Kothduwa Temple
An island temple around a sacred Bo tree.
Knthabrew — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kalaiarasy — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Duvindu nayanajith — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Christian Löhner diren89 — CC0 · Mafaz Zarook — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Madu Ganga, or Madu River, is a short river on Sri Lanka's south-west coast that widens at Balapitiya into a shallow lagoon dotted with mangrove islands, then reaches the sea through a narrow channel. With the smaller Randombe Lake it forms a wetland of about 915 hectares, a Ramsar site since 2003, with 15 islands by the Ramsar count, some inhabited; local lore says 64. Tradition says the Buddha's Tooth Relic rested on Kothduwa island on reaching Sri Lanka in the 4th century, and was hidden there again from the Portuguese in the 16th. The temple's Bo tree is said to come from one of 32 saplings of Anuradhapura's sacred Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi. In the early 1800s, monks back from Burma held the new Amarapura fraternity's first higher ordinations on the river itself. Some 303 plant and 248 vertebrate species have been recorded here. Motorboats thread through tunnels of mangrove roots, past water monitors, egrets, cormorants, kingfishers and the odd crocodile. Most stop at Kothduwa Temple and at an island where families peel cinnamon bark by hand and distil its oil; many also offer a fish foot spa for a fee. Balapitiya, on the Galle Road and the coastal railway, lies about 35 km north of Galle and 16 km south of Bentota as the crow flies; boat operators wait at jetties near the road bridge. Trips take 1.5 to 2 hours. Mornings and late afternoons bring more birds and less heat; the driest months, roughly January to March, suit best. Pair it with Bentota Beach.
An island temple around a sacred Bo tree.
Narrow channels under arching roots.
Bark peeled by hand, oil distilled.
Boat jetties by the Galle Road bridge, Balapitiya, Galle District
In 1799 a monk from Balapitiya sailed with a group of novices to seek a new line of higher ordination, and received it in Amarapura, then Burma's capital. After returning in 1803 with senior Burmese monks, they held the new fraternity's first ordinations in Sri Lanka within a sacred boundary on the Madu Ganga, on lashed boats in some accounts and in a pavilion on the river in others, and the fraternity took Amarapura's name.
Clothes that cover shoulders and knees; shoes and hats come off before the temple and the Bo tree. On full-moon poya days the island fills with local devotees, so expect crowds.