Kotmale…a valley submerged underwater forever……?

The planet earth that we live in has had drastic changes to its profile and its climate from time to time due to natural disasters, changing weather patterns and very recently by acts of man. Development related to Civil Engineering activities for economic growth, housing and energy use have impacted the earth very much in the past century than from natural calamities during the past millennium. This effect is significant in the developing countries with the advancement of technology and the over exploitation of natural resources in the manufacture of cement, steel and other building materials needed for development. 

Apart from these developments it is also noted that some of man’s greatest monumental creations, where his individual skills and craftsmanship of ethnic groupings have also had to be abandoned or destroyed for overriding priorities of his energy needs and communication requirements of the 21^st century.

When the ancient Roman city of Pompii was destroyed through natural disaster due to the irruption of the volcano Vesuvius in A.D. 79, much of its brilliant Roman architecture and sculptures were destroyed beyond redemption. The Kingdom of Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt is found settled beneath the waters of the Mediterranean close to Alexandria; again due to a result of volcanic activity and tidal waves that shaped that part of the world differently.  Some classical Hindu and Buddhist dynasties have also been swallowed by the sea due to sinking land areas in the South-East Asian archipelago near Bali.

In comparison numerous are the locations in the world that have been reshaped due to both natural and man involved activity. Landscapes have been sunken in reservoirs or destroyed completely to make way for new communication and roadways. Again there has been concerns of economic benefits and historical value in them resulting in restoration and relocation of some of his greatest creations for preservation. The multipurpose Aswan Dam built in Egypt for power and agricultural needs; inundated the famous Abu Simbel Temple in Nubia in Southern Egypt. This temple built by Pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th century BC, as a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari, to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Kadesh is iconic with its huge external rock relief figures. This temple was relocated in its entirety in 1968 after much debate on the subject even after it was drowned in the Aswan reservoir.

Pic Curtsey Google images                   The original Abu Simbel Temple 1927

Pic Curtsey Google images                                                                  Abu Simbel after relocation

Video Curtesy Youtube

Here at home a similar activity was undertaken by the Department of Archeology in rebuilding the Nalanda Gedige at its original footprint but on a built up mound within the reservoir created by the Bowatenne Dam. This stone structure was dismantled after carefully numbering and sketching each unit of stone for reference in the rebuilding. Today in this digital era these are not difficult undertakings but was not so in 1981 when Sri Lanka lacked such technology.

Pic Uditha Wijesena                                                                Nalanda Gedige rebuilt after dismantling                                                                                                                                                                                              

Pic Uditha Wijesena                                                                                                                                                                            

Pic Uditha Wijesena         Nalanda Gedige a Hindu influenced structure of  ancient Sri Lanka is said to be located at almost the mid center of the island

However there are other treasured artifacts that have been lost forever in these man made reservoirs.  Sri Lanka in the mid-20^th century had no option but to venture into hydroelectric power generation taking advantage of its topography in the central massif and the abundant precipitation received from the South-West monsoon on the South-West slopes. The first such project was commissioned in 1950. The Norton-bridge project or the Old Laxapana Reservoir scheme. This dam became significant when the people of the tea estate community was relocated as result of the township of Maskeliya being inundated. People were relocated but they had to leave behind some precious places of religious importance that was submerged in the rising waters behind the dam. The Hindi Kovils and Buddhist Temples that submerged in these waters did surface from time to time during prolonged droughts. This initially created a nostalgia among the people and they visited these shrines for veneration as a special privilege which was considered incidental and rare.  But today it is not so significant due to the generation gap with those who venerated in these shrines are no longer living.

Subsequently the accelerated Mahaveli Multipurpose Scheme saw much more of such hydroelectric power generation reservoirs coming up around the ancient city of Kandy. These reservoirs needed to relocate the communities living in the locality which did destroy much of the monumental sites and townships in the vicinity.

Pic Uditha Wijesena                                                                                                                                                                         

Pic Uditha Wijesena                                                                           Victoria Dam

The Victoria Dam closer to Kandy City submerged the total township of Teldeniya and its suburbs not sparing the famous Victoria Falls either. But the falls did substitute the new reservoir created by adapting its name. The people of these suburban villages had a very high cultural lineage to the Kandian ethos and Architecture. These people did contribute immensely both traditionally and loyally to the Temple of the Tooth and its customs. The authorities resettled them as community units in the new lands in the dry zone of Sri Lanka expecting the continuity of their ethnic and cultural links. This was not to be so, and found themselves scattered from their initial ways of life and the common bondage they had had with religious links to the Temple of the Tooth. The impact in adjusting to these new homesteads in a faraway land with a different climate in a new habitat was a very complicated task.

Pic Uditha Wijesena                                                                     The Randingala Dam the largest in the Mahaveli river

The largest man made hydroelectric waterbody in this land was created with the damming of the Mahaveli River downstream of the Victoria Reservoir, creating the Randenigala Reservoir. Even though this dam and the reservoir came up in an area not inhabited by people, it too did submerge a unique cave formation located in Isthripura,  Sarasuntenna. Though there is another set of caves by the namesake close to Welimada linked to the epic Ramayana, this cave is said to be linked with King Rajasinghe II, the famous concupiscent king of Kandy who preferred to relax with his concubines in these caves while on his numerous state visits in the hill kingdom. The river flowing over the limestone formation leached into the cave to form a wondrous series of breathtaking stalagmite and stalactite that would have taken millions of years to form.

Alas… This was in no way possible to be relocated of restored but was made to be hidden in the backwater never to be seen again. The authorities took no action to photo record these caves before inundation. Either to avoid the opposition from the masses or through shear ignorance of its existence. People were not in the habit of adventurous travel then and the existence of the caves were known only to a few.

Pic Curtsey Google images                                  Rantambe waters that submerged the Minipe Anicut and the Rantambe gorge

The smaller reservoir that was created lower to Randenigala again for power generation is the Rantambe Reservoir. This did inundate the famous ancient Minipe Anicut which diverted the Mahaveli water to Pollonnaruwa via Amban Ganga from the Minipe Yoda Ela irrigating the left bank of the Mahaveli. Built in AD 459 by King Dasankeliya, today there is a new Minipe Diversion Weir irrigating both the right and the left banks of the Mahaveli.   Also this small reservoir did inundate a unique land formation called the Rantambe Gorge the only of its kind in the country. A narrow gap in a granite wall measuring over 50 feet in depth and around 20 feet wide sitting across the path of the river. The river was forced to rush through this throat emanating a thunderous roar that disturbed the otherwise quiet wilderness when it ran with its banks full. Again it is said that King Rajasinghe II who possessed great riding skills had been in the habit of clearing this gorge on horseback.

Kotmale Reservoir located as the most elevated reservoir in this series of reservoirs on the Mahaveli River is said to have inundated one of the most ancient civilizations in this country. It was a picturesque valley with a community living even when the civilization was primarily restricted to the dry flat lower areas when the central massif was in a thick forest cover. It has a recorded history extending to King Panduwasdeva (504-474 BC). The chronicles also narrate to the famous story of the worrier Prince Gamini Abaya reaching this valley when he decided to live in exile against the royal family denouncing his warring intentions to unify the country. He is said to have lived here with Kalu-Menika the daughter of a nobleman. She bore his child and he lived a life of a peasant tending to their paddies and other, disguising his lineage to the southern royalty. 

The valley flourished with a rich culture and Kotmale is renowned with its scholarly monks and links to the ancient hill capital of Kandy. Strangely though even lands with such ancient historical value are not spared in the name of development. The progenies of these ancient peoples too were relocated with the valley and its riches and other historical landmarks all made to inundate in a watery grave. Today only about forty percent of the valley is outside the reservoir and much of the antiquity is never to be seen.

The location Kadadora; then known as Dehadu Kadulla, one entry point to the valley where a unique Buddhist temple was located had been periodically emerging from the reservoir when the water levels receded during dry spells.

Pic Wickum Wijesinghe                       Its only the Kadarora shrine room that has survived among all that was submerged for 33 years to date

Pic Wickum Wijesinghe                                                                                                                                                                           

Pic Wickum Wijesinghe                                                                              They come in numbers through compassion 

This Kadadora Temple is one significant Buddhist Temple that has existed even when Gamini Abaya was in Kotmale and has a very unique statue of the meditating Buddha showing very humane features. This shrine room building of the temple that did submerge complete with its celestial figurines have survived for over 30 years ever since the impounding in 1985. Nothing else around have survived the pressures of the water but it is in the verge of being buried in the reservoir bed due to the heavy siltation.

The Kadadora temple is now in the habit of rousing the nostalgia of those who still live in Kotmale and have had worshiped here before it was submerged. They make it a point to offer a flower to this unique statue that is no match to any such anywhere in the country as it re-appears when the waters recede.  

Today the roof structure is no more and the plaster of the walls have perished exposing the broad granite wall structure within. The mythical heavenly figurines looking down from the high walls have survived the pressures of water through some supper natural means not to fall down from the otherwise fragile structure.

Pic Wickum Wijesinghe      

Pic Wickum Wijesinghe       

Pic Wickum Wijesinghe      

Pic Wickum Wijesinghe      

Pic Wickum Wijesinghe      The beauty of craftsmanship and skill 

Its emergence from the water when the people in the whole country is threatened with darkness from impending power cuts and drought bringing both man and beast to fear is like admonishing them of the consequences for destroying a unique civilization that had lasted from time this land was inhabited.

It is ironic to note that the authority of the Mahaveli Development Scheme and especially its founder  the late Gamini Dissanayake was a son of Kotmale and he had had to spearhead the erasing of his ancient ancestries from the Kotmale Valley for the betterment of the country; more on a political agenda. He sure would have been aware of the gravity that he was shouldering and his own conscience would have questioned him on the smudging off of a historical chapter from the chronicle.

Pic Wickum Wijesinghe                                                Symbolic of the heavenly protection to the enlighten one

Pic Wickum Wijesinghe                                Generations would still come over to venerate but for how long?

Pic Wickum Wijesinghe                   A lady in pensive mood with child - she had seen all that took place in these years

Pic Vikum Wijesinghe                                                Amid the falling rubble

Pic Vikum Wijesinghe      The Meditating Buddha across the entrance to the shrine room

Pic Vikum Wijesinghe                                               The Makara Thorana entrance to the shrine room

The temple going back to hiding with the reservoir filling 

In an allowance for compensation and to commemorate over fifty  Buddhist Temples and some Hindu Temples that was drowned in these waters, the Mahaveli Authority undertook the construction of a significant monument in return. A Stupa by the name "Mahaveli Seya" which would turn out to be the largest such in the land was to be located on a high ground overlooking the Kotmale reservoir.

Unfortunately the Hon: Gamini Dissanayake could not sustain his political future within the party ranks and became a victim of a human bomb that destroyed him and his supporters when his new ambitions to be the Leader of this Land was shattered. And moreover he was unable to fulfill his conscience to see the completion of the Mahaveli Seya.

Pic Uditha Wijesena                                           The Kotmale Reservoir in full capacity with the valley in total submerge

 Pic - Uditha Wijesena                                           Mahaveli Seya [Stupa] in its finishing stages                                              

The construction of this Stupa which was started on March 20^th 1983 was also stalled with his demise. However it was constructed to a complete and declared open on  20^th June 2016 after 33 years. It’s a pity to think of such a strong character as Gamini Dissanayake to have ruined his illustrious political carrier and his aspiration to lead the country in such a tragic way. 

No doubt the religious minded and the one engulfed in superstition would prefer to highlight his sudden fall to the spells and an omen cast upon him for smudging the once beautiful valley named Kotmale that was also known  'The Sunset Valley'…