The Sri Lankan Traveller : GIRIHANDU SEYA , THIRIYAYA

ගිරිහඩු සෑය

The first ever Buddhist Stupa in the world.

ලොව පලවෙනි බෞද්ධ ස්තූපය

Girihandu Seya is an important place of historic importance situated in the District of Trincomalee in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. It is situated in the small hamlet called Thiriyaya.

ස්තානය

නැගෙනහිර පලාත , ත්‍රිකුණාමලය දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ තිරියාය නම් ගම්මානයේ .

Girihandu Seya can be reached easily on the Tinco - Pulmudai road (43 km). The place also can be reached from Padaviya. You have to proceed along the Padaviya-Pulmudai road (30 km ) and then turn right to Pulmudai -Trinco road (11km).

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If you are making your first visit on the Trinco-Pulmudai road you are likely to get confused as you will notice several signboards bearing the name 'Girihandu Seya'. Do not turn to those by roads, move straight ahead till you cover the given distance.

the stupa

The story of Girihandu Seya:

Lord Buddha spent seven weeks for paying homage to the environment which helped him attain the supreme bliss of enlightenment. This initial period is known as the 'sath-sathiya' by the ordinary Sinhalese Buddhist.

At the end of this period ,on the 50th day, two brothers, seafaring merchants by profession, called Thapassue and Balluka arrived at the place where the Buddha was meditating. Pleased by the sight of the Gautama Buddha they offered alms to the Buddha. This is the first ever meal offered to the Buddha after enlightenment. Hence Thapassue and Balluka are known as the first lay disciples of the Buddha. The two brothers took refuge in Dhamma while the Sanga was not still established.

The two brothers before leaving the Buddha asked for something to keep with them and venerate it in His absence. The Buddha offered them 'sacred keshdathu' (a lock of hair relics). They made a golden casket for the relics and took it with them on their voyages. The two brothers travelled far and wide on their business activities.

Thus on one of their journeys they arrived Sri Lanka, too. They arrived with their cargo to a lesser known place called Galwaraya which is at present known as Kallarawa . This journey turned out to be a significant historic one in later years. This was the occasion when the seeds of Buddhist culture first fell on the island of Sri Lanka.

The story goes that the two brothers had placed the sacred relic casket upon a rock with due respect and had left the place for their business activities. On their arrival they had found that the relic casket was embedded to the rock. The two brothers then had decided to build a pagoda enshrining the relic casket. Thus the first stupa adds to the annals of the Sri Lankan history.

(ගෞතම බුදුන් තම උත්තරීතර බුද්ධත්වයෙන් 50 වන දින බාවනා යෝගීව සිට්න විට තපස්සු -භල්ලුක නම් වෙලදාමේ යෙදුණු දෙසොයුරන් බුදුන් දැක මහත් සතුටට පත්ව දානය පිරිනමන ලදී . මෙය බුදුන් ලද පලමු දානය වේ. එබැවින් ඔවුන් බුදුන් ගේ පළවෙනි දායකයන් වේ. ධර්මය සරන ගිය ඔවුන් දෙදනා බුදුන් වැද පිටත් වීමට පෙර ඔවුන් සතුව තබා ගරුබුහුමන් කිරීමට යමක් ඉල්ලා සිට්න ලදි. බුදුන් වහන්සේ තම කෙස් රොදක් ඔවුන් වෙත ලබාදුන් බව කියවේ. මෙය කරඩුවක් තුළ තබා තමන් යන යන තැන රැගෙන ගිය බව පැවැසේ. මෙලෙස තම එක් වෙලද චාරිකාවකදී ඔවුන් ලන්කාවෙ කල්ලරාව නම් ස්තානයට පැමිණ තිබේ . එදින ලංකාවේ බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතියේ මූල බීජය වැටුණ දිනය වේ. ඔවුන් ධාතු කරඩුව ගල් තලාවක් මත තබා තම වෙලද කටයුතු වලට පිටත්ව ගොස් තිබේ. පසුව පැමිණ බලන විට කරඩුව ගලට ඇලී තිබෙනු දැක එය ආවරණය වන ලෙස ස්තූපක් නිර්මාණය කර තිබේ. මෙලෙස පලමු ස්තූපය ලන්කා ඉතිහාසයට එකතුවේ. )

The Stupa was completed 75 days after the enlightenment of the Buddha. It is also stated that king Girikandisiva and king Agbo VI later on constructed the Watadagaya and the stone steps leading up to it (300 steps).

Girihandu Seya gradually went into oblivion for several centuries due to various reasons, specially foreign invasions which took place from time to time. Restoration of the pagoda was done in the 1950s.

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Tamil Elam Terrorist War

Thiriyaya and the many surrounding villages were under L.T.T.E terrorists until the area was liberated from their clutches by the Mahinda Rajapaksha government. The Tamil terrorists destroyed almost all the buildings of the temple and the monks were chased away. However, miraculously ,the stupa remained unharmed. The living quarters of the monks were completely demolished by the terrorists.

Photo collection: Girihandu Seya