Travel Day 1118 – Sigiriya to Dambulla to Polonnaruwa, SRI LANKA
It would have been no problem to spend a week by the fascinating Rock City of Sigiriya and to cycle around while making mew discoveries, but because there were so many other sights in the Cultural Triangle, I rather decided to carry on…
UNESCO Cave Temples of Dambulla in Sri Lanka
My next real destination was the former capital and ruined city of Polonnaruwa, but obviously I had to visit the UNESCO enlisted cave temples of Dambulla first. Dambulla was the main junction town and in order to travel anywhere from Sigiriya, one always had to pass through Dambulla anyway and most likely change the bus. It was actually possible to spend the night in Dambulla, but since there seemed to be no actual town, it felt like a good idea to visit the caves in the morning and then carry on to Pononnaruwa in the afternoon…
This idea worked out quite well and the man at the ticket counter even took care of my backpack for a 100 rupee “donation” while I was climbing up to the cave temples. Also the morning turned out to be a good time to visit as it was not as hot while climbing up the steps to the entrance, which was supposedly located some 160 meters above the surrounding area. Surprisingly enough but from there it was actually possible to clearly see Sigiriya and Pidurangala Rock in the distance…
Dagoba in second Cave of Dumbulla, Sri Lanka
Of course the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Golden Temple of Dambulla came with a price tag of 1500 rupees, meaning almost 12 USD. Luckily this wasn’t as much as Sigiriya had cost, but for 5 caves that were usually visited in less than one hour, it still seemed quite expensive. The funny thing was that since UNESCO enlisted the cave temples and called them Golden Temple in 1991, an actual Golden Temple had been constructed by the road. This kitschy building with a funny face, flower blossoms and an over-sized golden Buddha sitting on top of it looked actually so ridiculous that I almost refused to enter the compound and see the caves…
The cave temples itself were established in the 3rd century BC and they had been occupied ever since. Today the caves were a very important Buddhist site, containing 153 Buddha statues, 3 statues of former kings and 4 statues of Hindu goddesses. The extensive mural paintings on walls and ceiling were covering an area of more than 2000 square meters, depicting mostly the Buddha or other Buddhist motives. The largest and most impressive cave, cave number two, was 52 meters long, 23 meters wide and up to 7 meters tall…
Big second UNESCO Cave of Dambulla in Sri Lanka
Walking from one cave to the next was actually quite a nice experience. The first cave was pretty small, but it contained a really beautiful 15 meter long reclining Buddha. While I was already excited about this first cave, the vast second cave felt almost a bit overwhelming, in size on the one hand but on the other because if its seemingly endless amount of statues and paintings. I found myself just having to stop, sit on the floor and trying to take-in all the views and impressions that must have taken an eternity to create with this level of detail…
The third cave was also bigger in size but it wasn’t as ancient as the first two caves had been. Cave number four had been broken into at some point and the thieves had destroyed a small dagoba while looking for some valuables. The last cave was the most modern one and not as impressive as the others in my opinion. Still, it had been overall a surprisingly nice stop-over in Dambulla and I was quite happy that I took the time to climb up the hill past the disgustingly kitschy Golden Temple…
Find all Dambulla Photos here.
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