The rock Buddha
The Sri Vivekaramaya Temple (also simply just known as the Rumassala Temple) is a serene and peaceful Buddhist temple near the famous Jungle Beach and Japanese Peace Pagoda just outside of Galle, Sri Lanka. Your best bet is to catch a tuk-tuk from Galle Fort to Jungle Beach in the morning, spend a few hours at the beach, then follow the road down to the Peace Pagoda and the signs for the temple.
The temple is not a tourist-oriented temple so it’s quieter and more laid back than a lot of the popular temple (when we went, there was a field trip with some very cute local school children). When you enter, a young worker will give you a guided tour and you should accept it. We were apprehensive at first and tried to lose him as it’s common practice at many Sri Lankan temples for hustlers to give you an unsolicited tour then demand payment for it at the end. At Sri Vivekaramaya, they take their Buddhist ethics seriously and asked only a small donation to the temple (put directly in the donation box) and the young man even politely refused a tip a the end!
