Gangarama Temple

Almost in the center of Colombo, on the shore of a small lake, is the Buddhist temple of Gangaram. Unlike other religious buildings, ancient, prayed over, carved in the rocks and overwhelming with their religious grandeur, this temple is still young, it is just over 120 years old. But its external decoration, rich collections of works of art and applied art as well as its important role in Sri Lanka formation, Gangarama just cannot be compared to any other Temple.
From the day of its foundation until now, the Temple is the center for training Buddhist monks. The Gangarama library is gigantic and abundant in religious literature, where everyone can come and acquire the knowledge. Various cultural and educational events, lectures on Oriental studies, history, philosophy, and ancient and modern crafts are held at the temple.There is even a whole “technical school” where, completely free of charge, everyone who wishes, regardless of nationality and age, will be taught the basics of technical sciences in English. Also in a few rooms of the Temple complex there is an improvised “museum” collections: Buddha statues, presents and gifts brought by travelers from all over the world.
The Temple consists of several separate buildings, which are characteristic of Buddhist and Hindu temples.
You can look at the “garden” of the Buddhas, in which there are about a hundred stone sculptures of The Enlightened. Inside there are Shakyamuni altars, murals with images of Buddha’s life descriptions and deities of the Indian pantheon, all in numerous museum rooms. Annually monks arrange a colorful procession with hymns, torches and temple elephants, richly and generously decorated and proud of their own role.