Girihanduseya in Tiriyaya

We had reached Trincomalee the previous day and after a relaxing evening began to plan our trip to the “Girikandi-caitya” the “vatadage at Tiriyay”.

Other ruins around Vatadage

The many maps and guide books did not afford any reliable information on the present situation of the route.

In fact a lawyer- born and living in Trincomalee almost dissuaded us from taking the trip. The same opinion was shared by a certain high official of the Air Force stationed for the past so many years in Trincomalee. However a simple and friendly Catholic priest from Nilaveli agreed to accompany us and show us the way. We were overjoyed.

The next day we started off in our jeep on a jungle track through dense jungle and over flat plains. After the rains the trees, bushes and grasses seemed to be bursting with colour. Where the fields stretched flat on either side of the road a tiny purple wild flower spread endless royal carpets. We crossed the bridge over Blue lagoon and then over Salapayaru lagoon both blue and shimmering under the morning sun.. From Kuchchaveli we took the Kallampaththai Road. On rare occasion we passed a small community of cadjan homes. Even less frequently we passed a few men and women clearing the jungle for planting or tending their fields of onion, tobacco or a rare paddy field contrastingly golden in colour ready for harvest. Most of these people were from the refugee camps on the outskirts of Trincomalee and had traveled far for a days work. We passed a few army and police camps. The track forked many times and there were seldom any road signs, and no one in sight to find out if you were lost.

After some time we reached the outskirts of Tiriyay village some 29 miles north of Trincomalee and the track forked towards the Girikandi-caitya west of the village on a summit of a small hill. The chief priest came out to meet us welcoming us to his lonely abode. After speaking with him, we started our pilgrimage passing between two large sleepy ponds and then ascending some 300 steps between boulders, jungle and hosts of butterflies and wild flowers. It was a wish come true to have reached this spot of immense significance to Buddhists.

Circular relic house at Tiriyay

An 8th century Sanskrit inscription on a boulder nearby refers to the shrine on the top of the hill by the name “Girikandi-caitya”.

It also states that the caitya was founded by a company of merchants headed by Trapusa and Bhallika. The Buddhist scriptures state that these two merchants had the privilege of giving the Lord Buddha his first meal after he attained enlightenment and that they received from the Sage some strands of hair from his own head as an object of worship. The Pujavali relates how this relic being the very first relic of the great Sage was miraculously enshrined at this place.

Professor Paranavitana in his book “Glimpses of Ceylon’s Past” notes that the honour of possessing these most precious relics is also claimed by two other ancient shrines in Sri Lanka - the Girihandu Vehera at Ambalantota and Makulana Vihara at Mavatagama and further by the Shwe Dagon at Rangoon and a shrine in Afganistan.

However he concludes that upon consideration of the writings in Pujavali and the Sanskrit inscription found at Tiriyay it is reasonable to conclude that the stupa at Tiriyay is the one referred to in the Pujavali and the Buddhist scriptures.

Accordingly it is possible that the stupa at Thiriyay dates back to the 6th century BC – during the lifetime of the Buddha and thus had been a place of worship even before Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC.

Discussing and contemplating on such thoughts we reached the summit. The Tiriyay vatadage like most of its counterparts stood majestic on an artificially flattened summit upon a rocky slab. A vatadage in many ways is a most interesting architectural form of ancient Sinhala Buddhism, some of the more popular being - the vatadage at Polonnaruwa and at Medirigiriya.

Two gateways marked the entrance to the summit and in the centre was the circular shrine consisting of two concentric circles of stone pillars enclosing the stupa and at the edge of the dagoba platform was a 6 ft. high granite slab wall.

Arranged round was an image house with a broken Buddha image and the remains of other structures. The four entrances to the circular shrine were flanked with moonstones , makara balustrades and naga guard stones .

Paranavitana notes that here the Naga kings depict an air of austerity are not overloaded with jewellary and are benign in _expression.

The view from the summit was rewarding-to the east the waters of the bay of Bengal and the jungle stretched on all other sides.

Hidden on a terrace of the eastern slope the remains of a cluster of monastic buildings including guard stones and granite stairways were peeping through weeds and wild flowers and a little beyond lay a charming tear drop shaped pond named Lanak Pokuna.

Another object of interest is a pre Christian inscription under the drip ledge of one of the caves. In April 1981 many bronze statues and reliquaries were found buried under a paving stone. In 1983 a bronze statue of the Avalokitesvara was also found in these precincts.

On our way back we decided to take the route via Pudavaikattuwa ferry. This was great adventure since it was the first time we – jeep and all, had traveled by ferry across a water way.

Paranavitana writes that in the early 1950s all material necessary for the conservation work of this site had to be transported from Trincomalee along a road via three ferries.

Back towards Nilaveli the road skirted the abandoned but majestic church of Our Lady Of Rosary and passed the deserted beaches of Kuchchaveli whose waters had been delightfully referred to by the writer John Still as “warm as tea”.