A Waterfall which sparkles as Silver

 


                                    A century ago, a German company named ‘Broodenburge’ arrived in Sri Lanka in order to discover graphite and ended up in Rathmale. Rathmale is a village which is situated in Agalawaththa. They started a graphite mine in a meadow in Rathmale. After the 1st World War, the company was bankrupt and left Sri Lanka. The graphite mine and also closed.

Because of the graphite spread from this huge mine, the whole meadow appeared in silver color. The Sinhala word for ‘meadow’ is ‘ඕවිට’. The Sinhala word for ‘Silver’ is ‘රිදී’. People started to call this area as ‘රිදී ඕවිට’ first. Then, it became ‘රිදීවිට’. There is not a mine now, but there is a huge forest cover in that area which created a beautiful ecosystem. Now this village is famous again because of a waterfall called ‘රිදීවිට ඇල්ල’. There is another name as well, ‘තඹදොල ඇල්ල’. This is a beautiful ecosystem with two waterfalls, two pools and a pine forest. There is a rivulet called ‘තුන්දොල’. It’s made out of three streams. The above mentioned waterfalls are created by this rivulet. There is a Buddhist Monastery at the peak of the mountain in this area. It is called ‘තුන්දොල ආරණ්‍යය.

The first waterfall is called ‘තඹදොල ඇල්ල’. Even though this is a small waterfall, it makes a big pool creating the surrounding unbelievably stunning. Because of the forest cover around the waterfall the surrounding is somewhat dark. Therefore, there are many mysterious stories around this waterfall. The most famous story is about a fish. It is said that, a former king hid his jewelry inside the pool. The villagers believe that a fish guards this treasure. They call this fish ‘කඩුක්කන් ආඳා’ as they believe that the fish is wearing an ear ring.

තඹදොල ඇල්ල

There is a common believe that the waterfall takes a human life as a prey because of this treasure. The villagers believe that the fish can be seen only by dying people. So far, only the drunken males were died by drowning in the waterfall. There is another belief regarding taking preys. It is said that, once a woman committed suicide with her baby in this waterfall because of the harassments of her drunken husband. The villagers believe that now she takes the lives of drunken males because of her hatred.

ජුලී ඇල්ල

The second waterfall is called ‘ජුලී ඇල්ල’. There is a beautiful forest around this waterfall. We can see many flowers and butterfly species around the area. If we protect this waterfall and the ecosystem around the waterfall well, it will sparkle as same as the silver.


Map : රිදීවිට ඇල්ල Google Map

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