Today, we're heading to Dambulla, an unmissable site in Sri Lanka, which is part of the area known as the " cultural triangle ".
Dambulla is best known for its ancient caves, decorated with Buddhist paintings and housing numerous Buddha statues. Its hilltop location also offers excellent views of the surrounding area. As an added bonus, monkeys roam the area, providing an opportunity to observe some of the local wildlife!
Kandy – Dambulla route
On the morning of our 7th day in Sri Lanka, we went to the Kandy bus station . After a 200 rupee tuk-tuk ride from our guesthouse, we were treated to an air-conditioned bus which cost us 380 rupees (190 Rs each).
The bus journey between Kandy and Dambulla takes just under 3 hours. As we hadn't given much thought to the exact location of our accommodation in Dambulla, we didn't realize we had passed right by it when the bus took us to the station in town… We could have asked to be dropped off and saved ourselves the tuk-tuk ride from the station to our hotel.
Because the big advantage of our location is that you literally only have to cross the dirt road in front and the main road nearby to enter the golden temple, which is located at the foot of the hill where the famous Dambulla caves are located.
Once safely arrived, we first had lunch at the guesthouse (the Green Hut, see below), to fuel up for the rest of the day. While the place itself wasn't great, the owner was very welcoming.
Firstly, because breakfast is normally included for the morning following the night's stay, whereas here the guy immediately offered us something to eat, and the meal was decent.
Climb to the caves from the Golden Temple
A small effort for today: climbing the steps. The caves are perched on a 160m high rock overlooking the surrounding valley. As a reward, in addition to the caves themselves which are superb and well worth the detour, you'll have a breathtaking view of the entire region from the top!
It takes about ten minutes to reach the cave temple, so not a superhuman effort, but really within everyone's reach. Just bring water because there isn't any along the way or at the top. If you come across vendors, they will usually have flowers for offerings, but not water…
Origin of Dambulla Caves
The origin of these caves converted into temples follows the flight of King Valagama (also known as Vattagamani Abhaya), driven from Anuradhapura by the Tamils, who took refuge in these caves more than 2000 years ago.
Once he had regained his throne, he transformed these caves into a sanctuary to thank the deities. The most famous are a group of 5 caves which today include more than 150 Buddha statues (the largest is a 15m reclining Buddha) and thousands of paintings on the walls, added over time 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.
Some numbers:
The longest cave is 150 meters long , and the rock itself is 340 meters high. If you visit this group of five caves, whose current layout dates mainly from the 1930s, you should know that the rock actually contains more than 80 caves in total! Some of these already played a role in prehistoric times, as human remains have been found there.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991 , it has been defined as a major pilgrimage site in Sri Lanka for centuries. They explain, to summarize, that the site is renowned for, and I quote: "its Buddhist murals covering an area of 2,100 m2 and its 157 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!
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).
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.
Return to the Golden Temple Sanctuary
On the way down, we passed a whole group of schoolchildren, clearly on a field trip (so it was time for us to leave). Along the way, besides the monkeys using the power lines as a "cable car," we could see a superb view of the Sigiriya 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...).
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 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 town seems small even though it has 24,000 inhabitants, which is the equivalent of a town like Cahors (where I grew up).
We ate in the only restaurant that looked clean and attractive, but the menu selection was limited.
Should you sleep in Dambulla?
Specifically, I had chosen a guesthouse very close to the golden temple, and therefore to the caves, thinking that this would limit the cost of round trips from the nearby town.
Except that… there wasn’t much around. Namely, when preparing this trip, we thought we would change hotels every day, so moving and sleeping in Polonnaruwa , Anuradhapura and Sigiriya respectively before returning to the capital and starting point, Colombo.
Despite the not-so-great room at our guesthouse, the Green Hut in Dambulla , we decided to use it as a "base" for the coming days, as the ancient cities are all within a reasonable distance of Dambulla, allowing us to make the journey in a day (1 hour 15 minutes for the two ancient capitals and only 30 minutes for Sigiriya).
This saved us from having to lug our bags around every day and the low cost of the guesthouse in question would save us money.
My advice : even though there isn't a huge amount to see, staying in Dambulla isn't a bad idea for visiting all the historical towns in the area. But if you're going to do that, book a hotel in the "center" of Dambulla. The other hub in the area is the small town of Habarana , conveniently located between all these destinations.
The major drawback to our plans was that I had booked a nice hotel in Sigiriya (already reserved and not cheap), as a little treat at the end of the trip. So we had to go there anyway for our last stop before returning to Colombo.
It was all the more a bad choice because in the end the bus to go back to Colombo is taken from Dambulla anyway… Not to mention that the hotel in Sigiriya, isolated and expensive, was not a good choice of location to end the stay, it was a particularly bad strategy.
