Mutiyangana Rajamaha Viharaya

This temple is located in the centre of the Badulla city in the Badulla District of the Uva Province. Badulla could be reached from Kandy on the Kandy- Nuwaraeliya highway or from Colombo on the Colonbo-Bandarawela highway. From Badulla city the temple is reached by traversing a short distance along the Batticaloa road situated on its right side.

Mutiyangana temple which takes the premier sacred places in Badulla is also one of the 16 sacred places of Buddhist worship in Sri Lanka. Folk lore has it that the sweat drop of the Buddha which was transformed into a pearl is enshrined in this temple.

According to the commentaries of  Buddhaghosha Thera, the Buddha had set foot on this island for the eighth time at this place. The commentaries on the Majjima Nikaya considers Mutiyangana to be the place where Arahant Maliyadeva preached the Caraka Sutta. In another folk lore, King Devanampiyatissa had planted in Mutiyangana one of the 32 seedlings obtained from the sacred Bo tree and had enlarged the Dagoba as well.

The Arch at the entrance to the temple, the Dagoba and the Atthaphala Bodhighara are the main features of the temple. The Makara Torana over the Buddha image in Samadhi posture with two peacocks on its side is of singular significance. Stone columns, stone slabs and a painting on cloth illustrating the Vessantara Jatakaya are some of the artifacts found. There is a belief that rains will come if the painting on cloth is taken in procession to the Namunukula mountain. Mutiyangana temple which was declared a protected archaeological monument had been named as a sacred area in 1979 as well.