| Horagolla Walauwa | |
|---|---|
| හොරගොල්ල වලව්ව | |
Horagolla Walauwa, Atthanagalla | |
| General information | |
| Classification | Bungalow/Walauwa |
| Location | Horagolla, Nittambuwa Sri Lanka |
| Client | Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike |
| Owner | Anura Bandaranaike Foundation |
Horagolla Walauwa (also known asHoragolla) is a large bungalow (as mansions are referred to locally) in Atthanagalla, Western Province, Sri Lanka. [1]
A bungalow is a type of building, originally developed in the Bengal region of the subcontinent. The meaning of the word bungalow varies internationally. Common features of many bungalows include verandas and being low-rise. In Australia, the California bungalow associated with the United States was popular after the First World War. In North America and the United Kingdom, a bungalow today is a house, normally detached, that may contain a small loft. It is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof, usually with dormer windows.
Attanagalla electoral district was an electoral district of Sri Lanka between August 1947 and February 1989. The district was named after the town of Attanagalla in present-day Gampaha District, Western Province. The 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka introduced the proportional representation electoral system for electing members of Parliament. The existing 160 mainly single-member electoral districts were replaced with 22 multi-member electoral districts. Attanagalla electoral district was replaced by the Gampaha multi-member electoral district at the 1989 general elections, the first under the PR system, though Attanagalla continues to be a polling division of the multi-member electoral district.
The Western Province is one of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka, the first level administrative division of the country. The provinces have existed since the 19th century but did not have any legal status until 1987 when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. The province is the most densely populated province in the country and is home to the legislative capital Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte as well to Colombo, the nation's administrative and business center.
A stately home built by Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike after his appointment as Maha Mudaliyar (Head Mudaliyar) at the turn of the twentieth century. It drives its name from the his country seat of Horagolla, where it is located and from the word walauwa the traditional name for a headman's home.
Sir is a formal English honorific address for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Traditionally, as governed by law and custom, Sir is used for men titled knights i.e. of orders of chivalry, and later also to baronets, and other offices. As the female equivalent for knighthood is damehood, the suo jure female equivalent term is typically Dame. The wife of a knight or baronet tends to be addressed Lady, although a few exceptions and interchanges of these uses exist.
Sir Solomon Dias Abeywickrema Jayatilleke Senewiratna Rajakumaruna Kadukeralu Bandaranaike, was a Ceylonese colonial-era headmen. He was appointed as Head Mudaliyar and the aide-de-camp to the British Governor of Ceylon, therefore he was one of the most powerful personalities in British colonial Ceylon.
The Maha Mudaliyar was a colonial title and office in Ceylon. Head Mudaliyar functioned as the head of the low country native headmen and native aide-de-camp to the Governor of Ceylon.
Located behind it is the older walauwa of Horagolla which was home to Sir Solomon's father Gate Mudaliyar Don Christoffel Henricus Dias Abeywickrema Jayatilake Seneviratne Bandaranaike, which was originally built by Don Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, Mudaliyar of Siyan Korale East who was Sir Solomon's grandfather who helped the British build the Colombo - Kandy Road. A passionate horse breeder, Sir Solomon converted this house into his stables. After many years of derelict it was renovated by the renowned architect Geoffrey Bawa as the home of Sir Solomon's grand daughter Sunethra Bandaranaike in the 1980s.
The A 1 road is an A-Grade trunk road in Sri Lanka. It connects the capital city of Colombo with Kandy.
Geoffrey Manning Bawa, FRIBA was a Sri Lankan architect. He was among the most influential Asian architects of his generation. He is the principal force behind what is today known globally as "tropical modernism".
"It's no exaggeration to say that architect Geoffrey Bawa transformed the look of South-East Asia. And yet what he did is so subtle that we almost take it for granted today. In short, Bawa-tailored modern buildings to a specific environment. It hardly seems revolutionary and yet no one else had done anything like it in the region."
Sunethra Bandaranaike is a Sri Lankan philanthropist and a socialite.
Horagolla Walauwa, became the family seat of the Bandaranaike family with Sir Solomon's son S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike becoming the 4th Prime Minister of Ceylon after independence followed by his daughter-in-law Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike becoming Prime Minister on three occasions and his granddaughter Chandrika Kumaratunga becoming Prime Minister and then President of Sri Lanka. [2]
A family seat or sometimes just called seat is the principal residence of the landed gentry and aristocracy. The residence usually denotes the social, economic, political, or historic connection of the family within a given area. Some families took their dynasty name from their family seat, or named their family seat after their own dynasty name. The term family seat was first recorded in the 11th century Domesday Book where it was listed as the word caput. The term continues to be used in the British Isles today. A clan seat refers to the seat of the chief of a Scottish clan.
The Bandaranaike family is a Sri Lankan family that is prominent in politics. Along with many members who have been successful politician across generations, the family includes three Prime Ministers and one President of Sri Lanka.
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the fifth President of Sri Lanka, from 12 November 1994 to 19 November 2005. The country's only female president to date, she is the daughter of two former prime ministers and was the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) until the end of 2005. In 2015 she was appointed as the chairperson of office for national unity and reconciliation.
Located in the gardens of Horagolla Walauwa, east of the Walauwa is the Horagolla Bandaranaike Samadhi the mausoleum of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and Sirimavo Bandaranaike and across the Colombo-Kandy road on top of a short hill is the mausoleum of Sir Solomon. After the death of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the house was inherited by her son Anura Bandaranaike who was a former Government Minister and Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. After he died without heirs it was transferred to the Anura Bandaranaike Foundation.
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb, or the tomb may be considered to be within the mausoleum.
Anura Priyadarshi Solomon Dias Bandaranaike was a Sri Lankan politician, served as Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka (2000–2001), and in several cabinet ministries as Foreign Minister briefly in 2005, Minister of Higher Education (1993–1994), Minister of Tourism, Minister of National Heritage (2007), Speaker (2000-2001) and Leader of the Opposition (1983–1988). He last served as a member of parliament from the opposition.
