Dambulla Cave Temple
Dambulla, Sri Lanka
Dambulla is easy to visit on your own. Foreign visitors buy a ticket at the office near the Golden Temple at the foot…
192 tickets & tours
Country
Best temples in Sri Lanka
8 temples in Sri Lanka, ranked by why it makes the list from the catalogue data. Each page tells you what to see, which ticket or tour to book and when to go.
| # | Temple | Country | Why it makes the list |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dambulla Cave Temple | Sri Lanka | Five cave shrines high on a granite rock, painted from floor to ceiling and filled with Buddha statues, the finest cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. |
| 2 | Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic | Sri Lanka | Kandy's lakeside shrine of the Buddha's tooth, the island's holiest relic, best visited at the evening puja when the drums beat and the inner chamber opens. |
| 3 | Gal Vihara | Sri Lanka | Four great Buddha figures cut from one granite face at Polonnaruwa in the twelfth century, including a fourteen-metre reclining Buddha of extraordinary calm. |
| 4 | Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara | Sri Lanka | Where tradition says the Buddha preached on his last visit to the island, a temple near Colombo with fine twentieth-century murals inside the image house. |
| 5 | Buduruwagala | Sri Lanka | Seven Mahayana figures carved into a granite cliff near Wellawaya, led by a towering standing Buddha, reached along a lane through paddy fields. |
| 6 | Gangaramaya Temple | Sri Lanka | Colombo's busiest temple and a teaching centre for monks, crammed with an eccentric collection of gifts, relics and statues beside Beira Lake. |
| 7 | Ella Temple | Sri Lanka | A small cave shrine under a rock overhang on the slopes below Ella Rock, an easy and peaceful addition to the walk up the valley. |
| 8 | Seetha Amman Temple | Sri Lanka | A small, colourful Hindu temple in the hills below Hakgala, linked by local belief to the garden where Ravana held Sita in the Ramayana. |
Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic
Kandy, Sri Lanka
Sri Lankans enter the Temple of the Tooth freely to worship, while foreign visitors buy an entry ticket, either at the…
3 tickets & tours
Gal Vihara
Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka
Gal Vihara has no ticket of its own: it is part of the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, and entry is covered by the single…
No online ticket
Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara
Colombo, Sri Lanka
There is nothing to book for Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara. Sri Lankan worshippers enter freely, and foreign visitors pay…
2 tickets & tours
Buduruwagala
Ella, Sri Lanka
Buduruwagala has no online ticket. Foreign visitors pay a modest fee at a small hut by the entrance to the site, and…
1 ticket or tour
Gangaramaya Temple
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Gangaramaya is an easy temple to visit on your own. There is no online ticket: foreign visitors buy an entry ticket at…
2 tickets & tours
Ella Temple
Ella, Sri Lanka
There is no ticket for this temple alone, and none is needed: like most village temples in the hill country around…
10 tickets & tours
Seetha Amman Temple
Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka
No ticket for Seetha Amman Temple is sold online, and none is needed: entry is free, and devotees and visitors simply…
No online ticket