The Maha Seya was built in commemoration of over 50 submerged temples and the people who lost their properties as a consequence of the Mahaweli Development program in the early 1980s including the construction of the Kotmale dam. The Mahaweli Development Project was the largest development project conducted in Sri Lanka after the country obtained independence. The Maha Seya was opened in 2016 and sit tall overlooking the Kotmale Dam and reservations. The stupa is 88 m (289 ft) tall, making it the second-largest stupa in Sri Lanka, second to Ruwanweli Maha Seya in Anuradhapura,[2] built in 140 BC.
