Dambulla Golden Temple
UNESCO World Heritage Site
A sacred pilgrimage site for 22 centuries, this cave monastery, with its five sanctuaries, is the largest, best-preserved cave-temple complex in Sri Lanka. The Buddhist mural paintings (covering an area of 2,100 m2) are of particular importance, as are the 157 statues. Source: http://whc.unesco.org
Sri Lanka's Largest Rock Cave Temple built on a 600 feet high Rock. It is home to the Worlds most acclaimed Cave complex of magnificent Buddha Images and Rock Paintings of vivid colours and shapes constructed and painted from around 2nd Century BC (Anuradhapura era) and continued up to the Kandyan era of the 18th Century. Sinhalese people call it as 'Dambulu Gala' (Dambulla Rock) and the Temple is called as the 'Rangiri Dambulu Viharaya' (Golden Rock Dambulla Temple). The Dambulla Rock Temple had first been constructed during the rein of King Vattagamini Abhaya ( 103 BC and 89-77 BC ). During a South Indian invasion the king had to abandon his Anuradhapura Kingdom. For 12 years, King Valagamba was in hiding and had frequented these caves for his safety. After regaining the kingdom of Anuradhapura and becoming the King, to show his gratefulness for his safe place, he converted those caves into Buddhist Temples by constructing walled partitions under the rock overhang which spans the entire area as a single large cave. He got drip ledges made along this large cave and made it suitable to withstand rainy weather and avoided water seeping inside the caved areas. The three cave temples named as Devarajalena, Maharajalena and the Paccimalena were constructed by him. Source: www.srilankaview.com
UNESCO World Heritage Site
A sacred pilgrimage site for 22 centuries, this cave monastery, with its five sanctuaries, is the largest, best-preserved cave-temple complex in Sri Lanka. The Buddhist mural paintings (covering an area of 2,100 m2) are of particular importance, as are the 157 statues. Source: http://whc.unesco.org
Sri Lanka's Largest Rock Cave Temple built on a 600 feet high Rock. It is home to the Worlds most acclaimed Cave complex of magnificent Buddha Images and Rock Paintings of vivid colours and shapes constructed and painted from around 2nd Century BC (Anuradhapura era) and continued up to the Kandyan era of the 18th Century. Sinhalese people call it as 'Dambulu Gala' (Dambulla Rock) and the Temple is called as the 'Rangiri Dambulu Viharaya' (Golden Rock Dambulla Temple). The Dambulla Rock Temple had first been constructed during the rein of King Vattagamini Abhaya ( 103 BC and 89-77 BC ). During a South Indian invasion the king had to abandon his Anuradhapura Kingdom. For 12 years, King Valagamba was in hiding and had frequented these caves for his safety. After regaining the kingdom of Anuradhapura and becoming the King, to show his gratefulness for his safe place, he converted those caves into Buddhist Temples by constructing walled partitions under the rock overhang which spans the entire area as a single large cave. He got drip ledges made along this large cave and made it suitable to withstand rainy weather and avoided water seeping inside the caved areas. The three cave temples named as Devarajalena, Maharajalena and the Paccimalena were constructed by him. Source: www.srilankaview.com