The Paththirippuwa, also known as the Octagonal Pavilion, is a magnificent architectural structure located at the entrance of the Kandy Maligawa(Palace) in Sri Lanka.
The name is derived from the
Tamil language
Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...
, whereby "Parthu" means 'to see' and "Irippu" means 'seated', the combination of which is 'to sit and see all around'.
The front section of the temple, together with the Pattirippuwa was built in 1802, during the reign of
King
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
Sri Vickrama Rajasingha, by the royal architect, Devendra Moolacharya. Moolacharya is also credited with the designing and construction of the Magul Maduwa (the Audience Hall), the
Kandy Lake (Kiri Muhuda), Walakula Bamma (Cloud Wall) and Diyarella Bemma. The Pattirippuwa was constructed on the site of the old temple kitchen.
The Pattirippuwa was intended as a place where Rajasingha could exhibit the
sacred tooth relic to the surrounding populace,
view the temple festivals, peraheras and on important occasions address his subjects. The symbolism of its octagonal form, reinforced the view that when the king stood in the tower, with the eight points in the compass radiating out around him he stood at the centre of the world.
During the
British period, it had been used to house an oriental library where the upstairs was used to accommodate the library and downstairs to provide space for the librarian monk. It currently houses the temple's library of ancient palm leaf buddhist manuscripts and books.
On 11 February 1948, following the country's political
independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...
from British rule, the
national flag
A national flag is a flag that represents and national symbol, symbolizes a given nation. It is Fly (flag), flown by the government of that nation, but can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanin ...
(Lion Flag) was raised for the first time over the Paththirippuwa.
On 25 January 1998 the temple, including the Pattirippuwa, was severely damaged following the detonation of a truck bomb by
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eela ...
. The restoration work on the Pattirippuwa was undertaken by the
Sri Lanka Ports Authority, under the managing director, H. A. Wijegunawardhana, with the guidance of the
Department of Archaeology.
The restoration process took over a year and was completed by August 1999.
References
{{coord missing, Sri Lanka
Buddhist temples in Kandy