The Dambulla Cave Temple is traced to the 1st century BC, and is the most treasured cave temple in Asia. It has five caves under a vast rock that overhangs the temple. On the underbelly of the Rock is carved a drip line that keeps the interiors dry.Inside the caves, the ceilings are adorned with intricate patterns of religious images meticulously painted following the natural contours of the rock. Images of the Buddha and bodhisattvas and gods and goddesses are to be seen inside.The cave monastery remains the best-preserved historical structure in Sri Lanka that dates back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. It remains to this day a living Shrine that draws thousands of devotees and curious visitors.
The temple has five caves imaginatively converted to shrines. The caves built at the base of a 150m high rock during the first century BC to 993 AD and between 1073 -1250 are the most inspiring cave temples of the many cave temples in Sri Lanka. You reach the cave temple by walking on the gentle slope of the towering Dambulla rock that gives you a magnificent view of the plains below with the Sigiriya rock fortress emerging out of the flat landscape.
