On the mountain in Dambulla, we find the ancient rock temple,
an important Buddhist place of pilgrimage in Sri Lanka.
It was founded in the 1st century BC,
but it was rebuilt several times over the centuries.
The church is far from everything, close to the mountain top,
which we reach on wide stone staircase and rocky roads.
Unlike the Christian churches, it won’t be just a single building,
but the whole temple complex is on a larger area
with outdoor and indoor parts.
The small building in front of me is the gateway to the temple,
where they check whether we enter the temple area in appropriate clothes.
You can’t enter in shoes and with pants over your knees.
That's why we need some tricks.
We find five caves inside the rock,
with sculptures and paintings from different ages.
We're in!
And besides the tourists, of course we can see friendly monkeys here, too...
One of them is just up there, watching us from the roof.
And here are the local student groups arriving,
wearing their typical white uniforms.
In the garden we find a Bodhi tree, which is the most important Buddhist symbol,
under which Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment, according to the story.
We can walk on a covered corridor between the caves...
The smaller and larger cave rooms open here.
Inside these caves
they say, we find about 150 Buddha statues.
There are some huge, lying ones, which symbolize the dead Buddha,
and a lot of Buddha in lotus position.
The painting of each of caves is also interesting.
All the walls, and if you look up, you see, even the ceilings are painted everywhere.
The largest and perhaps most interesting cave is nearly 1200 square meters,
with more than 70 statues, mostly about Buddha.
The caves were created with a relatively large time difference.
This cave, the third in the row, was built in the 18th century.
Here we can see sitting Buddhas and a larger, lying Buddha.
In the fourth, smaller sanctuary, beside the huge lying Buddha,
we can also see Hindu gods.
Walking down from the mountain, we find the buddhist museum, Golden Temple.
Behind it there is a huge Buddha, which we could see far from the highway.
I'm not sure know how ten meters high… maybe twenty?
I don't know how tall it can be.
Huge.
The Golden Temple was built in the modern age,
opened in 2000, and unlike its name, it’s not a temple
but a museum, a bookstore and a café.
In front of me, on the right side you can see the statues of the monks,
as they are heading toward the temple.
And of course, the monkeys are here too.
As you can see, somebody was feeding them.
So they have all sorts of veggies and stuff.
His little friend...
has attacked my camera before...
so they will be familiar with this technology soon, I guess.
Moreover, these are not vegetables they eat, but flower petals.
These are flower petals there!
He can’t take shooting anymore!
Leaving Dambulla, our next stop is another former capital, Kandy,
where we try to get in the bazaar,
and have some fun with tuk-tuks in the streets of the city.
Until that, subscribe to my channel
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