Head to the bus station Kandy on this morning of our 7th day at Sri Lanka. After a 200 rupee tuk tuk ride from our guesthouse We took an air-conditioned bus that cost us 380 rupees. Direction Dambulla, a must-see site in Sri Lanka, which is part of the group called the "cultural triangle".
Dambulla is best known for its ancient caves, decorated with paintings and home to many Buddha statues. Its location on top of a hill also makes it an excellent viewpoint over the region. A little extra with the presence of monkeys in the area to observe a little of the local wildlife!
Where to sleep in Dambulla?
The guesthouse at our destination was very close to the Golden Temple, so we limited the costs. On the other hand, there was not much around. Namely that originally, we thought to change hotels every day, namely for our next stops which were, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Sigiriya before returning to Colombo.
Finally, despite the not-so-great room in our GH, the Green Hut in Dambulla, we decided to use it as a "base" for the days to come, as the old capitals are all within a reasonable distance from Dambulla, allowing us to travel in a day. This saved us from having to lug our bags around every day and the low cost of the GH in question saved us money.
The Green Hut (the name is easy to understand)
The only downside is that I had planned a pretty good hotel for Sigiriya, just to treat ourselves a little at the end of the trip. So we had to move there anyway for our last stop before returning to Colombo.
So here is my advice, even if there is not much, stay on Dambulla to visit all the historic towns in the area. And if you're going to do that, take a hotel in the "centre" of Dambulla.
While we had to go to Sigiriya to sleep there since the hotel was already booked (and not cheap), it was all the more a bad choice since in the end the bus to go back to Colombo is taken from Dambulla anyway... Not to mention that the hotel in Sigiriya was not a good choice of location, it was particularly a bad strategy.
Our room at the Green Hut.
Let's get back to the thread of the subject if you like (well, unless you jump between the lines, not much choice you might say 😉)
The bus ride between Kandy and Dambulla is a little less than 3 hours (190 Rs each). We first had lunch at the guesthouse, just to gain strength for the rest of the day. If the place is not great, the owner is very welcoming and the meal was good.
The advantage of our location being that you literally just have to cross the dirt road in front and the main road nearby to enter the Golden Temple which is therefore the temple at the foot of the rock where the famous caves in Dambulla.
The small side street, parallel to the main road on which our GH is located.
The unlikely place to come across an ice cream truck.
Climb to the caves from the Golden Temple
Small effort of the day, climbing the steps. The caves being perched on a 160m high rock overlooking the surrounding valley. As a reward, in addition to the caves themselves which are superb and worth the detour, it is a great view of the whole region that you will have at the top!
It is necessary to count ten minutes to reach the temple of the caves, not a superhuman effort therefore, but really within everyone's reach, just bring water because there is none either on the way, or at the summit, if you come across vendors, they will normally have flowers to make offerings, but not water...
The entrance to the "golden temple" located at the foot of the hill with caves. Specifically, right next to where the bus from Kandy had just dropped us off.
And here we are at the Golden Temple. Recognizable by its particular design, it also serves as a museum of Buddhism.
The first steps.
Monkeys squat on the summit.
The view as a reward at the top!
Origin of Dambulla Caves
The origin of these caves converted into a temple follows the flight of King Valagama (also known as Vattagamani Abhaya), chased from Anuradhapura by the Tamils and who took refuge in these caves, some time ago. over 2000 years.
Once he regained his throne, he transformed these caves into a sanctuary to thank the deities. The best known are a group of 5 caves that today include more than 150 Buddha statues (the largest is a 15m reclining Buddha) and thousands of paintings on the walls, added gradually by the kings of Sri Lanka.
The paintings are exceptionally well preserved after all these centuries, with the first renovations only taking place in the 60s, the most significant being between 1982 and 1996.
The place evolved mainly during the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa period. The temple as it stands today dates from the 18th century.
Some numbers:
The longest cave is 150 m long., the rock 340 m high. If you visit this group of 5 caves whose current layout dates mainly from the 30s, you should know that the rock contains more than 80 caves in total! Some of them already had a role in prehistoric times since human bones were found there.
UNESCO World Heritage since 1991, it has been defined as a major pilgrimage site in Sri Lanka for centuries. They explain to summarize that the site is famous for, I quote: "its Buddhist murals covering an area of 2 m100 and its 2 statues."
So here is something to make you want to visit the caves and stop by Dambulla! Which is also part of what is called the cultural triangle of Sri Lanka. It is not cheap (almost €10!) but I think it is worth it!
A quick overview of the 5 main caves making up the temple.
The main caves to see
Cave No. 1: Devaraja Viharaya
The first cave called the divine king. Rather small, it contains a large 15 m reclining Buddha, the wall paintings are basically old but have been regularly restored accumulating centuries of layers of paintings, the latest being from the last century.
Cave No. 2: Maharaja Viharaya
The second cave, the largest, is called "temple of the great king". Without doubt the most spectacular of the caves. It measures 52m long and 23m wide, not to mention that the ceiling reaches 7m in places, quite a volume!
This cave owes its name to the two statues of kings it contains. One of them is visible next to the entrance on the left, a painted wooden statue of King Valagamba. The other statue is further inside and represents Nissanka Malla.
This room alone has 53 images of Buddha, a small stupa (5 m high all the same) as well as impressive wall frescoes.
Cave No. 3: Maha Alut Viharaya
The 3rd cave, named Maha Alut Viharaya (the great new temple), is more recent, it served for a long time as a storage room before its reconversion into a sanctuary under the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha of Kandy at the end of the XNUMXth century.
As an aside, it is separated from Cave 2 only by a masonry wall. The paintings in the cave tell the story of Buddha before and after attaining enlightenment (nirvana).
Entrance to cave no. 3, called the new temple.
Statue representing King Kirti Sri Rajasinha.
Cave No. 4: Pascima Viharaya
The 4th cave is also smaller, named Pascima Viharaya, which means the western temple. Despite its name, it is not the westernmost cave as it is cave no. 5.
Cave No. 5: Devana Alut Viharaya
Here we are at the 5th and last cave, the smallest one, named Devana Alut Viharaya, was added by a local clan leader in the last century. Formerly also serving as a warehouse, it was simply called Second New Temple…
The rock of the hill acts as a roof, while the sides are artificial walls.
Caves and a panorama
Beyond the caves themselves (of which number 2 is especially worth the detour), it is, as I said, the view which has a certain interest and the atmosphere of the place, surprisingly peaceful at the time of our visit, less than ten people at most.
You will come across a few monkeys in front of the caves, but most of them are before the entrance, so don't worry if you are afraid of them (it can happen...).
Next to the entrance, don't miss the stele bearing an inscription dating from the 13th century.
An inscription dating from the 13th century.
Return to the Golden Temple Sanctuary
On the way down, we will come across a whole contingent of middle school students, clearly on a school trip (so it was time for us to leave). Along the way, we can see, in addition to the monkeys who use the electric wires as a "cable car", a superb view of Sigirya Rock, some 19km away.
The golden temple at the foot of the rock has a large 30m seated Buddha, making it, from what I have read, the tallest in the world (in a seated position, I must point out). The Buddha base serves as a museum whose entrance fee is included in the ticket for the royal caves (3000 Rupees if you are interested, out of price for us...).
Sigiriya Rock, located 19 km away, is visible from the cave site!
What a pose!
A quick tour of Dambulla City
After this visit to the caves, we still had some free time before the end of the day. So we decided to go for a walk in the "center" of Dambulla. Well, just the main street crossing the city... Well, there's not much to see
But hey, it was more about meeting the local population a bit, knowing that 3/4 of the tourists never stay in Dambulla. Many are bus tour operators who just drop off at the Golden Temple, visit and then go to Sigiriya or somewhere else...
We got there after taking a tuk tuk from the cave for 150 Rs. We passed a kind of large covered market like Rungis, which operates 24 hours a day... its clock, then they asked to drop us off even though we saw lots of shops along the main street.
We pass the Dambulla market.
We therefore came across few foreigners and it is with many smiles and curious glances that we wander around the street, this same street from where we will take the bus to go to the historic towns in the surrounding area because there is no bus terminal as such in Dambulla.
The city seems small even though there are 66 inhabitants, the equivalent of a city like Ajaccio or Levallois-Perret (an example that is not insignificant since I worked there before my expatriation to Asia).
We ate in the only restaurant that looked clean and attractive, but the menu selection was limited.
Another photo on request.
Sometimes it's even friends who ask to take another guy who didn't ask for anything in the first place.
We ate at the only restaurant in town that looked clean, it's not hard to miss as it's on the main street through town, next to the main bus stop.
SOUND
Thank you for your comments which will be useful to me for my next trip which will take me from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Java, Borneo, Bali and others. Just a small clarification the Buddha of the Golden Temple in Dambulla which measures 30 m when seated is far from being the largest in the world because I saw in Thailand in Ang Thong a seated Buddha measuring 95m!!
Roman
Hello,
Indeed, as a resident of Thailand I obviously know the great Buddha of Ang Thong, it's a vocabulary problem I think, because if we take the famous seated Buddha of Hong Kong, it is considered the largest in the world, in its category, namely seated certainly (34m) but especially in bronze. However, at the time of writing this article it seems to me that in its kind (type of materials or maybe even at the time of its construction in 2001, it was then the largest, of its kind, that of Ang Thong having been completed in 2008). To avoid confusion I will rephrase in the article 😉