About Gal Vihara

Gal Vihara, Vidyadhara Guha
The Gal Vihara, and originally as the Uttararama, is a rock temple of the Buddha situated in the ancient city of Polonnaruwa in North Central Province, Sri Lanka. It was fashioned in the 12th century by Parakramabahu I. The central feature of the temple is four rock relief statues of the Buddha, which have been carved into the face of a large granitic rock. The images consist of a large seated figure, another smaller seated figure inside an artificial cavern, a standing figure and a reclining figure. These are considered to be some of the best examples of ancient Sinhalese sculpting and carving arts, and have made the Gal Vihara the most visited monument at Polonnaruwa.
Mengshan Giant Buddha, Taiyuan

Colossal Buddha statues – sculptures of the Buddhist era

After the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization there is little record of larger sculpture until the Buddhist era. During the 2nd to 1st century BCE in far northern India, in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara from what is now southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, sculptures became more explicit, representing episodes of the Buddha's life and teachings. Since then many Colossal Buddha were carved across the silk road and later beyond south Asia. This is a .