In ancient times, a just and kind king ruled the highlands of this country and it was known as Malaya Rata- meaning the Hill Country. His pride and joy was a huge garden of flowers. Many beautiful flowers bloomed here and their fragrance perfumed the air.
Butterflies
Hundreds of butterflies of all shapes and colours visited the garden especially in December when the weather is cooler. They drank the nectar of the flowers to their hearts’ content and flew away. again. The king loved to watch the beautiful butterflies. He often thought about them and wondered where they went. He realised that they flew towards a beautiful mountain.
The king always wondered as to why the butterflies always headed towards this mountain.
One day, while he was out riding the king met a man who had no legs. The kind hearted king took pity on the man and appointed him as the keeper of his beautiful park. The man looked after the park with great care.
Stolen flowers
When the park keeper came to the park one day he was horrified to find that all the beautiful flowers had been stolen. The park keeper wondered about the mysterious thieves but could not think of anyone who would do such a thing.
When he came to the park the next morning too all the flowers were gone. He was frightened that if the king found out that he would lose his job.
He thought and thought about who the thieves could be and how he could catch them. Finally, he came to the conclusion that the thieves must be people who stole the flowers to offer them to a holy person or sacred place. If they did so, they must be liking to acquire merit too he thought. He also knew that people who like to get merit love to listen to sacred sermons and readings from sacred books.
Sacred scriptures
He sent a message to a nearby temple and borrowed a book of sacred scriptures. That night, the park keeper came to the park and started to read from the sacred book. But he was alert to what was happening around him.
Around midnight, he heard rustlings as if there were people moving around softly. The park keeper pretended not to hear the sounds and continued reading.
Divine young women
A little later, the park keeper was amazed to see beautiful young women clasping their hands in worship and listening to him read. They were divine young women. While continuing to read the man quietly caught the hand of one of the divine young women.The frightened young woman begged to be set free.
The park keeper said, he will let her go only if she will tell him where they take the flowers.
She agreed and said, that they took the flowers to worship the Buddha. The divine young woman said, that the Sacred Footprint of the Buddha was on top of a mountain nearby. She also said, that they join God Saman to worship the Buddha.
The park keeper wanted to know how to go to the mountain. The young woman told him it was easy. All he had to do was to follow the thousands of butterflies which flew to the mountain. She said that he will find thousands of butterflies worshipping the Sacred Footprint at the peak.
The park keeper told the king about his amazing experience. The king told his people and got some of them to carry the park keeper on their shoulders. They all made the trek to the sacred mountain following the myriads of butterflies flying there.
At the peak they found the sacred footprint and they worshipped it. The next day, at dawn they saw the Sun dipping in homage to the sacred footprint.
From this time this mountain became known as Samanala Kanda. Today, it is also known as Sri Pada or Adam’s Peak. It is the Holy Mounta. of Sri Lanka Buddhists make the pilgrimage to Samanala Kanda to worship the Sacred Footprint of the Buddha.
Hindus come here as they believe that the footprint belongs to Lord Shiva. Christians and Muslims believe that Adam first set foot here after he was banished from the garden of Eden.
Sources : Internet, Folklore and legends, Mountain of the Butterflies by Professor J. B. Disanayaka