As Dambulla is a living site, the conservation and management of change involves addressing long-standing restorationist traditions of periodic refurbishing (as acts of piety or repair) and changing religious requirements. In Sri Lanka, as in many other cultures, it is traditional to renew wall paintings, as well as to refurbish and add architectural and sculptural elements according to changing religious requirements, artistic fashions, and availability of resources. This process has gone on at Dambulla over several centuries; but, significantly, major changes had not taken place since the 1930s.
In fact, in recent decades the temple authorities at Dambulla— unlike at many other ancient Sri Lankan sites—have upheld a modern conservationist ethic. They argue very forcibly that the preservation of the present character of the site is entirely a result of their millennia-long guardianship of Dambulla. Also, they have readily accepted the heritage management plan of the Cultural Triangle Project and form the critical factor in its implementation.
One specific example is the outcome of a long debate among the project authorities on whether to remove the modern veranda facade at Dambulla and replace it with a wooden colonnade in an eighteenth - to nineteenth-century style, on the basis of somewhat inadequate early photographic documentation. The temple authorities themselves provided the clinching argument that the existing facade at Dambulla was part of the history and contemporary image of the monument and, as such, should be preserved in its existing form. It can be said that Dambulla, as it appears today, is exemplary as one of the major religious sites in Sri Lanka that has not suffered uncontrolled modernization, vulgarization, or change. This is a result of the interaction between the resources and sensitivity of the Cultural Triangle Project's conservation program and the temple authorities who have supported and participated in it.
Above all, the standpoint and advocacy of the temple authorities has been the vital factor in deciding that the murals at Dambulla, however badly damaged, should be conserved in keeping with modern conservationist principles, rather than with the traditional process still observed at a number of temples where ancient murals are retouched or repainted to make them presentable and readable.
Conservation Strategy
The basic conservation strategy at Dambulla has been to tidy up and maintain the site as it existed at the beginning of the project, while at the same time reorganizing its service infrastructure and presentation.
On the upper terrace and along the main approach, unsightly accretions have been removed, traditional hand-cut stone paving replenished, and an improved water supply and a modern but discreet lighting system installed. At the base of the rock, the bazaar area around an ancient, sacred bodhi tree has been relocated and the tree shrine restored in the form of simple but classical stone-and-sand terraces. In the southwestern sector, excavations have been carried out in the ancient rock-shelter complex and freestanding monastery, and the plain and multiperiod brick structures of the monastery have been conserved. The modern temples along the main trunk road, on the boundary of the protection zone, have been brought into the conservation and layout plan. New religious buildings and a museum to house copies of paintings and archaeological artifacts have also been located here, and plans are under way for off-site parking and a service and shopping precinct.
World History
