World Heritage Site-Dambulla Rock temple, Srilanka

Dambulla rock temple, also known as Dambulla Cave temple is a major attraction in Dambulla town of Srilanka. Along with the Dambulla golden temple, the site is a world heritage site and tourists passing through Dambolla often visit these temples.

Dambulla rock temple complex consists of 5 major caves, all having Buddha statues in various size, shapes and positions. It is believed there're over  80 caves in the area, only 5 are well maintained and run as a temple/tourist attraction.

Closeup of sleeping Buddha at Dambulla Rock temple

Dambolla rock temple is a buddha temple situated under a rock. There’re 5 different caves, all filled with Buddha statues of various sizes and shapes. Reaching this Dambolla rock temple involves climbing 250+ steps and paying an entry fee of 1500 LKR per person (10 USD approx.) and a footwear safekeeping fee of 25 LKR per pair. Though the photos were not tempting we still decided to check it out. Below are some photos clicked at Dambolla Rock temple, for your reference. We were not big time Buddha fans hence we felt Dambulla rock temple was a bit disappointment or not worth the time, effort and money. This post shares our experience and photos- you can check and decide for yourself.

Outside pictures

Unless you’re a big fan of Buddha you might want to skip Dambolla Rock temple. However, the other temple in Dambolla- Dambolla Golden Temple is free to access, closer to main road and is worth a stop over if you’re passing through Dambolla.

Inside pictures of Dambulla rock temple

 
 The cave walls have murals depicting Buddhism

Note: There seems to be a way connecting rock temple and golden temple. You should be able to get down at golden temple- closer to city and on main road and climb up to access Rock temple, than going directly to rock temple, which is a few kms further by road (and away from main road). At the Dambolla rock temple, we couldn’t see any signage that said it would lead us to Dambulla golden temple. But when we visited Golden temple next day, we could see steps that would lead to Rock temple.

Note that golden temple is closer to main road, about 2kms from Dambulla bus stand, whereas reaching Rock temple entrance needs a slightly longer path.