BoB Trails

21/05/2026

Stonehenge in Sri Lanka? 🇱🇰🪨

In 1963, Captain A.T. Rambukwelle launched an expedition to the Maha Lenama (මහ ලේනම) area inside Kumana National Park. His goal was to find evidence pertaining to the ‘Nittaewo’ – mythical, dwarfish, half-human beasts that were supposedly eliminated by the Veddas in the 18th century. His most interesting find occurred at Maha Lenama (currently inaccessible); there, he found a strange 4-foot-tall vertical rock, with small stones arranged around it. There was another stone slab at the foot of the vertical rock (ref 2nd slide). Rambukwella claimed that it was either a ‘grave yard’ or ‘sacrificial altar.’

Interestingly, when Hugh Nevill explored this area in the 1880s, he found this same rock. He claimed – even at the time – that it was “very ancient & timeworn.” He too thought it was a sacrificial altar for animals. However, there was no confirmation about its purpose or who built it. Naturally, the usual suspects were the Veddas of the region. Or it was built by the other mythical clan that inhabited the Lenama/ Maha Lenama area – the ‘Nittaewo.’ According to legend, the ‘Nittaewo’ were dwarfish, hairy, half-human beasts who always fought with the Veddas. One day, the latter drove the ‘Nittaewo’ into a cave and set a fire outside, thereby suffocating them to death.

But the ‘Nittaewo’ were considered unsophisticated beasts who had no use for tools, so it’s questionable whether they’d build this. Since the 1960s, no one has discovered this rock formation. So Rambukwelle’s photo, originally published in 1963 in a ‘Royal Asiatic Society’ article, remains the only one so far. Strangely, when R.L. Spittel visited Lenama in the 1930s, he didn’t find this rock. Chances are, it’s still hidden in the remote jungles of Maha Lenama today.

Sources –

“The Taprobanian – Vol. 1” (1885)
“The Nittaewo – Legendary Pygmies of Ceylon” (1963) / The Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, New Series, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1963)