Cave Art by Caveman – Dumpandurawa

Map around Dumpandurawa – click to enlarge

Map around Gal kotte – Click to elarge

Two years back I worked at Inginiyagala hospital and one day I came across a retired DWC officer who is well known because of the newspaper articles he wrote about Gal oya national park. Somehow we became friends and one day he mentioned about a special cave close to Mulgama where Vedda paintings could be found. With my hectic schedule and days passing by I totally forgot about it until few months back. Three months back I went to Himidurawa and on that day I got down at Dumpandurawa and inquired about the cave, the input I got was a very positive one. So I was determined to go there in near future. Few weeks back I decided to give it a go so I got Akalanka to join me on this venture.

We left early morning and reached Dumpandurawa at 6.30am. My god we were too early and the locals were still a sleep. Somehow an old man got up and welcomed us (at the last house of Dumpandurawa) and we were offered a tea cup too. He then went house to house trying to find someone to guide us there and finally we found Sugath. The walk towards the cave was a 1.5km hike from Bibila – Inginiyagala road and the initial stretch was through a short forest patch which ended at a huge chena area. The whole Chena was bordering a branch of Namal oya which was dried out due to the drought and it was the Provincial border as well. From the Chena we trekked further for about 500m’s through the dry zone forest until we reached a rock where the cave could be found.

branch of namal oya dried out

burnt for cultivation’s

entering the forest

the forest path

The first cave we came across was a small one and I didn’t see anything interesting there but few meters away there was a huge cave almost close to 200ft and the sight of it simply took me into a state of hypnotism. I knew there were cave paintings here but not so many. The whole 200ft length was covered with paintings and we didn’t know how to and where to start from. At the edge of the cave there is a view point towards Namal oya valley which flows below and the river is surrounded by mountains. This point would have been a good vantage point for them and aided them to hunt effortlessly. The size of the cave the length of it plus the valley below must had aided them to establish a settlement here for many years. To have so many cave drawings they must have stayed there for many years. The drip ledge suggests that this might have been inhibited by monks in the latter periods too. I think this place has cave art even more than the amount found at Wettumbegala (siyambalanduwa). This location needs archeological preservation as same as Wettumbegala. After having some “kavupee” we returned back to the main road and thanked Sugath for his guidance.

first cave we came across

200ft cave

view from the cave.. good vantage point for cave man

rest of the cave

plenty

hunter on top of an elephant

an elephant with a caveman on its back, the lower one looks like a smiley

and more

painted on dark background

wow

pre historic saliya asokamala :-)

may be a couple

more	have 6 fingers just like Neeththawas

hundreds

at a water hole… there is one guy on a bull

elephant and a porcupine

and more

a water hole?

An ele at a water hole

view towards the valley from the cave

කරඹ

returning back

a nearby lake at Nelliyadda

with her grandfather

Nelumbo nucifera

From here we left towards Pitakumbura side and at Maladanamabe we started walking towards Pammadilla oya. There is a hermitage which was done by King Budhdhadasa right across the river bordering the nearby mountain. After crossing Pammadilla oya via the suspension bridge we continued walking for 1Km through the typical Nilgala forest canopy. The hermitage has 3 well-built caves and two monks could be found meditating here. We did not forget to have a long chat with the monk before exploring the area. There were many Drip ledged caves in the vicinity but the most fascinating one was the one found with an entrance and an exit. There were broken brick walls showing off the glory of the past years too. This hermitage is actually located in the buffer zone and some locals are displeased with it because they cannot engage in illegal activities in the area. After a short stay we retuned back via the same path and headed towards Gal oya to have a bath and end our day

crossing pammedilla oya

pammadilla oya

where dane is offered

the foot path towards the hermitage

cave at Gal kotte

and another

another cave

more caves

abandoned

ah the best one

through the cave

remains

entrance

view towards the forest

place to meditate

returning back

mushrooms

aralu