Meemure – A village of serene and pristine beauty

Visit Sri lanka It is  Beautiful  Country !!!!
Join This Page... Sri lankan Beautiful Pictures !
FB Page - www.facebook.com/lankapicturespage
Website - http://lankapicturespage.blogspot.com
http://lankavideospage.blogspot.com
My mail is - basuratravels@gmail.com
T:p :-  +94 0776 714 227

         Meemure is a village in Sri Lanka with a population of about 400. It is located near the border between Kandy District and Matale District in the Knuckles Mountain Range. Meemure is one of the most remote villages in Sri Lanka with the only access via a 14 km (8.7 mi) trail from the town of Loolwatte. There is no cellular service available in the village, but a CDMA telephone service is available. There is no direct mail delivery to the village; a villager journeys each day to Thapal Junction (literally meaning Mail Junction) to exchange incoming and outgoing postal mail with a postman.

Lakegala mountain is in Meemure village. It is considered the place where King Ravana lifted the Dhadu Monara or Dhandu Monara. Residents of the village depend on several staple crops including pepper, cardamom, paddy and ginger. Meemure village owns an exceptional natural beauty. It is rich with natural Beauty and Traditional Sri Lankan styles. The distance from Colombo capital to Meemure is about 175 km.

Route :
Meemure is approximately a 7 hour drive from Colombo, in an off road vehicle. Here is how you can go there; First go to Kandy city which is 116 km away from Colombo. Then Kandy-Mahiyangana Road (A26) towards to Mahiyangana. Turn to Left from Hunnasgiriya Junction which is 35 km away from Kandy. Then go towards the Loolwatte Village which is 15 km away from Hunnasgiriya Junction. Then from Loolwatte it is about another 15 km to the Meemure Village.you can use village public van it is a marvelous experience to have,to that you should be at Hunnasgiriya junction around 11 clock .hiring vehicles from Hunnasgiriya would be expensive than village vehicle . The nearest Police station is Teldeniya Police. On your way to Meemure from Colombo you can see many Natural Sceeneries; among them Hulu Ganga (River), Victoria Reservoir, Teldeniya New Town (Teldeniya was flooded in filling the Reservoir behind the Victoria Dam, Mahaweli Project), Dothalugala Forest and Botanical Garden, Mini Worlds End, Coberts Gap (Attala Mottuwa) a place where lot of wind blowing to the other side, Meemure and Lakegala Mountain where King Rawana Lifted his Air Plane called Dhadu Monara.

The last King of Mahanuwara, Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe despatched his two daughters for safety to a little remote village before enemies captured him.

Meemure This village is refreshingly beautiful Meemure, nestling at the foothills of the Lakegala Peak of the Dumbara range of hills. According to legend the two princesses committed suicide on hearing of the King’s capture and the royal jewellery which they wore is said to be in the possession of traditional families in the village.

Another legend says that Meemure belonged to a veddah named ‘Benduruwa’ which was taken away from him by King Vimaladharma and handed over to Herath Hamy whose descendants are believed to be still living in the village.

Driving through the Knuckles range on a gravel road we arrived at a spot from where continuous range of stone ridges were seen lining the sideways of the road. These stone ridges signified that we were entering the Meemure village, lying in a valley amidst the Vamarapuagala, Uda Vannimana and Palle-Vannimana and Lakegala peaks – the village I had heard so much of and longed to visit.
 

An aura of serenity pervaded this quaint little village, the life-style and its traditional values zealously guarded by its elders from the ‘pollution’ of rapid technological developments. Acres and acres of green paddyfields stretching endlessly, dotted here and there with patches of arecanut trees or reed-bushes; cattle grazing peacefully in home-gardens; the boundaries of houses and lands demarcated by stone-ridges with stones piled neatly one on top of the other; wooden fences leading to large home-gardens with rock stones as steps to the houses and the Karambaganga Ela gently flowing by marking one boundary of Meemure.

This is my first impression of this environment-friendly peaceful village of Meemure boasting of a history dating to the period of Ravana and long before the advent of Prince Vijaya to Lankapura.
 

The village is self-sufficient and does not depend on the outside world for sustenance. A native of the village and teacher of Kaikawela Madya Maha Vidyalaya Gamini Abeyratne said that there are 125 families in the Gramasevaka Wasama and paddy cultivation is their livelihood. There are 3 schools in the village – over 200-year-old Meemure Primary School, over 50-year-old Kaikawela Madya Maha Vidyalaya and the Kumbukgolla school which is about 6 years old.

The village had produced several professionals including government servants. There is a 60-year-old uninhabited ancient temple and an ancient Bo-tree in the village. Elders in the village spoke of how politicians introduced some of the village people to Cardamom cultivation in the Knuckles range.

With the declaration of the Knuckles as a Forest Reserve cardamom cultivation in the area is being discouraged. Villagers said they loved the forest and would co-operate if alternate, economically viable livelihoods were provided. An elder, Kiribanda said that even paddy cultivation was affected due to the lack of varieties of paddy they cultivated earlier which only needed carbonic fertiliser but yielded bountiful harvests. With the introduction of weedicides and pesticides and new kinds of fertiliser, the soil is affected. In addition to paddy cultivation the villagers engage themselves in chena cultivations and other kinds of plantations.

M. D. Seneviratne (38) said people were experiencing financial difficulties as a result of fertiliser being expensive. With regard to other types of income generation methods such as tourist potentials being introduced, Seneviratne said that the villagers would unanimously oppose unplanned developments into their village since they wanted to preserve the existing unpolluted traditions and cultures in the community which they had treasured for generations. There were 30 to 40 graduates in the village still unemployed.

A visit to the Uda Walawwe an ancient traditional Kandyan-style built house including a `Meda Midula’was a remarkable experience. Stocks of paddy were stored in one corner of the house. Lasanda Manike (80) said that the house was over 100 years old with the roof covered with local traditional tiles.

The road leading to Meemure village was earlier a footpath. Now it has been widened, untarred and motorable – though rugged in certain places. Meemure’s community is simple and unsophisticated village-folk.

While taking leave of a group of elders we were chatting with seated on a range of rocks under the spreading Bo-tree, we wished them well with hopes that whatever development projects were introduced, they would meet with the villagers’ expectations of protecting their traditional values while at the same time preserving the serenity and pristine beauty of Meemure. Personally for me, this visit is an unforgettable and an exhilarating experience.
 

Would you like to go Meemure? Please E-mail your comment in the my mail box below, ( basuratravels@gmail.com ) I can help you it. Thank you! If you like this blog post, or find it useful, please share it on social media!

.................................................................................................................................

Hi ! Everybody !!!!
Tell Your Friends Join this Web Site. Share this Pictures Ur friends.
Im Tour Organizer in Sri lanka.
So you like travel to Lanka? I can help you.
We given to you Booking Hotel Rooms & Tour Transport.
Please Visit my Facebook & website get more details.
FB Page - www.facebook.com/lankapicturespage
G+ - https://plus.google.com/communities/105465329416869974829
Website - http://lankapicturespage.blogspot.com
http://lankavideospage.blogspot.com
My mail is - basuratravels@gmail.com
T:p :-  +94 0776 714 227
Thanks!