Ten Years of Management, Research, and Conservation
Senake Bandaranayake
The UNESCO world heritage site at Dambulla, Sri Lanka, is a monastery and temple complex that has been in continuous use since its founding in the second or third century b. c.e. Though small in comparison with Dunhuang or Ajanta, it is still one of the largest painted rock temple complexes in the South and Southeast Asian regions and one of the most important centers of Buddhist pilgrimage in Sri Lanka. Set in a rich, multiperiod archaeological landscape, Dambulla is also an extremely complex archaeological and historical site, a palimpsest reflecting successive periods of human occupation, with a history that extends from prehistoric to modern times.
The Site
From Prehistory to History
Geologically, the site consists of two great rock outcrops, or inselbergs, roughly dome shaped, surrounded by boulder-strewn hill slopes, not unlike the more famous site of Sigiriya just 16 km away The topography, natural resources, and extraordinary beauty of the site, with its massive rocks interspersed with deeply forested tracts, have made Dambulla an important focus of human activity throughout various historical periods. A map of the area today is shown in Figure 1.
Along the western slopes of the Dambulla rock are a series of large boulders, terraces, and caves that formed the habitat of prehistoric humans. Excavations have yielded remains of prehistoric stone implements, displaced from the rock shelters when they were cleaned out in early historic times. These remains indicate a process of successive waves of human activity at the site, created when one historical period overtakes another, leaving some signs or remains of its predecessors behind.
Prehistoric peoples were succeeded by the first settlers and farmers in the first millennium b. c.e. Dambulla is surrounded by a number of mega-lithic cemeteries and early historic settlements, the best known of which is Ibbankatuva, which are closely linked with the Dambulla complex.
It seems likely that these hinterland farming settlements, such as
Figure 1
Map of Dambulla showing the rock shelter complexes, the ancient monastery, and the modern town and road system.
Ibbankatuva, formed the social and economic base that sustained the early Buddhist monastery at Dambulla (Bandaranayake 1988).
Some time during the third century b. c.e., the western and southern rock face and the surrounding boulder area became the location of one of the largest early Buddhist monastic settlements on the island.
The area from the upper terrace downward contains eighty rock shelter residences.
The uppermost group of rock shelters on the southern face of the Dambulla rock continued into the subsequent historical period as the ritual and artistic center of the Dambulla complex (Figs. 2, 3). This upper terrace seems to have been in continuous occupation for more than twenty-two centuries, up to the present day.
The central shrines of the Dambulla complex were formed out of a deep cavern—part natural, part excavated—more than halfway up the western slope of the rock. Screen walls and partitions have created a number of separate chambers, or viharas, five of which are in use today (Fig. 4).
During the middle historic period (ca. fifth to thirteenth century c. e.), Dambulla continued to develop as a major religious center. An
Figure 2
Figure 3
The upper terrace, shown with visitors.
The Dambulla rock temple complex, upper terrace.
Important development was the expansion of the temple into an elaborate, freestanding architectural complex at the foot of the rock in the southwestern sector. The upper terrace temples were refurbished at the end of the twelfth century and again in the reign of King Senarat (1604-35), before their complete restoration and repainting during the eighteenth-century Buddhist revival under King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1747-82) (Bandaranayake 1986). This great eighteenth-century painting cycle remains substantially preserved today, with some additions made in the early nineteenth, mid-nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.
Sri Lankan Rock Temples
Dambulla as it exists today is one of the best preserved of more than one hundred painted and sculpted rock temples in Sri Lanka (Figs. 5-8). These temples have their origins in a series of early Buddhist rock shelter monasteries. Dating from the period between the third and the first century B. C.E., and distributed throughout the length and breadth of the country, these monasteries are of a specific Sri Lankan type. Located among
Figure 4
The Dambulla rock temple complex, site plan of the viharas on the upper terrace.
Figure 8, below right
Polychrome sculpture and painted rock ceiling of Vihara 2.
Figure 5, near right
The interior of Vihara 2. The large central panel on the rock ceiling depicts the Buddha’s first sermon in the deer park at Isipatana, surrounded by a Thousand Buddha sequence.
Figure 6, far right
Polychrome sculpture and painted walls and ceiling in Vihara 2.
Figure 7, below
Painted rock ceiling of the “ambulatory” of Vihara 2.
Boulders on mountain slopes, they consist of clusters of artificially deepened natural shelters with screen walls, lean-to roofs, and deep drip ledges cut into the rock face just above the roofline. A distinctive feature of many of these monasteries is inscriptions carved below the drip ledge. Originally fashioned as residences for communities of Buddhist monks, the monasteries were subsequently developed into elaborate architectural complexes with rock temples, boulder gardens, and freestanding monuments.
World History
