Bogoda wooden bridge

Bogoda wooden bridge was built in the 16th century during the period of Dambadeniya era. This is said to be the oldest surviving wooden bridge in the world. The bridge is situated at 13 km south of Badulla city, Sri Lanka. All parts of this bridge was constructed by woods using wooden nails as fixing material. The roof tiles show the influence of Kingdom of Kandy. The bridge was built across the Gallanda Oya, which linked Badulla and Kandy ancient route.

he Bogoda bridge is over 400 year old and made entirely out of wooden planks which are said to have come from one tree. It is an exclusive construction as it has an 8 feet tall tiled roof structure for its entire span of nearly 50 feet length with a 6 feet breadth. The archeologists believe there were two reasons for the roof over the bridge. One for shelter and second for protection from the wilderness. Wooden fences of the bridge was decorated in various ancient designs, have been erected on either sides.

The structure of the bridge is standing on a huge tree trunk 35 ft in height. Jack fruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) logs and Kumbuk (Terminalia arjuna) logs were mainly used as the constructive material of the bridge. Furthermore Kaluwara (Diospyros ebenum) timber and Milla timber were used for the wooden decorations.

Bogoda Buddhist temple is an ancient temple situated beside the Bogoda wooden bridge. The temple has much longer history than the bridge. It is came from 1st century BC, during the period of Anuradhapura era. The temple was built by the under instruction of King Valagamba. Stone inscription by the temple in Brahmin scripture says the temple was donated to a priest called Brahmadatta by Tissa, a provincial leader in Badulla.

Inside of the temple were elaborated with lovely paintings,bearing resemblance to the Kandyan era. The walls were built with a paste made of cotton wool, bee honey and extracted and purified white clay. The paintings were drawn on this walls