Wewurukannala temple

The giant statue, and the climb behind it

The temple’s full name is Wewurukannala Buduraja Maha Viharaya, and local families come here to pray. From the car park, a few steps lead up into a wide, sandy courtyard, and the statue is already in view, rising high above the shrine roofs.

The seated Buddha has a calm face and golden-yellow robes, and it sits on a base of pink lotus petals. It is said to have been unveiled on 2 March 1969, so it is much younger than the temple around it.

Many guidebooks say the statue is 160 feet (49 metres) tall. But nobody seems to have measured it, and photos suggest it is nearer 30 metres (100 feet): about as tall as an eight-storey building. Either way, it is one of the biggest seated Buddha statues in Sri Lanka.

A tall building stands right behind it. Older reports say stairs inside lead up near the statue’s head, with a view over the temple roofs and the palms. We found no report of the climb from 2025 or 2026, so ask at the temple whether the stairs are open. Reports say they are narrow: hold the handrail.

The painted hall

On the way to the statue you walk through a long hall of life-size models and wall paintings. They show demons punishing people for bad deeds: people boiled in pots, cut with saws and worse. The scenes teach a Buddhist idea, that bad actions bring bad results. The models are old-fashioned and not lifelike, but the scenes are violent.

If you have young children, look first. They can see the statue from the courtyard without going through the hall.

Shrine rooms, the old temple and its clock

In the courtyard stand a big white stupa (a bell-shaped shrine, also called a dagoba) and a smaller one, with striped Buddhist flags on tall poles. A carved stone fountain bowl rests on small stone figures with crocodiles on their shoulders.

Two yellow lions with black manes face each other over the main doorway of the long white temple front. Inside, the shrine rooms are full of colour. Hundreds of small paintings tell the life of the Buddha and the Jataka tales (stories of his past lives). Life-size statues of monks and worshippers stand among them, and there is a large reclining Buddha.

The oldest shrine room is thought to date from about 1780. A wooden pavilion where monks chant is marked 18 July 1839, and it is painted with Jataka tales. The temple museum keeps a chiming clock made by a Sri Lankan craftsman in the 1920s. The temple bought it in 1928 for 3,000 rupees, and it still rings every morning and evening; its moving parts sit in a glass case.

Dress and manners in the shrine rooms

In Sri Lanka, disrespect towards a Buddha image is treated as a crime, and UK travel advice says it can lead to arrest.

• Shoes and hats come off at the door of each shrine room. Leave your shoes where others have left theirs.
• Shoulders and knees stay covered. Throw a scarf over your shoulders, or wrap a sarong (a long cloth) round your waist. We couldn’t confirm that the temple lends them.
• Photos: never with a statue behind you. The national tourism website asks visitors not to be photographed in front of or next to statues or wall paintings at religious sites at all. No flash on the old paintings, and ask before photographing anyone at prayer.
• Tattoos: keep any Buddha tattoo out of sight. UK advice says a visible one can get a visitor turned away at the border or made to leave the country.

The chained elephant

For years, visitors have written about an elephant kept in chains at the back of the temple. Reports from 2012 to February 2026 mention it, and a well-known guidebook still does. The latest reviews say it can hardly move. A few visitors felt it was cared for. We could not check this ourselves, and we found no news report or official statement.

Its handlers have asked visitors for money to touch it or pose with it. If you see the elephant, you can choose not to pay for a photo. Please don’t feed it or touch it.

Visitors from abroad said they paid about LKR 200 to 250 (under US$1) in 2025 and 2026. We found no price list online, and nothing on children’s prices or on Sri Lankans paying.

People may also ask you for donations several times, at the shrines and around the grounds. Giving is up to you.

The temple keeps no published opening hours. It is open in the daytime, and guides suggest about 8 am to 5 pm. Go in the morning, when it is cooler and calmer. It is busiest on Poya days (the monthly full-moon holidays) and around Vesak, the big Buddhist festival in May. The eat and drink page lists the coming Poya days, to the end of 2027. Vesak falls on 19 May 2027.

Before you go

• Where it is: on the road from Dikwella (also spelled Dickwella) to Beliatta, with a car park beside the temple.
• Telling a driver: say “Wewurukannala pansala” (pansala means temple). In Sinhala it is written වැවුරුකන්නල පන්සල.
• By tuk-tuk: settle the fare with the driver first, including any time they wait for you.
• Steps: there are steps into the courtyard and up to the shrine rooms, and the climb behind the statue is by stairs. We found no ramp or lift.
• Heat: the courtyard is open to the sun. Bring water and a hat, and go early or late in the day. We found no reliable information about toilets or drinking water.
• Rain: a good rainy-day trip, because the shrine rooms, the painted hall and the museum are indoors. For the wettest months, read the best time to visit Hiriketiya.
• By train: Wewurukannala station is a 5-minute walk away, on the line from Matara to Beliatta. The station and some maps spell the name Wewrukannala. The train helps on a day trip from Matara or Colombo, but not from the bay.
• Another temple: the same road goes on to Beliatta, the way to Mulkirigala rock temple, about 50 minutes from the bay.

How old is the temple?

Its story goes back to the late 1700s, when kings still ruled from Kandy, in the hills. It is linked to King Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha, who ruled from the early 1780s to 1798. Local history says the first monk here was one of the king’s sons, who lived in a roadside rest house.

A second shrine room was added in 1899. In 2012 the oldest shrine room and the ordination hall (where people become monks) were made protected monuments by law. We have seen that government notice only as quoted by a local history website.

The famous Sinhala writer Kumaratunga Munidasa was born in Dikwella in 1887. When he was young, he studied old languages at the temple’s school for monks. Paintings from the temple have even appeared on Sri Lankan stamps.

For more trips, see places near the bay. To plan your stay, read how many days in Hiriketiya.