Dambulla is a dusty town located right in the middle of Sri Lanka’s so-called “Cultural Triangle”, at a crosspoint of the Colombo-Kurunegala-Trincomalee and the Kandy-Anuradhapura-Jaffna roads. The three “corners” or “angles” of the “Cutural Triangle” - namely the ancient capitals and today’s World Heritage Sites Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Kandy - are all within 70 to 80 km distance from Dambulla. And Sri Lanka’s most-visited UNESCO World Heritage Site, Sigiriya, is only 15 km away from Dambulla. The Dambulla rock temple is a World Heritage Site itself, because it's undoubtedly the very best example of typical Sinhalese Buddhist cave temple richly decorated with statues and paintings. The colourful beauty of these image caves is the reason why Dambulla is a must-see for heritage travellers in Sri Lanka. Don't miss it, it will be on the way.
The Dambulla Temple is officially known as “Dambulu Len Viharaya” (“Dambulla Cave Monastery”), because of its caves, “Dambulu Raja Maha Viharaya” (“Dambulla Royal Grand Monastery”), because it was founded by a king, or “Rangiri Dambulu Viharaya“, (“Golden-Rock Dambulla Monastery”). There are are at least two reasons for the latter name, namely the gilding of statues in the Polonnaruwa period and the recently erected giant statue of a Golden Buddha just in front of the rock, where the stairway to the cave temples begins.
Altogether, there are more than 80 documented caves in the surrounding area of Dambulla, but the five caves behind the Golden Buddha Statue of the Golden Temple, which is located at the southern end of the town, are definitely the major attractions of Dambulla. The caves are situated at a natural terrace, in about 100 m height above the road, at the southern slope of the Dambulla rock, which reaches 160 m above sea level.
The caves entrances are behind aisles of long galleries in front of the rock. Their shining white walls are contrasting with the dark granite. The caves are decorated with 153 Buddha statues, 3 statues of Sri Lankan kings and 4 statues of gods and goddesses, and with Sri Lanka’s most exquisite ancient murals, covering an area of 2,100 square metres (23,000 square feet). They are the best example of traditional paintings in the Kandyan style, depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha, also illustrating episodes from his previous lives as described in the Jataka stories, which form a part of the Buddhist Holy Scriptures, the canon called Tipitaka in Pali (or Tripitaka in Sanskrit).
Photography is permitted inside the caves, but visitors are not allowed to take pictures of people in front of statues. This is a general rule in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, you should avoid flashlights, because it would damage the colours of these ancient paintings, which - apart from the Sigiriya frescoes - are the most valuable in Sri Lankan art history.
Please, though there can be crowds of visitors, do not behave like a tourist in an amusement park. Be aware: Dambulla is still a sacred site and many of the Sri Lankan visitors are pious pilgrims. This is a time-honoured place, it is has been inhabited by Buddhist monks since the 3rd century B.C.E. and became a royal temple already in the 2nd or 1st century B.C.E. It is believed to have been occupied by monks ever since. This is remarkable indeed, because in this case Dambulla would be one of the oldest continuously inhabited monasteries of the entire world, if not the oldest at all.
HISTORY OF DAMBULLA
The Dambulla area is thought to be inhabited from as early as the 7th century B.C.E., since Ibbankatuwa near Dambulla was a prehistoric burial site, where human skeletons were found from centuries long before the arrival of the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. Right from the beginning of the island’s Buddhist era, reclusive monks lived in natural rock shelters. Maybe, some of them had settled down here even before Buddhism was officially introduced by King Devanampiya Tissa in the 3rd century B.C.
The Dambulla caves are believed to have provided refuge to King Vattagamani Abhaya, known as Valagamba in Sinhala, when he had to flee from Anuradapura, after the capital of his kingdom had been sacked by Tamil invaders. Reclusive monks living in the Dambulla caves are said to have hidden and protected the king. When King Vattagamani Abhaya, after 14 years in exile, managed to regain the throne in Anuradapura, he remembered the place that once sheltered him and, out of gratitude, ordered to build a magnificent rock temple at Dambulla. Remarkably, the foundation legend mentions, that the caves had already been inhabited by monks in the early period of Vattagmani’s rule. So the sacred site seems to be even older. The rock inscription in Brahmi letters, which is placed at the drip ledge above the cave entrance, is usually ascribed to Vattagamani, but another short inscription possibly dates back to the reign of Saddha Tissa’s reign, who was Vatagamani Abhaya's father. Saddha Tissa himself was the younger brother and successor of the most famous Sinhalese king, Duttha Gamani, who ruled in the middle of the 2nd century B.C. The Brahmi characters of the first inscriptions at Dambulla may be even earlier, namely from the very beginnings of the island’s Buddhist era in the 3rd century B.C.E.
Statues in the caves are said to date back to the pre-Christian era, too. Frankly, this seems highly unlikely in case of Buddha statues, because earliest depictions of the Buddha are not known from such an early period in India. But some of the statues are from the Anradhapura period indeed, and others are from the Polonnaruwa period (10th to 12th century). However, most statues as well as the paintings are from the Kandy period, mainly from the 18th century.
Though this was a huge cave temple, historical records remain silent on Dambulla until the 11th century C.E. The Chulavamsa chronicle, a continuation of the Mahavamsa, states that King Vijayabahu, who liberated the heartland of the Sinhalese civilizaton from Chola occupation and became the first Sinhalese king of the Polonnaruwa period, carried out restoration work at Dambulla and donated villages to the incumbents of this temple.
However, most Buddha statues from the Polonnaruwa period are donations of King Nissanka Malla, who on the fourth and last of his pilgrimages exploring his kingdom also visited Dambulla. Like at many other pilgrimage places and like at many buildings in Polonnaruwa itself, Nissanka Malla left a detailed inscription praising his deeds. In this Dambulla inscription, Nissanka Malla claims to have left more than 70 statues in the caves as well as to have ordered to gild some of the Buddha images. It is from this time onwards that Dambulla is called the “Golden Temple”.
A palm leaf manuscript from the Kandyan era, called the Dambulu Vihara Tudapata, dated 1726 C.E., states that King Senarath from Kandy restored the Dambulla rock temple and that the king himself took part in a reopening ceremony.
The last and most noteworthy royal benefactor of the Dambulla cave temples is King Kirthi Sri Rajasingha in the second half of the 18th century. Though of Indian origin and born as a Hindu, he started, after becoming King of Kandy, patronizing Buddhism in many ways, leading to a Buddhist renaissance on the island. One of the many reorganized temples was Dambulla. Now it became the masterpiece of Kandyan art. Actually most of the paintings in the caves which can be seen today are from this era, as the main caves assumed their final layout during Kirthi Sri Rajasingha’s reign.
Only cave number 5 was decorated much later, and in the 1930s, the white veranda just below the dark granite of the rock, was rebuilt with some elements of the colonial style.
Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple
Dambulla visitors can't miss the entrance of the World Heritage Site, as it is indicated by a new building which is crowned by a new giant Buddha shining in golden colour. This Golden Buddha of Dambulla sits atop the museum of the Golden Temple. Tickets are available in a side building, and the stairway to the cave temples begins just behind the museum building. The gesture shown by this new Golden Buddha image is Dharmachakra-Vitarka-Mudra, the "in-motion-setting of the wheel of the teaching". This is the gesture indicating the very first sermon held by the Buddha in front of his five very first disciples. This event, which took place in the deer garden of Sarnath near Varanasi, is one of the four most significant events in the Buddha's life, as it is only by teaching that a Buddha starts to help others to find the same way of enlightenment and salvation he has found himself without being taught by others. It marks the beginning of the spread of the religion.
Cave temple
As already mentioned, the five caves which form the World Heritage Site are not on ground level but in about 100 m height on an upper level of the granite rock. The stairway is rather steep. And the climb can be a little bit strenuous indeed. But it will take not more than 10 or 15 minutes to reach the level of the Dambulla cave temples. All of them are not really caves but rock shelters, also called abris or semi-caves. Naturally, these "caves" were open rooms under an overhanging rock. Closed rooms were then created only by additional walls. Originally, the monks inhabiting such rock shelters did not construct walls. They only cut drip ledges above the rock shelter in order to prevent rain water from pouring along the rock surface into their abode. The walls were added later on, when the former dwellings were transformed into image houses. What can be seen below the rock surface today, is a white gallery in front of those walls protecting the sacred cave shrines.
DEVARAJA VIHARAYA - CAVE NO.1
“Devaraja” is “Godking”, usually meaning “the King of Gods” (rather than “Divine King”, which is nevertheless a possible translation, too). The term transfers to Vishnu, known in Sri Lanka as Sakka, who according to a local legend gave the final touches to the cave's principal statue, which is a reclining Buddha, depicting the Parinibbana (Parinirvana), which is reached by the Buddha when passing away. The 14 m long statue may be from the late Anuradhapura period, though Parinibbana sculptures are more common in the Polonnaruwa period. Interestingly, this rock-cut sculpture, in accordance with King Nissanka Malla's records, preserves of beautiful gilding on the elbow, but it's often covered for protection.
VIHARAYA - CAVE NO.2
Dambulla's largest cave is called "Maharaja Lena" or "Maharaja Viharaya", "Great King Temple", named after two statues depicting kings. Sri Lanka's most impressive sacred cave is more than 50 m long, reaching a height of 7 m. The sides and the back of Dambulla's Maharaja Viharaya are lined with a huge array of Buddha statues. The principal sculpture is on in the left half of the cave, set under a "Makara Torana", a typical Indian And Sri Lankan kind of door frame. The scupture is shown in Abhaya Mudra, the gesture of spending fearlessness. This statue seems to have been covered in gold leaves formerly. The attendants at each side of the Buddha are two Bodhisattvas, namely Maitreya and Natha. Natha is a Sri Lankan god particularly venerated in Kandy, he is often identified with Avalokiteshvara, the Mahayanist saviour. Statues of the Hindu deities Vishnu and Saman are behind the Buddha. So three religiones are represented inside this huge cave.
Ceiling mural in Cave No.2
The entire rock surface of Dambulla's cave No. 2 is covered with the best examples of the traditional Kandyan art of paintng. The ceiling near the dagoba in the western half of the cave depicts scenes from the life of the Buddha, culminating in the moment of enlightenment, which is indicated by the famous gesture called Bhumisparsha Mudra. "Bhumisparsha" is meaning "earth-touching", as it depicts the Buddha's right hand touching the ground, in order to asking Prithvi, the goddess of the earth, to witness his immovability, not being destracted by the temptations of Mara. Mara sends an army of demons shooting arrows at the Buddha in order to distract him and thereby to prevent him from finding a path to salvation and liberation from death and from the power of Mara. But the Buddha's gesture signals: He remained undisturbed in full concentration. This is why the beloved scene is called "Mara Parajaya", meaning "Mara's final defeat".
MAHA ALUT VIHARAYA - CAVE NO.3
"Maha Alut Viharaya" means "Great New Temple". It is up to 10 m gigh and as deep as the neighbouring giant cave No.2, but not as wide. Dambulla's cave No.3 is called "new", as it was decorated by Kandy's most famous king of the late Kandy period in the 18th century, Kirthi Sri Rajasingha. 50 statues are placed inside this second largest Dambulla cave temple. The main images are a sitting Buddha, showng the gesture of meditation, right in the centre and a reclining Buddha at the left wall of Dambulla's second largest cave. They are bith carved out of solid rock. Just to the right of the entrance is another interesting statue in royal ornate. Though many assume that this is a depiction of King Nissanka Malla from Polonnaruwa, it is most likely a representation of the donour King Kirthi Sri Rajasingha himself. He is accompanied by four attendants painted onto the wall behind him. This cave too has several interesting murals in the Kandyan style.
PACCHIMA VIHARAYA - CAVE NO.4
Dambulla's cave No.4 is called "Pacchima Viharaya". The meaning is "Western Temple". Indeed it is the western most of the four original caves that were finalized during the Kandy period. Cave No.4 is comparatively narrow and less rectangular than the larger caves 2 and 3. Multiple almost identical sculptures of small-sized sitting Buddhas in the gesture of meditation sit around at the rocky walls. One of the few larger Buddhas is framed by an elaborate arch in the form of a Makara Torana. Just in the centre of the "Pacchima Viharaya" is a small dagaba, which is cracked by treasure hunters now. This small stupa is believed to have sheltered the gems of Queen Somawathie, who was the wife of the founder of the Dambulla monastery, King Vattagamani Abhaya, also known as Valagambha. The murals in this cave show less figures and more gemoetric patterns than those in the larger Dambulla caves 2 and 3, chequered and floral ornaments.
DEVANA ALUT VIHARAYA - CAVE NO.5
Some websites and guidebooks recommend to start the visit of the five Dambulla caves in the last cave at the very end of the terrace, because then the size and the beauty of the caves will be increasing from cave 5 to cave 2. But if you visit them in the normal order, starting with cave 1, you can study them in chronological order. Dambulla's cave No.5 is much later than the other caves, this is why it bears the name "Devana Alut Viharaya", which means "Second New Temple". Its murals are less beautiful and the statues of lower quality. The sculptures are not cut from the rock in this Dambulla cave No. 5, but made of brick and plaster. The main image, 10 m in length, is a reclining Buddha. Behind his feat are murals showing the dark-skinned Vishnu flanked by Kataragama with his emblematic peacock and, to the left, the local deity Bandara, a mountain god of the Kandy area. A painting depicting a nobleman carrying lotus flowers can be seen at the exit.
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