Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple

• Newly (in 1999) constructed temple, alien to the World Heritage complex  (issue resolved)
• Changes in traditional ways of life and knowledge system
• Impacts of tourism / visitors / recreation
• Ritual / spiritual / religious and associative uses
• Local conditions affecting physical fabric (Impact of water ingress and other natural forces)
• Management systems / management plan (Lack of tourism strategy and interpretation)
• Pests (Impacts of insect activity)
• Others (Continued deterioration of the paintings; General deterioration of the Golden Temple)

Total amount provided: 2021-2013: USD 48,229 from the UNESCO/Netherlands Funds-in-Trust for “Assistance to the World Heritage property of Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple (Sri Lanka)”

On 1 December 2022, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/561/documents/ and presents progress in a number of conservation issues addressed by the Committee at its previous sessions, as follows:

• The Management Plan is being implemented by the Management Committee, which is headed by the Chief Incumbent Monk as Chair, and on which the government heritage agencies are represented. However, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented formal meetings. Progress in implementing the Management Plan is reported in some areas, such as material conservation on damaged Buddha figures, but the majority of the actions are ‘still under consideration’, lack funding, or are not reported on;
• The development of a Visitor Management Strategy has not progressed, in part due to the view by Temple authorities that pilgrimage practices cannot be managed without taking into account the nature of this property as a living heritage and worship place (see comments in the World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS mission report below);
• A joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission to the property took place from 8 to 13 January 2022, and its report was submitted to the State Party (available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/561/documents/). The mission acknowledged the commitment of all parties of the management authorities in their aims to conserve the property, but identified the following conservation issues:
  • The general conservation approach is mostly reactionary to most known problems, and the speed of remedial actions is slower than that of deterioration and damage. The current focus is on the symptoms rather than the root causes of damage to mural paintings and sculptures,
  • Lack of benchmarking for condition assessment and monitoring, facilitated by modern and systematic documentation methods,
  • Less attention given to some attributes that contribute to the property’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) within the property and buffer zone boundaries and their integration into the management framework; for instance, historical habitations of religious communities (90+ rock shelters, small caves) and other significant features, outside the five main cave shrines,
  • Concern over major infrastructure proposals (expressway) in the vicinity of the property,
  • Risk of forest fires caused by faulty electrical work – there is no Risk Management Plan;
  • The mission report also recommends the restructuring of the Management Plan to include clear mission and role statements, to refocus actions on the conservation of attributes of OUV instead of solving discrete conservation issues, as well as by broadening to include conservation of all attributes of the site that contribute to OUV. The identification and remediation of the root causes of many of the conservation issues (such as high humidity, water ingress, condensation, microbiological activities) should have a higher priority and a clearer focus.

The mission report highlights issues in the relationship between the two main management bodies – the Department of Archaeology and the Temple Authority, arising from the very nature of the property, which has important tangible and intangible values. This relationship and the related decision-making processes require resolution, and joint commitment to the management of the property in a manner that retains and conserves the attributes that support its OUV and its nature as a living worship place.

The property faces substantial conservation challenge, and the extent and rate of available conservation action to date will not, in the long term, be sufficient to conserve the attributes which support its OUV. The conservation approach has been targeted at resolving specific symptoms of larger problems. The mission proposes that addressing the cause of the problems (such as high humidity, water ingress, condensation, microbiological activities) should be given urgent and greater emphasis. It is recommended that the Committee urge the State Party to further address the cause of the problems, and reflect them in a revised Management Plan.

The use of manual documentation techniques and lack of documentation of management systems, should be reviewed to increase the management bodies’ capacity to produce and access good baseline information. This will allow to monitor change in both state of different parts of the property and effectiveness of conservation actions over time. The State Party should be urged to gain an understanding of these methods and their effectiveness, and to develop good digital documentation methods, including by means of the on-going UNESCO’s assistance funded by The Netherlands.

The range of archaeological sites, rock shelters and caves that surround the five main cave shrines are also attributes related to the history of the site, from megalithic times to date, conveying the OUV of the property. Their protection and conservation also need to be considered to maintain OUV. 

The adoption of an effective visitor management framework, previously urged by the Committee as a Visitor Management Plan that includes a Tourism Management Strategy and a Pilgrim Management Strategy, remains critical, but would appear to be effective only on the development of a better mutual understanding of the two major stakeholders on the objectives of the mechanism. The State Party should facilitate dialogue to reach that understanding, and its involvement should be urged. A monitoring programme is needed to establish the current visitation pattern and impacts, to inform a basis for regulating the flow and conducts of visitors across the different segments of the property.

The State Party indicates that implementation of substantial parts of the revised Management Plan has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, financial constraints, and technical resources gaps. The mission report further suggests that the Management Plan has serious deficiencies and would be better targeted if it were restructured based on a review of the attributes conveying the OUV and focused on works from that perspective, enabling actions to be grouped and their cumulative impact monitored. The issues relating to a revised conservation approach to several issues, outlined above, should also be incorporated in a revised Management Plan. It is also suggested that the Plan should include a mission statement for the Management Committee, and a clear definition of the roles and interconnected responsibilities between the religious and secular management bodies, and a decision-making process.

The various documents provided to the Committee over a number of years differ in their presentation of the property and buffer zone boundaries. The mission was not able to determine a definitive understanding of the boundaries, especially the purpose and extent of the buffer zone and proposed changes. It is apparent that there is a lack of recognition and inclusion of attributes that convey the  OUV within the property and its buffer zone boundaries. The State Party should be requested to define both the boundaries of the property to encompass all attributes, and the boundaries of a buffer zone that effectively protects the attributes from future changes of use and environmental threats.

The relationship of a proposed expressway development and the property and its buffer zone should also be clarified.