Aluvihare ( ) is a suburb of

Matale Matale ( Sinhala: මාතලේ, , , ) is a major city in Central Province, Sri Lanka. It is the administrative capital and largest urbanised city of Matale District. Matale is also the second largest urbanised and populated city in Central P ...

, in Central Province of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. It lies north of

and north-east of the capital

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

. The suburb is situated on the Kandy-Jaffna highway (A9). It was founded by

Valagamba of Anuradhapura Valagamba (Sinhala: වට්ඨ ගාමණී අභය, වලගම්බා), also known as the Great Black Lion, Vattha gamani Abhaya and Valagam Abha, was a king of the Anuradhapura Kingdom of Sri Lanka. Five months after becoming king, ...

, around 300 B.C. but did not receive the name Aluvihare until a later date. The Aluvihare family originated from the area, an important family responsible for looking after the

Aluvihare Rock Temple The Aluvihare Rock Temple (also called Matale Alu Viharaya) is a sacred Buddhist temple located in Aluvihare, Matale District of Sri Lanka. Surrounded by hills, the Aluvihara cave temple is situated 30 km north of Kandy on the Matale-Dambulla ...

, and thus serving the

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

community in

.විශේෂාංග
dinamina.lk Today, Aluvihare is a popular attraction for both tourists and Buddhists wishing to visit the

References

Populated places in Matale District {{MataleDistrict-geo-stub

See also

References