Situlpawwa Monastery

Being a significant Buddhist site, the Situlpawwa temple was built in the 2nd century BC which has a history of about 2200 years. The temple is located deep within the Yala National Park which is located atop of a gigantic rock.
The temple houses an in-crate cave complex of which the caves have been built to make it suitable for the Buddhist monks to live in.
Several small temples, ponds, chapter houses, ruins of stone Buddha images and paintings can be seen at this rock temple. This temple is said to have been built by king Kavantissa which belonged to the Anuradhapura period. The speciality about the paintings in the rock temple is that many of the paintings of the Anuradhapura period has not been found.
The name ‘Situlpawwa’ has been derived from the word ‘Chiththala Pabbatha’ which means the hill of the quiet mind. The temple was a place of worship for devotees as well as a center of Buddhist education for Buddhist monks.
This magnificent location can be reached by travelling 18 miles along the Tissamaharama-Yodhakandiya road towards the Yala National Park.