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All 31 Colombo Attractions »

Gangaramaya (Vihara) Buddhist Temple

61 Sri Jinaratana Road, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Ranked #4 of 19 attractions in Colombo
4.0 of 5 stars 79 Reviews
Type: Religious Sites
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79 reviews from our community

Visitor rating
    28
    28
    15
    5
    3
Date Rating
Singapore, Singapore
Senior Contributor
37 reviews 37 reviews
Reviews in 20 cities Reviews in 20 cities
35 helpful votes 35 helpful votes
5 of 5 stars Reviewed May 25, 2012 NEW

This has to be one of the best temples ever for a visitor. (a non buddist visitor) it has it's own elephant. ( not sure I love that but it kept our temples out 5 year old son happy for a bit) it's kind of half temple and half weird and wonderful museum/ second hand shop. Apparently all these relics... More

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Sydney, Australia
Senior Contributor
39 reviews 39 reviews
Reviews in 4 cities Reviews in 4 cities
15 helpful votes 15 helpful votes
4 of 5 stars Reviewed May 17, 2012

Elephant at the entrance is our favourite place to visit. he looks a bit restless and sad but we love elephants. The temple is exceptionally beautiful really worth visiting More

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See 35 more reviews by nangi1 for Colombo
Dubai
Senior Contributor
36 reviews 36 reviews
Reviews in 7 cities Reviews in 7 cities
9 helpful votes 9 helpful votes
4 of 5 stars Reviewed May 15, 2012

This is such a strange temple with some amazing gold buddhas, there are so many different statues and reference to buddha that you do feel that it is entering in to a competition to be in the Guinness Book of Records. and an array of Grundig Radios dating back to 1930 (why??)!Having said that it is definitely worth a viist... More

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See 3 more reviews by DubaiCarolP for Colombo
Singapore, Singapore
Contributor
20 reviews 20 reviews
Reviews in 12 cities Reviews in 12 cities
9 helpful votes 9 helpful votes
4 of 5 stars Reviewed May 15, 2012

During the Vesak holiday the whole area was packed with families enjoying the amazing lanterns displayed everywhere. The temple is more interesting than many Buddhist temples with large animated statues, vintage cars and a pet elephant !! More

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Moscow, Russia
Contributor
12 reviews 12 reviews
Reviews in 2 cities Reviews in 2 cities
1 helpful vote 1 helpful vote
4 of 5 stars Reviewed May 9, 2012

Very quiet and alovely place. lot of people comes in white dress and good tourist attraction too. elephants also available. More

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See 10 more reviews by Angela Vladimir P for Colombo
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Senior Contributor
44 reviews 44 reviews
Reviews in 15 cities Reviews in 15 cities
49 helpful votes 49 helpful votes
1 of 5 stars Reviewed May 7, 2012
3
people found this review helpful

The place is a run-of-the-mill cultural attraction, sorry to say. I've been to dozens upon dozens of temples and holy places worldwide, and this is about a 10 percentile place, as in, about 90% of cultural-religious sites have been more impressive to me. The grounds themselves are a hodgepodge of Asian Buddhist collections - you get some obvious Indonesian influences,... More

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See 3 more reviews by bearanddragonNevada for Colombo
Burnley, United Kingdom
Senior Contributor
39 reviews 39 reviews
Reviews in 30 cities Reviews in 30 cities
55 helpful votes 55 helpful votes
4 of 5 stars Reviewed May 2, 2012

This temple is fascinating; I have never seen any temple with so many artefacts crammed in. The image room is almost over the top in its decor, but still retains a strong spiritual feel. The rest of the temple is more akin to a museum on several levels with room after room of items donated to or collected by the... More

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See 2 more reviews by Norman C for Colombo
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Contributor
15 reviews 15 reviews
Reviews in 9 cities Reviews in 9 cities
3 helpful votes 3 helpful votes
5 of 5 stars Reviewed April 27, 2012

Huge temple-museum complex. They need to do something with donated cars cramming the yard. More

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Colombo
Senior Contributor
26 reviews 26 reviews
Reviews in 5 cities Reviews in 5 cities
24 helpful votes 24 helpful votes
3 of 5 stars Reviewed April 23, 2012
2
people found this review helpful

This place has some stuffs to see and a foreigner can take some nice photos too. But I felt sorry for the fish fond which had thousands of fish packed in a pond and also the elephant. Whats the purpose of showing off old cars inside a temple? Good to go and visit the temple. I don't call it a... More

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See 19 more reviews by Thisaka for Colombo
Sydney
Senior Contributor
25 reviews 25 reviews
Reviews in 17 cities Reviews in 17 cities
13 helpful votes 13 helpful votes
3 of 5 stars Reviewed April 19, 2012
1
person found this review helpful

We were very impressed with the well-scrubbed vintaged cars stored in the premises, but wondering what purpose were they serve. More

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