Wewurukannala Vihara is most famous for a gargantuan seated Buddha
waiting to greet devout pilgrims, but the temple’s most wonderfully unexpected (and
unsettling) feature lies somewhere along the way.
The temple is divided into three parts, the oldest of which dates back to the 18th-century
reign of King Rajadhi and has a more modest Buddha worked into the structure’s outward-
facing architecture. The second element, the giant Buddha statue, was constructed in the
1960s when a penchant for larger-than-life roadside attractions took the world by storm. At
160 feet tall, it literally and figuratively rises above the quagmires of earthly life. Which
leads to the third, most overlooked, aspect of Wewurukannala Vihara: in order to meet the
big Buddha up-close, visitors must first navigate the Tunnel of Hell.