Maligawila

The Maligawila Buddha’s story is really a story of two separate ancient achievements, first carving a standing figure this tall from a single block of limestone in the 7th century, then, thirteen centuries later, successfully standing it back upright after it had spent decades lying broken in the jungle.

Carved for a Temple Called the ‘Lotus Monastery’

According to the Culavamsa chronicle, the Maligawila Buddha was commissioned in the 7th century CE by Prince Aggabodhi of Ruhuna, the southern kingdom of ancient Sri Lanka, who built a temple named Pathma Vihara (“Lotus Monastery”) and commissioned the great standing statue as its centrepiece. Carved from a single, massive block of limestone, the figure depicts the Buddha in Asisa Mudra, a variation of the Abhaya Mudra gesture, holding his robe at the left shoulder while the right hand is raised in blessing, a style closely comparable to the celebrated Aukana Buddha statue in the Cultural Triangle.

Archaeological evidence around the statue points to an equally ambitious original setting, ruins of an image house measuring roughly 80 feet in length and breadth, with walls about 4 feet thick and an estimated height of around 65 metres, suggesting the towering Buddha once stood enclosed within an equally monumental building, all subsequently lost to time and reclaiming jungle.

Shattered, Then Painstakingly Restored

The statue’s modern story began with genuine tragedy: by 1948, treasure hunters had already damaged the site, and when the ruins were properly rediscovered and cleared in 1951, the great Buddha was found fallen from its pedestal and broken into multiple pieces, a devastating loss for a monument that had stood, in one form or another, for well over a millennium. A first attempt to raise and restore the shattered statue in 1974 ended in failure, leaving the broken pieces where they lay for nearly two more decades.

It took until 1991, under the direction of then-President Ranasinghe Premadasa and a dedicated local engineering team, for the statue to be successfully raised, restored and returned to something approaching its original standing grandeur. That successful restoration transformed Maligawila from an obscure jungle ruin into one of the most visited archaeological sites in Sri Lanka’s southeastern Uva Province.

Visiting Tips

• Combine with the nearby Maligawila Archaeological Museum, which displays finds recovered from the site.
• Visit both the main Buddha statue and the Bodhisattva figure roughly 500 metres away.
• Expect a genuinely quiet, uncrowded visit; Maligawila remains well off the main tourist circuit despite its significance.
• Combine with a wider Monaragala or Uva Province itinerary, given the site’s relatively remote location.

Where It Sits on the Map

Frequently Asked Questions

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