long bridge, is an unprepossessing coastal town 22km east of Matara.
It is not mentioned in any of the old guide books, because it only started to attract
foreign visitors in recent decades after guesthouses and a hotel sprung up along the beach.
Buddhist pilgrims have also started to frequent Dikwella in the last thirty years,
for about 2km from the town on the road towards Beliatte is their real destination,
the Wewurukannala Vihara, the location of the tallest Buddha statue in Sri Lanka.
This is a
seated image 50 metres high, which was completed in 1970. There is an eight-storey building
behind that emphasizes the size of the statue. Inside is a staircase from which can be
viewed comic strip paintings of the Buddha's life. 6km east of Dikwella at Kudawela there is a
turning to the right that leads to a cliff where the only known blow-hole in Sri Lanka -
and only one of a small number worldwide - is located.
This spectacular natural phenomenon
is known as "Hoo-maniya" which is a rendering of the sound that it makes just before the
water shoots up into the air.
sometimes to a height of
20 metres or more. The fountain of water assumes a mushroom shape at its apex anddescends
in a spray that drenches onlookers.
R. L. Brohier (in surprisingly recent times) was the first to describe this blow - hole in
Seeing Ceylon (1965). The hoarse gurgling roar gathers in volume - then suddenly, a pillar
of water churned to a dazzling whiteness gushes out somewhere up the cliff and for the
moment you stand aghast Up, up it rushes, attaining even as much as 60 feet in height, then,
standing vertically poised for a split second, it falls back in a glistening veil of spray. |
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