Well-endowed with World Heritage Sites, Sri Lanka is home to
a cluster of ancient cities, palace ruins, and incredible old Buddhist temples
and monasteries, each with its own unique draw. First on our quest through the
ancient cities, due to its proximity to Kandy: Dambulla.
The town of Dambulla is nothing more than a handful of
shops, homestays, and “cool spots” (places with cold beverages and the
possibility of food), as well as a slew of tuk-tuks, most of which have sprung
up due to interest in the Cave Temples.
The Cave Temples are basically two separate temples, one
new, one old. At the base of a hill, a flashy new Buddhist temple flaunts a
lion-mouth entrance, a museum, and is topped with a giant, seated Buddha. The
signs claim that at 30 meters tall it is the tallest Buddha statue in the
world, but in reality it isn’t even close, although it is still impressively
imposing.
Beyond this temple, a flight of stairs rises swiftly up the
hillside. Vendors selling overpriced ice cream, water and souvenirs line the
stairways, seeking refuge in what little shade is available. They are joined by clusters of stray dogs, as
well as hordes of chattering, curious families of monkeys.
Upon reaching the summit and removing our shoes, we made the
scalding run across the sun-heated stones to reach the temples’ modern
entranceways. While the Sri Lankans, after years of walking barefoot on
scorching earth, strolled casually, I was forced to run from one patch of shade
to another. (This turned out to be a common theme at the majority of Sri Lanka’s
holy sites.)
Inside each of the cave temples, cool and damp without the
midday sun, resided numerous Buddha statues and images, the size, number and
positions tailored to each specific space. The care with which the caves had been converted into temples was evident in the details. Miniature dagobas filled empty spaces, and the soles of the reclining Buddha's feet were elaborately decorated. The ceilings undulated with
geometric paintings, and many Buddhas had been built directly into the rock
facades.
Strikingly different from the temples we typically encounter in Thailand, Dambulla's Cave Temples were certainly worth the hillside stair climb. Although, as we would come to find out, in a country that values altitude among its holy cities, a mere ten to fifteen minutes worth of stairs is nothing.
