DAMBULLA CAVE TEMPLE TO BE CLOSED TEMPORARILY
Posted on July 11th, 2017
Courtesy Ceylon Today
The Archeological Advisory Council, which met yesterday, decided to temporarily close the Dambulla Cave Temple complex to local and foreign tourists, until further notice.
“The Council held an in-depth discussion on the necessity to conserve the paintings and wooden statues of the Dambula Cave Temple. The Council also decided to seek the assistance of local and international experts. Thus, in a bid to conserve the five caves of the temple, it was decided to close these off to local and foreign tourists, until further notice,” the Ministry of Education said in a press release.
During this period, conservation experts of the Central Cultural Fund and the Department of Archeology will be entrusted with conserving the cave paintings.
“Meanwhile, automatic doors, which will calculate and control the number of people that can enter the caves, will also be installed. In addition, a proper lighting system and a CCTV system will also be established. The Central Cultural Fund will bear all the expenses,” it read. The council also decided that to bear all the expenses it had the power to issue tickets to the foreign visitors.
“Discussions will be held with the clergy so that a sum can be allocated for the needs of the temple and the rest can be deposited with the Central Cultural Fund,” it read. Addressing the media recently, on the controversy surrounding the temple, Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said, that the daily income at the Dambulla Cave Temple, from foreign tourists exceeds the sum mentioned in the annual income of the temple by the Commissioner of Buddhist Affairs in the audit reports of the Dambulla Cave Temple.
“The 2015 Audit Report states, that the annual income of the temple was Rs 2,971,000 but we have conducted a study and found that the daily income of the Dambulla Cave Temple is between two to eight million rupees, from tickets issued to foreigners,” he said.
The minister added that until 1996 the tickets were issued by the Central Cultural Fund (CCF). However, severe irregularities have taken place after certain sections of the Buddhist clergy took over the ticketing process.
“The daily income of the temple is between Rs 1 million and 1.5 million according to the most conservative estimate. That means between 1996 and 2016 between Rs 7,300 and 10,095 million had been collected. Thus, I request you to look into the matter,” the Thera said in the letter.
Dambulla organiser to resign if temple is harmed
Courtesy Adaderana
Buddhist Monks at the Dambulla cave temple stated that they will not let the temple close down.
After the announcement regarding the temporary closure of the temple due to conservation and till the tourist visiting tickets are printed was made, locals and monks at the temple challenged the government on multiple grounds, at a press conference held this morning (11).
This included the newly appointed seat organizer threatening to resign from his position, if the temple was harmed in any way.
The media briefing held in front of the temple was attended by Ven. Ambagas Wewe Rahula Thero, Ambuluwawe Wachiswara, Ven. Thalakiriyagama Upali Thero, chief custodian of the Sri Vishnu Maha Dewale K.G. Piyadasa and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) organizer in Dambulla, U. R. Dayanandasiri.
July 11th, 2017 at 11:37 pm
අතීතයේ ඉඳල භික්ෂුන් වහන්සේලා පන්සල් විහාර රැකගෙන ආවෙ මේ ස්ථාන මේ රටේ කොඳු නාරටිය ලෙස සැලකුණු නිසා . එදා වල් වැදිලා තිබුණු අවස්ථාවල හා ආර්ථික අහේනි තත්වයන් යටතේ පවා ප්‍රදේශවාසී බවුද්ධ ජනතාවගේ උරුමයක් ලෙස මේ පන්සල් ඔවුන් රැක ගත්තා. එදා මේ ස්ථාන රැකගන්න උපදේශකයෝ , භාරකාරයො කවුරුත් පිටින් ආවෙ නැහැ..
කාලයත් සමග ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ බවුද්ධ සිද්ධස්ථානවල තිබෙන අපුර්වත්වය ප්‍රචලිත වෙත්ම දෙස් – විදේශ සංචාරකයන්ගේ වැඩිවීමත් සමග ඒ තුලින් අදායම් මාර්ගයක් අද මතුවී තිබුණත් ඒ සියලුම අදායම් පාලක භික්ෂුන් හා ප්‍රදේශවාසී ජනතාවගෙන් සැදුම් ලත් කොමිටියක් විසින් පාලනය වී එය රටේ බුදුදහම නගා සිටුවීමට යෙදවෙන්නේනම් මැනවි.
උතුරේ ඉඩකඩම් වෙනුවෙන් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරණ තේසවලාමේ නීතියට තත්කාලීන රජයන් අත නොපොවන්නා සේම පුරාණ රජ දරුවන්ගේ කාලවල සිට පැවති නීති ප්‍රකාරව පන්සල් විහාර භුමිවලටද රජය අත නොතැබිය යුතුය.
සිංහල බවුද්ධ උරුමයන් පමණක් මේ රටතුල දියාරු කරණ ප්‍රවලතාවයක් අද මතුවී තිබීම කණගාටුදායකය.
July 12th, 2017 at 5:05 am
Traitor YAMA PALLAN ready to deliver the killer blow to Buddhism while Sri Lanka is ruled by the biggest traitor
ever in the history of Sri Lanka, Cancer in Mother Lanka traitor chief die hard catholic token Buddhist Bay Gal
Karaya Mega Thief Batalande Wadakaya pol pot r@nil wickrmaSinhalakiller. They know this is the best chance.
Catholic run UNPatriotic party imprisoned so many Buddhist monks. They changing the constitution to please their
ardent supporters tamils, mussies and the christian west. So Buddhism going to disappar from the new constitution. Tried to stop Kandy perahara saying using the elephants were cruel (these are the same people who burnt Buddhist jaathidhrohee vermins’ party guys aka supporters in tyres in town centres; what pious people), then try to take the money from the till in Dambulla temple to bankrupt it and close down. It didn’t work. So now closing down temporarily (for the YAMPALLAN it will be long time, very long before it’s open. Then the temple followers will disappear). This is Cancer in Mother Lanka’s tikiri mole. Still he makes sure to raise his right hand show pirith nool to fool Sinhala modayas. Batalande Wadakaya knows Sinhala modayas not going to notice the real reason. What a lucky traitor! Curse to motherland!
July 12th, 2017 at 5:08 am
Traitor catholic run UNPatriotic Party’s anti Buddhist, anti Sinhalese, anti Sri Lankan activities. You won’t see these
in so called Buddhist (on paper) Sri Lanka. UNPatriotic party supporting Sinhala modayas how many brain cells you
have? 0?
http://ltte-christian-ties.blogspot.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV6_o9txURc
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/08/05/christianizing-of-sri-lanka-unps-betrayal-of-buddhism/
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/05/27/ranil-wickremasinghes-new-unp-3/
http://www.lankagrid.com/soma-thero/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_eJ1gX_fuU
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/09/26/ltte-terrorism-church-links-can-someone-explain-these-photos/
July 12th, 2017 at 4:29 pm
Why the sudden and unexpected ‘CARING’ toward the Dambulla Temple statues etc ??
And, surely, if the statues are so endangered, the Buddhist priests as the custodians of this ancient Temple, have the funds to get the repairs done ?
Methinks it has something to do with the Buddhist Priests of all three Nikayas protesting against the new Constitution … ?