Dambulla Rock Cave Temple, Sri Lankan Magnificence and Splendour

Dambulla Rock Cave temple, surrounded by wild nature and on the top of a hill is another UNESCO world Heritage of Sri Lanka. The number of protected sites in Sri Lanka is quite incredible and Dambulla Rock Temple is one of the most impressive. This troglodythe monastery, part of the famous cultural triangle, is built inside caves and is plentiful of wall paintings dated from XIIIth century. These paintings telling Buddha'live cover 6000m² of walls. The temple is made with five caves where 157 statues can be found. Once you step in one of the Dambulla Rock temple cave, the magnificence and splendor of the site just comes to you with no word.

There are two entrances  : the one where the driver can leave you and wait for you. In this case, you will to step some stairs to end up on the hill but you will not regret it. The walk is quite pleasant as it offers a beautiful view on the surrounding nature, and none of the less, you will meet lots of adorable (or less adorable !) monkeys. 

The other entrance is from the Golden temple with quite a huge but kitch golden Buddha along with a line of plastic monks. Arrived ther, you will hesitate to entrance, but trust me, the site has then nothing to compare. 

     

In all religious sites in Sri Lanka, do not forget of course to cover your shoulders and your knees, even if you are a man. However, do not worry, you can get a wrapping skirt against few rupies. Arrived on the top, admire the architecture of the temple encrusted in the rock. 

Then the visit of the five caves can begin. The first one is quite dark with a lying Buddha with enormous impressive red foot !

The famous cave is the biggest one with impressive wall paintings and illuminated numerous statues. 

     

Another impressive cave is the one with another but yellow lying Buddha. Unfortunatly, the Buddha were under restoration where we get there. You can still admire the details of his face and especially the details the pillow where Buddha rest. This cave is also made of lots of standing statues, which are exactly the same. This quite surprising, numbers and quantity seem to have their importance to honor Buddha ! 

One of the last cave leave the stones and rocks more apparent with less paintings. 

To sum up, the richness of the temple and the art around buddhism religion are so impressive that Dambulla Rock Temple is definitly one of the Sri Lankan site to put on your bucket list.