Travel to Sri Lanka: Gadaladeniya

A mile or two north of Lankatilaka, there's another temple.  It was comleted in 1344 by a South Indian architect named Ganesvarachari.  Like Lankatilaka, it too combines Buddhist and Hindu elements.  The geometry isn't so striking, the size is more modest, but the building is of stone, hardly separable from the bedrock it sits on.

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The temple is in the background, under a restorer's scaffolding.  In the foreground, however, is a stupa overshadowed by a massive and ungainly Kandyan roof.

At the rear of the stupa platform, an emergent elephant.

The temple, growing from granitic bedrock.

The temple. seen from the side and in a view looking toward the front.

The temple, seen from the rear.

Entrance.

Dancers on the risers.

Riser closeup.

The style is South Indian, as one might expect.

One of the two massive columns supporting the porch. It's more complex when viewed from the other side.

It's the temple's most masterful element: there are two of these tri-column monoliths holding up the heavy stone-slab roof over the entrance platform.

Base of one of the monoliths. 

There are hints of Hinduism in these columns, for example this dancing Shiva, on the right monolith.

The image house.

Inside, the temple has been wretchedly improved with fluorescent tubing, an accordion gate, and tile flooring.

The central image.

Off to the side, a Vishnu devale.