Dikwella, also known as Dickwella and as Dikwella South, is a small coastal market town in the Matara

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

in Southern

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Sri Lanka. It is located east of the city of Matara. Dikwella is noted for its long sandy beach which is protected by headlands, reefs and sand-bars, making it safer for swimming. Dikwella is the location of Sri Lanka's largest seated

Buddha statue Much Buddhist art uses depictions of the historical Buddha, Gautama Buddha, which are known as Buddharūpa (literally, "Form of the Awakened One") in Sanskrit and Pali. These may be statues or other images such as paintings. The main figure i ...

, which is tall. Walls in the rooms of the building behind the statue are decorated with a 'library' of colourful pictures depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha and punishments of miscreants.

Dikwella Market

Market Day is Saturday. Dikwella Market is held next to the beach. It has been rebuilt after destruction in the

2004 Asian tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

. Fortunately, Dikwella Market was not open that day, although traders and customers who'd travelled to nearby markets were lost.

Dikwella Peraheras

Dikwella usually has Peraheras to celebrate

Vesak Vesak (Pali: ''Vesākha''; sa, Vaiśākha), also known as Buddha Jayanti, Buddha Purnima and Buddha Day, is a holiday traditionally observed by Buddhists in South Asia and Southeast Asia as well as Tibet and Mongolia. The festival commemora ...

Poson Poson, also known as Poson Poya, is an annual festival held by Sri Lankan Buddhists celebrating the arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC. The festival is the most important Poya (full moon) holiday of the year and the second mo ...

& Esala during May, June & July. These colourful Buddhist festivals usually include daytime and torch-lit night-time processions of caparisoned temple elephants, dancers and musicians. The size and pattern of these celebrations vary from year to year.

Dikwella beach

Dickwella-Beach Pehambiya-Headland Southern Sri-Lanka

This long sandy beach is largely protected by headlands, reefs and sand-bars, making it safer for swimming. The headlands have reefs along their rocks, close to the beach. At both the Pehambiya end and the western end, swimmers can snorkel out from the beach to watch colourful reef fish amongst the rocks. Local inshore fishermen, especially at the sheltered Pehambiya end, mostly use colourful small Oru outrigger canoes which are easier to manoeuvre over the seasonal shifting sand-bars.

References

External links

Dikwella, Sri Lanka

Dikwella (Dikwella) - Sri Lanka
( PDF) Populated places in Southern Province, Sri Lanka Populated places in Matara District Seaside resorts in Sri Lanka Suburbs of Matara, Sri Lanka {{SouthernLK-geo-stub