Unawatuna
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Unawatuna උණවටුන |
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Unawatuna Beach
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 Unawatuna
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| Coordinates: 6°01′6″N 80°15′9″E / 6.01833°N 80.25250°ECoordinates: 6°01′6″N 80°15′9″E / 6.01833°N 80.25250°E | |
| Country | Sri Lanka |
| Province | Southern Province |
| Time zone | Sri Lanka Standard Time Zone (UTC+5:30) |
| • Summer (DST) | Summer time (UTC+6) |
Unawatuna is a coastal town in Galle district of Sri Lanka. Unawatuna is a major tourist attraction in Sri Lanka and famous for its beautiful beach and corals. It is a suburb of Galle, about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) southeast to the city center and approximately 108 kilometres (67 mi) south of Colombo. Unawatuna is situated at an elevation of 5 metres (16 ft) above the sea level.
The description of the beach paradises in Valmiki's epic Ramayana sounds like Unawatuna.
Unawatuna traces its roots to the great epic Ramayana.[1] In the epic, the monkey-warrior Hanuman was sent back to India to fetch the four medicinal herbs by Jambavan namely, mritasanjeevani, vishalyakarani, suvarnakarani, and sandhani from the Himalayas in order to heal Lakshman who was wounded trying to save the abducted Princess Sita from the demon king Ravana. Hanuman failed to identify these herbs, so he lifted the entire mountain and carried it to the battlefield to try to save Lakshman, but in the process, a chunk of it "fell-down" in the location of the present day Unawatuna, the name of the village derives from "Una-watuna" meaning "fell down".
Currently, an edifice is being built in honour of Hanuman on the harbour end of Rumassala Hill by Japanese monks of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism near the Peace Pagoda that they built.
A banished Indian Prince was shipwrecked and the Goddess of Earth, Manimekalai, taking pity created a rocky shelf for him to save his life and that subsequently he headed to Unawatuna. The Goddess of Chastity, Pattini, created a wall of fire to prevent him coming ashore, but being a person of some supreme power, he set in motion a tsunami with his foot to extinguish the fire and set foot on the shores of Unawatuna.
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Wikipedia