Lahugala Map


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Lahugala Village

Ten miles inland off the Eastal Coast town of Pottuvil in an area that belonged to the ancient kingdom of Ruhuna . there are tanks, the Mahawewa, Kitulana and Sengamuwa. The most famous of the trio however the Mahawewa
is which is more famously known as Lahugala. This is in fact the name of the little village about a mile from the tanks. the Lahugala tanks is about 600 acres in extent, and had a storage capacity of 2760-acre feet and a 3700-ft. long bund. The history of Lahugala is lost in the mists of time, but it is almost certain that it dates back to the hay day of that historic realm. Brohier in his classic works statesa a evidently served large and populous regions in ancient times" and "a was filled by channel that took off from an anicut thrown across the Heda Oya. Traces of this ancient channel, which was about 6 miles in length, are in evidence to this daya. The terrain around Lahugala is typically "dry zone", with secondary brush and forest. Between main road and Heda Oya however it is deeply forested, with giant trees, magnificent buttress roots and closely entwined undergrowth. The special vegetative feature in the Lahugala area is the beru (Oplismenus compostus). This tall succulent grass completely covers the three tanks and is a favorite among the elephants. While growing freely in this area, it is hardly encountered in large expanses in other parts of the island.

Watching Game/Lodge The trunk road A4 runs through the National Park from the 190-mile post on the Moneragala side to about the 195 on the Pottuvil side. At the 191 mile post is the now famous an elephant observation point, from where one gets a clear view of almost the entire Lahugala a tanks. The casual visitor could park his vehicle and stay here, even the whole day if he should so desire. However, tempting though it is do not walk along the bund, it is not permitted and it could also be very dangerous. A glimpse of Kitulana too could be had from the road, at a point just before reaching the Lahugala village from the west. Here, however one could alight from his vehicle and if one cares to, a short walk will take him to the bund. About A3/4 of a mile from A4 and beautifully situated by the Lahugala a tank is a spacious lodge, and the best way one could observe elephants would be to spend a few days here. Even during the worst times of the year, at the height of the drought, when the tanks are almost dry, one is sure of seeing at least a couple of these great beasts feeding among the beau. The scenery around the lodge too is very pretty. The jade green of the beru stretches before you, waving in the mild breeze while far way almost directly before you and a little to the left, the towering megalith of Govinda Hela (Westminster Abbey)stands like a mute sentinel, watching over the elephant corridor that passes just below it, on its northward way to Gal Oya. Away to your left the mighty range of Badulla dominates the skyline. While one is staying at the lodge, a visit to the Kitulana tank could be fruitful, so suggest it to your guide.

Though Lahugala is famous for elephants, the area around is not devoid of other game. Very often, especially in the early Mornings and in the evenings one could see herds of spotted deer and groups of wild boar in the tank. Leopards have been spotted several times, and happily these sightings have been more frequent in recent times. Bear however is rare, though however they have been encountered by the wild life staff on a few occasions.Bird life is in plenty. In the tank one would see commonly the purple coots, jacanas, bitterns and purple herons among a host of others. Among the beautiful arboreal types are the orioles, the radiant paradise flycatchers and the minivets. The brilliant and uncommon red faced malkoha has been sighted on many occasions in the deeply forested area near the Heda Oya.

The specialty dished out however are the birds of prey. Among the numerous types one would see are the Brahaminy kites, the small but powerful shikras, the tank eagles and the magnificent white bellied sea eagles the islands largest bird of prey.The area surrounding Lahugala is steeped in history. Take a few hours off from wild life and visit a Muhudu maha viharaa Translated loosely to mean the great shrine by the sea. It is on the beach off Pottuvil and place worth seeing. Then a closer to home in fact just 2 miles away from the lodge is the a Magul Maha vihara. The ruins here remind one of the Anuradhapura periods, the main attraction being a beautiful preserved moonstone. Though not archaeologically Established, here is another place that stakes a claim as the venue of the wedding of the patents of one of Sri Lanka's Greatest monarchs, Duttugemunu (165 BC). In this place one could also view a natural freak. Two major trees, the Banyan (Ficus bengalensis) and the ironwood (Mesua ferrea) growing on another major tree the sacred Bo (Ficus religiosa).

Udara Anurudda -Lahugala
Pattini Devale, Panama – (Ankeliya)

 I made several trips  to the village of Panama (pronounced paa-nuh-muh).


Over 200 years ago, on the 13th of September 1800, an Englishman, William Orr, Esq (a civil servant) visited Panama on the way from Tangalle in the south to Batticaloa in the East. According to his report to the British Governor,
 Paoneme contains sixty inhabitants, who cultivate  seventy-three amonams of paddy ground.

The following year Thomas Anthony Reeder, surgeon of the 51st Regiment of Foot (who was to die soon after, during the 1st Kandyan War) travelled in the opposite direction. According to his journal,
 Panoa is situate on a plain surrounded by jungle. Here are some cultivated fields, and several large stocks of paddee.


A year later, the British Governor himself, the Hon. Frederick North (later 5th Earl of Guilford), followed the southward route. He was accompanied by the Inspector of Hospitals in Ceylon, Thomas Christie, Esq, who reported that
 Panoa is a considerable village, and the country round it abounds with paddee fields.

What these descriptions - which appear in James Cordiner's A Description of Ceylon (London, 1807; Dehiwela, Tisara Prakasakayo, 1983) - show (apart from the recognised inability of the English to tackle with any accuracy the phonetics of foreign place names) is that Panama's chief attraction was its paddy fields. The surrounding jungle was far more notable to these perfidious Albionians: Christie was highly excited by the sight, en-route to the village of
 a herd of wild hogs, and an alligator, both of which allowed us to approach very near.



Rock, fields and tank at Panama ( galpottha)

When I visited the place, however, it was in the knowledge that it possesses a Devale (temple) of the goddess Pattini. The shrine, on a rocky spot on the shore of a tank, is a Buddhist one. However, Hindu shrines of Pattini also exist, although she was not originally a Hindu deity.



Main Pattini shrine Udupila devalaya

Pattini is a goddess of fertility, who may originally have been a middle-eastern deity, Potnia. Mogg Morgan calls Pattini one of the many names of Isis, pointing out that in both cases the male consort is killed and dismembered, but brought back to life by the female deity.

Pattini was said to have been born from a mango and to have destroyed the city of Madurai by tearing off her breast and casting it on the ground, a sort of divine nuclear hand-grenade.



Image of Pattini in the shrine. The doorway to her right leads to the inner sanctum
( Yatipila Devalaya )

Pattini was married to Palanga, a mythical ancient South-Indian version of Prince Philip. Palanga appears to have done little except hang around being dissolute with a pretty young mistress and get himself killed by a wicked king. Nevertheless he is propriated as 'Alut Deviyo' ('the New God'), having his own shrine next to his more powerful wife's.



Palanga's shrine ( Udupila dewalaya )

Originally Pattini and her consort did not have elaborate temples to house them, the present structures having been built in the 1920s. Instead, two large tamarind trees served as shrines.


Tamarind tree (original Pattini shrine) Siyabala gasa

In addition to the two large temples, two smaller shrines have been built to the Parakasa Deviyo, the guardian deities of the temple precinct - who punish those who misbehave on the premises.

Shrine of one of the two guardian deities (Parakasa Deviyo)

One of the central rituals of the Pattini cult is the Ankeliya, the Horn Game, which is similar in concept to the town games of Uppies and Downies in Britain - including it being a male-only sport. In the Ankeliya, two opposing teams, the Udupila ('Upper team') and the Yatipila ('Lower team') try to break the horn of the opposing team in a game of tug-of-war.



Horn tree and channel for the 'thunderbolt tree'

The Upper team tie their horn to the 'horn tree', which grows about equidistant from and slightly behind the shrines of Pattini and Palanga. The Lower team tie their horn to a large tree trunk about 4.5 m (15 ft) long, pivoted in a 2 metre (6 ft) long channel and held in position by logs called 'haepini kandan' ('female cobra trunks'). This tree trunk is called a 'Thunderbolt Tree' (henakanda - cf Anaconda). Paranthetically, these Milliganesque references to snakes in what is, after all a fertility ritual should make a psychoanalyst positively drool.



Closer view of the channel for the 'thunderbolt tree'

The two horns are hooked together and two ropes are tied to the 'thunderbolt tree'. The two teams tug on the ropes, moving the the 'thunderbolt tree' forward and bringing tension to bear on the two interlocked horns until one of them snaps. The winning team - the one whose horn doesn't break - gets to yell obscene songs at the vanquished team; certainly worth more than a cash prize.


If you want to visit Panama, it is quite close to the lovely Arugam Bay, which has a few hotels. If you want to learn more about Pattini, you can go to this website or read Gananath Obeyesekere's excellent anthropological study, The Cult of the Goddess Pattini (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984; ISBN 0-226-61602-9). And here is an interesting take on Pattini in the context of modern Western society.

Udara Anuruuda
Lahugala

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