Buddha statues line the temples of the Ajanta Caves, a World Heritage Site

rock-cut temple in Ajanta — Ajanta Caves

Ajanta Caves, which are registered as a world heritage site, are a group of 30 large and small Buddhist cave temples built by hollowing out the cliffs intermittently for 550m. The rock-cut-cave temples are the same as the Ellora Caves in the suburbs of Aurangabad. But while the Ellora caves have temples of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, this one is all Buddhist temples.

In India, which is said to be the cradle of Buddhism, Buddhism is not very active; even if you walk around India in the 21st century, you will find only Hindu and Muslim temples, and other religions are limited to the occasional Sikh walking around with a turban on their head. The shadow of Buddhism is thin. However, if you visit the Ajanta Caves, you can understand how powerful Buddhism used to be in India. In each cave, a Buddha statue made of hollowed-out rocks is enshrined and the walls are decorated with murals.

It is said that the caves of Ajanta, which had prospered so much, were buried in the jungle for a long time because the monks moved to another group of temples in Ellora in 650 and because of the decline of Buddhism in India. It is truly a rise and fall.

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