I took these photos at Dambulla, Sri Lanka. Please excuse the not so wonderful quality. The light levels were very low and I didn’t have a tripod.
The Dambulla Cave Temples are the most well-preserved cave temples of their kind in Sri Lanka. Though there are about 80 caves scattered all across a height of 160m, most of the cave statues and frescoes are spread over five caves.
The statues and frescoes in the caves detail out Lord Buddha’s life and date back from the 1st Century BC to the 18th Century AD.
In the 12th Century, the statues were gilded, and were subsequently painted in different colours. In the early 20th Century, the statues were painted for a last time.
There are 153 Buddha statues, along with 3 statues of royalty and 4 statues of gods and goddesses.
The caves, which are famed thanks to their UNESCO World Heritage status, are taken care of by a temple fund. You might find that the price of admission is quite high as well, thanks to this.
Be ready to climb about 700 steps or so to reach these caves. Also watch out for the overly jovial population of monkeys on the path.
Anarya's Sanctuary 
We think they’re wonderful – very atmospheric and beautiful.
Yes they are lovely! Lots of wonderful statues and frescoes 🙂
I am intrigued about the reason why they carved in the dark caves, and this must be extremely difficult as one has to be in the dark for, may be years. I wish that they have carved the statues in a brighter place, so that the even the Buddha would be able of being able to see light, and us the people.
Great photos for documenting the place, my camera would not be able to do that in this light, and I would say to myself, leave it to others who are capable of taking the photos, I should focus on what myself can do =).
kc
I wonder why too, but perhaps monks too shelter in these caves. Good point about making the statues in the light – but I guess that’s what makes this place more interesting. Maybe they were intended to be hidden somehow – I’m not sure.
Thanks a lot – was difficult getting the shots without a tripod. I tried with high ISO first but it became a bit too grainy. So I lowered the ISO and had to be very still to take these photos. 🙂
Wow! Lovely photos of an amazing place. I second what Qiquan said. I can’t imagine the difficulty of constructing and carving those Buddhas in those caves.
Thank you so much! Yes it is a beautiful place though it would have been more magical if those statues had not been repainted. Somehow they lose a bit of their original appearance thanks to the repainting. That’s not a big qualm though. It’s still a wonderful place.
Constructing those would have been very difficult indeed. Hats off to the artisans.
nice photos. appreciate the difficulties u went through to take the shots. By the way u seems to have evolved into a photo blogger from plain blogger 😀 . And i see 2 awards on the base of site. ek chota sa party toh mangta hai 🙂
Ah thank you! Not really a photo blogger but I don’t have the time to write long posts nowadays so I think it’s easier to put up some photos instead. I’m trying to be more active on the blog now. Once I get some time, I hope to write other kinds of posts :D.
Party? Haha. Here’s online cake for you 😀 😀 😀
Awesome. And somehow the light seems perfect.
Thank you so much! 🙂