bo sapling brought from the Sri Maha Bodhi there. The temple's Seema Malaka, rebuilt by Geoffrey Bawa in 1976, was inspired by the forest monasteries of Anuradhapura and Ritigala, and its own Bodhi tree was grown from a branch of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi.
- Site adjacencyGalle Face Green, Colombo
Gangaramaya's Seema Malaka, the meditation pavilion Geoffrey Bawa rebuilt on Beira Lake in 1976, lies about two kilometres south-east of Galle Face Green, and the green itself was once bounded to the north by Beira Lake and the fort ramparts. The two places show two faces of central Colombo: the colonial seafront esplanade laid out for races, golf and promenades, and the lakeside Buddhist temple founded by a nineteenth-century Colombo merchant.
- Site adjacencyLotus Tower, Colombo
The Lotus Tower and Gangaramaya both stand on Beira Lake, the 65-hectare lake in the heart of Colombo that colonists once used to defend the city. The tower's design draws on the lotus, a symbol of purity in Sri Lankan culture, and its base on the lotus throne, while Gangaramaya's Seema Malaka rests on platforms in the same water ringed by seated Buddhas. An old Buddhist emblem and a working temple thus share one city lake.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Gangaramaya Temple", "Seema Malaka".
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