DAMBULLA
Dambulla is a small market town that is the location of undoubtedly the most impressive of all the many cave temples in Sri Lanka. The series of five caverns comprising the Raja Maha Vihare is reached by climbing up a huge whale hump of rock above the town. Before you reach the temple, pause and admire the view the rock commands across the blue-hazed plain to Sigiriya.
At the entrance to the first cave, the Deva Raja viharaya, there is a Makara Torana - an archway embellished with mythical figures - and inside there is a 16-metre long reclining statue of the Buddha. All the caves are full of Buddha images in a variety of positions and frescoes showing scenes from the Buddha's life and events in Sinhalese history. The frescoes, however, are comparatively modern and are not of significance.
The second cave, the Maha Raja viharaya, has many large images of Hindu gods carved out of the living rock. The ceiling, which is covered with colourful murals, has a small crevice from which water has dripped for thousands of years. This comes from a pool at the summit of the rock that has never dried up. The water collected inside the cave is considered sacred.
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