Thuparama Image House
Thuparama Image House is one of the architectural wonders of ancient Sri Lanka which is situated in Polonnaruwa and has survived over 900 years witnessing different conditions and challenges. It is said to be built by the Minister of King Parakramabahu the Great called Mahinda and some believe that it was built by King Vijayabahu but literally the original name and the builder is unknown.
This miracle is one of the few old constructions in Sri Lanka where the semi-cylindrical roof and walls are all made out of bricks. The front view of the building is with rounded vault roofs and intricately carved pillar capitals. The ornamentation of the exterior walls dotted with the sharply incised details shows the influence of the South Indian architecture which is vimana-panjara-kudu design and the walls are about 7 feet (2 meter) thick.
The interior of the building contains huge, heavenly white buddha statues in standing position and a giant seated buddha statue was placed here, unfortunately nothing remains now. It is said that the sitting Buddha statue was embedded with precious stones on the eyes and the interior was designed to grab the sunlight entering through the windows and reflect on the stones and lit the inner space.
This is the only monument among those ancient places in Polonnaruwa where the roof is well preserved.
