Sri Lankan Travelogue : Expedition Budupatunna : in search for lost heritage

It was an exciting and fresh morning. After a good night sleep followed by the heartwarming hospitality by the villagers and some hours of listening to interesting folklores, we were ready for our main mission of the visit. By 6.30 am Ashan joined with Theshantha who took the night bus from Colombo to Athimale were at the doorstep.

A quick but filling breakfast was taken and all packed into Yohan’s jeep with as much as possible water bottles in their backpacks and were ready to go. Another three villagers joined us on the way while our journey proceeded through chena cultivations off the roads, along the river Vila Oya. Our plan was to drive as deep as possible into the jungle in order to reduce the distance we had to walk.

Having reached the border of the village’s chena lands we left the vehicle under the shade of a big tree and proceeded towards the jungle. The initial part of our journey was through a jungle patch until we reached the river. About 20 minutes of walking brought us to the river which was totally dried up because of the many months long severe drought. The rest of our journey of about six kilometers was along this river.

starting the walk

Entered the river


there were many of them. but had no time to waste photographing them

Oh, apologies for not telling where we were going. Budupatunna! Heard of it? I don’t think so. I don’t think even some of the archaeologists have heard that name. Even I had no clue when I saw the initial discussion started by NG on Lakdaun forum (www.lakdasun.org). Joining the Lakdasun forum and becoming an active member was a turning point of my life. It refined my traveler instincts and desire to travel and made me more than a ‘trip enthusiast’.

However after a great effort of map reading, literature reviews and inquiring NG, Yohan and Priyanjan were able to roughly locate the site somewhere in Kotiyagala. Then rest of the mission was undertaken by Ashan who dropped the bomb suddenly by announcing that he has found the place and even visited it. Since that day we were planning our journey, getting delayed for about one year due to various reasons until this day.

It was a hard journey. The path was a totally dried up river, the walking was on soft sand which was burying our feet as soon as we set on it, the sun was burning hot on a clear day in the middle of the driest month of the year, but still we marched on.

first of the many pit stops

our path

smooooth

along a shady stretch

Frequent pit stops were taken, water was carefully consumed, Jeevani solution was sipped frequently and the journey was enjoyed to the max. Endless blue skies, greenery all around us, thousands of butterflies everywhere, echoing bird songs, presence of wild elephants close to our path a couple of times and endless chatting took us along the journey.

lovely

Kumbuk Poottuwa

claw marks of a sloth bear who came searching for honey on a tree trunk

giyam kole gala

Four hours into our walking, we reached the landmark where we had to enter the jungle again. Another short walk brought us to our destination. For a moment the heartbeat stopped, ears turned deaf, tongues went dumb and the time stopped. We were looking at three statues carved out of a rock boulder, hidden deep in the jungles, covered by thorny creepers and bushes. It was like an ‘Indiana Jones movie location’ as NG described after watching my video clip.

Behold.... the first sight

The largest of the three statues was the statue of Lord Buddha in the middle with equal sized two Bodhisathwa statues on either side, similar to the statues in Buduruwagala. The significance of these is that they belong to the Mahayana Buddhism style.

“The rock cut trio of figures represents the Buddha in the center flanked by Avalokitesvara (with his garment held in position by a tiger skin indicating his ascetic identity) and a bodhisattva who could well be Maitreya, as in the case of Buduruwagala” – John Guy, Indian Art and Connoisseurship : Essays in honor of Douglas Barret, page 159.

the trio of statues

destroyed

only one remaining in better shape

sort of a hood


vandalized

A Japanese team from Hosei University had come exploring this site in 1985. An old article related to their exploration triggered NG’s first discussion about Budupatunna and ended up with us going on exploring the same.

The Japanese journal says “It is thought to have been able to be able to until October 3 end of activities, to explore the ruins point of 51 points total, and include better-than-expected performance. Waketemo is U~iraoya-Budo~upato~un'na ruins, ruins of extremely rare Mahayana Buddhism system, is Shakasanzon image obtained by a round carved rock, Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka art history also archaeological also have an important value in Sri Lanka mainstream I considered.” - Sri Lanka jungle ruins exploration Corps (Fifth Corps) summary of activities

images from Japanese Journal.

images from Japanese journal

However the current status of the statues was very bad. Though it has been hidden deep in the jungle full of wild animals and once was a territory of the terrorists, Budupatunna has had no escape from the cruel greedy eyes of the treasure hunters. One of the Bodhisattva statues was totally destroyed. The head of the Buddha statue is carefully cut and removed, probably now being kept in a glass box of a billionaire’s house as a relic. The base of the statues and the pagoda nearby were dug and vandalized.

See the video clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0LCVeXNiXU

see the Buddha statue. Head is cut

one last look

It was past noon so we had to say good bye to this precious place, which probably we will never see again in any better shape. Returned to the river, had a light lunch, had a nap for about 40 minutes under the shade of a giant Kumbuk tree, we started our torturous return.

a nap after lunch

while lying down

Scorching sun had made the sand red hot and the soft sand drained all our energy. We had to preserve our remaining water as there were no water sources on the way. So we had to take more pit stops than in the morning.

Later on the heat was reduced and some large clouds provided us some shade. There were evidences of fresh elephant activities along the river after we passed those locations in the morning. As the evening fell we saw some wildlife in the close proximity. We reached the place we left our vehicle by 5p.m and marked the end of another remarkable journey.