Dambulla is located in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, 148 km northeast of Colombo and 19 km away from Sigiriya. Dambulla is famous for its Buddhist cave tomb, for the largest rose quartz occurrence in South Asia, and for Namal Uyana (Ironwood Forest).
In Dambulla there are about 80 cave temples, of which 5 are large. Covering an area of 2100 m2, it is Sri Lanka’s largest temple complex. Most of the temples contain historical paintings and statues. The largest cave houses the most precious sanctuaries, including nearly 60 Buddha statues in all positions, Hindu gods and two Sinhalese kings. The ceiling is adorned with 1500 colorful scenes from Buddha’s life. There are a total of 153 Buddha statues, three statues of kings and four statues of gods. The latter are two Hindu gods (Vishnu and Ganesh), which originated in the 12th century. The paintings depict the life of Buddha, including Buddha’s temptation by the demon Mara and Buddha’s first sermon.
The temples are under the name “Golden Temple of Dambulla” since 1991 World Heritage by UNESCO.
