About Dambulla, Sri Lanka

Dambulla or the Golden Rock is a cave temple, which dates back to the 1st century BC. Complex of Buddhist image houses containing Buddhist wall and ceiling painting and sculpture with its origin going back to the Anuradhapura period. Its rock ceiling is one large sweep of colorful frescoes, which depicts Buddhist mythology, and the tales of the Buddha’s previous births. Within the cave temple is the collection of the largest number of Buddha statues in one place.

Dambulla is a vast isolated rock mass and it was here that King Valagam Bahu took refuge in the 1st century B.C. He later turned the caves into a rock temple. Some of the frescoes are over 2,000 years old and there is a colossal figure of the recumbent Buddha carved out of the living rock, some 14 meter long.