Koneswaram Temple

Koneswaram crowns Konesar Malai at Trincomalee on Sri Lanka's east coast. Foremost among the island's five Pancha Ishwaram Shiva shrines, it was honoured as Dakshina Kailasam, the Kailash of the south. Its name goes back to the Sanskrit Gokarnesvara.

Pallava craftsmen built its thousand-pillared hall between 537 and 668. Pallava, Pandya and Chola dynasties gave to the shrine, which reached its greatest age under the Cholas and the Sinhalese king Gajabahu II, its benefactor from 1131 to 1153.

Between 1622 and 1624 the Portuguese sacked the complex, threw its images into the sea and built Fort Fredrick from its stones. Some surviving idols were transferred in 1632 to a new temple inland, while a single pillar remained on Swami Rock above the bay; the annual Ther chariot festival kept its name alive among the Tamils of the east coast.