Vavuniya Archaeological Museum

Museum located in the north of Sri Lanka, dedicated to displaying ancient artifacts found in excavations of different temples and historical sites in the province.
Vavuniya Archaeological Museum
Image Credit: Senanayaka Bandara
Type: Historical Museum
Country:
Sri Lanka

The Vavuniya Archaeological Museum (Tamil: தொல்பொருள் கலைச்சாலை வவுனியா ; Sinhala පුරාවිද්‍යා කෞතුකාගාරය වවුනියාව) is a museum located in the north of Sri Lanka, dedicated to displaying ancient artifacts found in excavations of different temples and historical sites in the province.

Collections

The archaeological museum has a bronze statue of Bodhisattva Avalokitedvara found in the ruins of the Samalankulam monastery (Tamil: சமளங்குளம்), originally used as a Buddhist temple, and now transformed into a Shiva temple in the Northern Province. In addition, the museum has guardstones, also known as Muragala in the island's architecture, from the ruins of the Vihara Sri Dalada Raja Maha archaeological site located inside Madhukanda, one of the important Buddhist sites in the area.[1]

The guardstone presents figures of Naga, divinities that are part of the mythology of different cultures in South Asia, in addition to miniature figures made of terracotta.[2] The museum also possesses a statue of Samadhi Buddha found inside the Etambagaskada Kiri Viharaya (Sinhala: ඇටඹගස්කඩ කර වහාරය) north of Vavuniya, in addition to a collection of terracotta statues discovered at the site of Settikulama (Sinhala: සෙට්ටිකුලම), said collection of statues is known as Bali Roopa.[3]

The museum also features collections found in the excavation of the ruins of the Sapumalgaskada Buddhist Monastery (Sinhala: සපුමල්ගස්කඩ බොදබම), formerly used as a piligrinage site for the Northern Province community until 1980 after the evacuation of different sites for security reasons.[4]

References

  1. Fukuyama Y. (2015) "Survey Report on the Protection and Utilisation of Cultural Property in the Northern and Northeastern Provinces of Sri Lanka" Ryukoku University (Pages 65-64)

  2. Briggs, P. (2018). Sri Lanka. Bradt Travel Guides. (Page 318)

  3. Maryam, A. (2017-08-19). The road north to Vavuniya. Daily Financial Times.

  4. වවුනියාවේ සැඟවුණු හාස්කම් පිරි පුදබිම. (2019-08-31). Mawarata News. (in Sinhala)

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