Weligama, with its spectacular sweep of sandy
bay, is a fishing centre 145 km from Colombo
renowned for several artistic traditions such
as lacework especially mats and table-cloths
and architectural fretwork. Like many places
on the south coast situated on the main coastal
highway, it is a town with a bustling atmosphere.
Weligama has much to offer the visitor apart
from sea and sun, however. Here you will find
extraordinary fishermen, a mysterious statue,
and a captivating offshore island.
As you approach Weligama along the coast road
east from Galle you will encounter Sri Lanka’s
famous stilt fishermen. The origin of this unusual
fishing technique is unknown, but it is so successful
that each stilt position is highly prized and
handed down from father to son. When heading
into Weligama from the west the inland branch
runs through the centre of the town, over the
railway track, and then past a small fenced-off
area with several boulders, the largest of which
has been carved with a 4-metre high figure known
as the Kusta Rajah or ‘Leper King.’
Both hands are raised; the right hand in Buddhist
vitarka mudra or instructional gesture. In addition
the elaborate hair of the figure is decorated
with medallions depicting samadhi or meditating
Buddhas.
It is believed that this unusual carving represents
an Indian prince who was afflicted by a serious
skin disease and having “with all due
humility offered odoriferous flowers according
to the Buddhist rites,” the prince fell
into a trance and had several visions. In one
he saw a wide expanse of sea and a coastline
bordered by unfamiliar trees with fronds and
coconut. In another he saw an old man, the Buddha’s
father, who told him that if he traveled south
for 100 hours he would find the strange trees,
and that he would be cured if he subsisted on
the water and flesh of the nuts for three months.
So it was that the prince travelled south until
he came to Weligama, where he found the coconut
trees, succeeding in opening the nuts, and followed
the dietary recommendation given him. When he
was cured he obeyed another directive given
in the vision: to give thanksgiving to the Buddha
for his renewal. Accordingly, the prince carved
his own larger-than-life figure on the boulder
at Weligama in order “that its great height
would show the wonderful recovery he had experienced;
for he had risen, by the blessing of the God
of all gods, to an undeserved degree of happiness
and bodily vigour; of which the memorial would
thus be handed down to millions yet unborn.”
During the 20th century the town became associated
with a rocky islet just offshore – in
fact you can wade to it at low tide –
called Galduwa or ‘Rocky Island’
from time immemorial, but also known to the
local inhabitants as Yakinige Duwa or ‘She
Devil’s Island’.
Weligama Bay Inn Resthouse the original building
of which is substantially the same as it was
in the middle of the 19th century. During this
era it was used mainly by British colonial civil
servants on their tours of the south of the
island. This rest house is linked to an important
visit to the island in 1882 by the German zoologist,
Ernst Haeckel.
