David's Been Here is touring all the top sites and main attractions of the vibrant country of Sri Lanka. Here David presents a video to the Dambulla Cave Temple, a giant cave complex filled with Buddhist art and statues, some of which date back to the 1st Century BC. Walk through these amazing pieces of history as David brings us around the different caves on site. With original paintings (1st Century BC), ancient rock inscriptions, loads of Buddha statues showing all different poses and mudras, and different temples and shrines inside, this complex is an absolute must visit in the country. Tour alongside the endless monkeys at this Sri Lankan historical and religious gem, and visit the Dambulla Cave Temple found in the David's Been Here Guide to Sigiriya, now available for your Kindle as well.
About Me: My name is David Hoffmann and for the last decade I have been traveling around the world in search of unique culture, food and history! Since starting Davidsbeenhere in 2008, I have traveled to 71 countries and over 1,000 destinations, which I welcome you to check out on my YouTube Channel, blog and social medias.
I focus a great deal on food and historic sites, as you probably have seen! I love to experience the different flavors that each destination has to offer, whether it’s casual Street food or gourmet restaurant dining. I’m also passionate about learning the local history and culture.
This video is brought to you in part by the Sri Lanka Tourism Board.
Hello everyone so we're here in Dambulla and what you see behind me is the Golden Temple.
This place is famous for their caves. Inside the caves there's paintings from the first century BC
and this is actually the new entrance. This was created in the 19th century and the old entrance
is behind us and over there to the left that's the entrance to go to the top to go into the caves.
So this is the Buddhist monastery residence. This is where they live, the monks live here.
So the Buddha is in a Dhawan position and that means teaching. As you can see his hands,
the way they are, it's very similar to the fearless position but it's actually a little
different because the fearless this hand stays the same and this hand is down on his waist.
First century BC. So this is the route up.
It's the cutest thing ever. You ready Natuha? This is one of the interesting
letters here. These are rock inscriptions from the 13th century and they can actually be
translated. Everything before that can't be translated because it was part of the old
language. So this is the first cave.
Okay so we're going to see one large statue and then paintings on top.
Yes, one meditation statue. Now they can see it perfectly. So these are the original
paintings from the first century BC right here. So there's a hindu shrine right here.
So here we are in the second cave. Wow, so there's hundreds of images on top of the ceiling.
Some of them are given a lot of beautiful stories. It's prehistory.
So that one in the back is the king? That is the king of the 13th century.
The corner one. Okay, so the little one right there. Yeah, like something on the head. Yes.
So right here we have paintings from 2,500 years ago.
The story of 2,500 years. Oh, a story. They painted after the first century.
And what about the buddhas? How old are they? All these are 18th century buddhas?
So this is the third cave and what's the name of this cave?
So this is the king of Kandy who rebuilt this cave.
I want to take one of these home. How much do they cost? Priceless. Priceless.
All right, so right now we're in the fifth cave and this is one of the smallest ones.
As you can see, it's just a big buddha right here. All right, now we're entering the fourth cave.
You can see how all these are being deteriorated right now. And that's because of water. Water
destroys these paintings. One of the must-sees here in Sri Lanka. You know, an incredible place.
Nothing else on like this on earth. And there's hundreds of monkeys like the rest of Sri Lanka
all over the place. All right, now we're off to Sigiriya. Let's go.
