Hindagala Temple - Kandy, Sri Lanka

The Hindagala Temple - Kandy, Sri Lanka

The Hindagala temple is an ancient cave temple famous for the art which adorns its ceilings and walls. Most of the paintings date back to the 18th century but there are a few poorly preserved paintings which are said to be from the 5th century. The temple itself was a hermitage used by meditating Buddhist monks for centuries.

More photographs inside.

Paintings at the Hindagala Temple - Kandy Sri Lanka

The main building, seen in the first image, houses a Buddha statue and a Dagoba. Unfortunately when I got there the priest was away and I was unable to photograph the interior of the cave as the doors were locked. Fortunately there were only a few people visiting the temple when I got there. This gave me plenty of time to set up the tripod photograph the exterior of the main building.

Paintings at the Hindagala Temple - Kandy Sri Lanka

There are two entrances to the main temple. The first is a flight of steep stone stairs that lead to the temple from the main road below. The stairs are easy to miss as there are no signs indicating the whereabouts of the temple. The second entrance is a small path accessed from a side road that is some distance away. The path winds its way through a number of large boulders and overgrown properties but is not as steep as the stairs. The photograph below is the  entrance to this path from the temple.

An entrance to the Hindagala Temple - Kandy, Sri Lanka

All photographs on this post were taken with a Canon 7D and the 24-105mm lens. No flash were used to photograph the paintings but the tripod did come in handy! I will try and photograph the interior of the temple on my next visit.