Dewatagaha Mosque
Highlights of Dewatagaha Mosque
The Dewatagaha mosque is one of the more prominent mosques in Colombo – its lovely exterior is almost an iconic part of the architecture near Town Hall. It is also partly a shrine to a Saint from the 19th century – Shaikh Usman Waliyullah – and Muslims and non-Muslims alike visit to pay their respects.
It’s beautiful to look at – huge and white, much like the ones in Galle and Beruwela which were set up around the same era. Green creepers have begun to grow around parts of the minarets (mosque towers) adding to the aesthetics. The premises don’t seem that large on entering it but from outside it spans quite the distance, and the Town Hall dome some distance behind looks like it’s part of the white structure. At the center are pigeons – loads of pigeons! They’re always there and visitors make a habit of feeding them; a friend of mine remembers visiting the mosque with her mother, paying respect to the shrine and feeding the pigeons as part of a regular ritual.
The mosque is said to be about 200 years old. The devotees believe the Saint whose shrine this is was sent to Sri Lanka by the Prophet Muhamad from Arafat, Arabia.
