This temple was also built in the 14th century to house an image of the God Skanda, the Kataragama deity. The entire wooden structure is carved with mythical and other figures. It lies in the Udunuwara division close to Daulagala about eight miles from Kandy.
The UNESCO has named the marvelous elaborate carvings on wooden pillars at Embekke to be the finest products of woodcarvings to be found in any part of the world.
Many hoary legends describe the origins of this splendid devale. According to archaic documents and the epic Embekke Varnanawa composed by Delgahagoda Mudiyanse, it was built during the Gampola period of King Wickrama Bahu II (1371 CE). One of his consorts named Henakanda Biso Bandara, in association with a drummer named as Rangama, is supposed to have built this Devale dedicated to God Kataragama in a superb three-storeyed building which is now no more.
The devale is in two segmented buildings; the Digge (Dancing Hall) and Drummers Hall (hewasi mandappaya). The wooden capital pillars have assumed varied shapes molded skillfully into intricate wood carvings. The bottom square is octagonal with carvings, while its top terminates in a leaf emanating from a square. The other intricate but unique piece of woodcarvings rest on the Pecada.
Enticing woodcarvings are also found on some beams, rafters, doorways, and doors. Among the best masterpieces on the capital pillars are the hansa puttuwa (entwined swans) double headed eagles, and entwined rope designs, mother breast-feeding child, soldier fighting on horseback, female dancing figures, wrestlers, women emanating from a vein, bird with human figure, combination of elephant-bull and combination of elephant-lion.
The elephant-bull carving and the elephant with its elongated trunk are magnificent examples of Embekke carvings. When one covers the figure of the carving of part bull, the real figure of the elephant with elongated trunk is manifested, while when one does the same with that of the elephant, there emerges the figure of the bull.
The roof of the Embekke Devale has some ingenious examples of classic carpentry mastery in fixing the rafters. The 'Madol Kurupuwa' is one of the finest examples of medieval carpentry. It is a wooden pin (Madol Kurupuwa) which holds together 26 rafters at the hipped end of the roof of the Digge of Embekke Devale. The giant pin is carved with pathuruliya, patha motifs.
Among the carvings, there are 125 series of decorations, 256 liya wel (flowering vines), 64 lotus designs in Pekada, 30 decorative patterns on timber, roof members, making a total of 514 such exquisite carvings.At a distance of about 1/8 mile lies another assembly of stone pillars which carved replicas of the wooden pillars of the Embekke Devale. Altogether there are 16 columns in the base, with two octagonal sections above and square blocks in the centre and the end with carvings on four sides. It is believed that the wooden beams of the roof had rested on carved wooden capitals (pekada), which are no longer to be seen in the site.
The roof had been covered with flat tiles. Rope designs, entwining swans, berunde birds and dancing girls are some of the creations found on these stone columns, akin to the wood carvings at Embekke Devale. The villagers still remember the existence of this ambalama with the wooden roof about 100 years ago. The original state of the roof is shown in a photograph that appeared in Henry Cave's 'Book of Ceylon' published in 1908. The ambalama is 27 feet long and 22 feet wide, built on a platform with four monolithic columns in each corner, which is seven feet in height. This building is also called Sinhasana Mandapaya. In ancient times, the king and his royal entourage rested here and watched the perahera when it was held.
Of these stone pillars seven have fallen and some are broken. The stone carvings on the fallen stone pillars are fast being defaced.