The dimensions of the cave are recorded as 175ft deep and 150ft wide while the mouth is approximately 160ft tall. Furthermore, the floor of the cave consists of soil and fragments of disintegrated rock that have fallen from the roof of the cave due to weather over time. The original floor of the cave is believed to be some 40ft below this layer. Between 1986-88, a team of archaeologists made numerous and remarkable findings in and around the cave. These included a collection of skulls and vertebrae of what are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of the cave. In addition, small hunting tools made from rock and bone and proof of fire being used by this people gave an indication as to the phase of evolution at which these inhabitants were. Many of these items were sent to the US for further study, and carbon dating methods suggests that the time of inhabitation was around 37,000 years ago. Little is known however, about their language, their social mannerisms or whether they were clothed. The common conclusion was that these were a hunter-gatherer society, who used primitive tools and whose diet consisted of small animals, snails and fruit. The cave would have provided adequate shelter from the elements due to its size, which is said to be able to accommodate over 3,000 people. An interesting artefact on display was a slab of stone, which had perfectly shaped circular holes in it. It is believed that this was a stone used to start a fire.
The study of the artifacts by U.S. experts showed that they were almost 37000 years old. The massive cave could accommodate up to 3000 inhabitants. In the fifth century A.D. a Chinese Buddhist monk named Fa Hsien is said to have dwelt here on his travels across Asia in search of Buddhism and Buddhist literature. Thus the cave earned the name Fa-Hsien Lena and the present title Pahiyangala. The Buddhist shrine constructed with beautiful statues of Buddha, other deities and kings, painted with natural paints obtained from vegetables and plants, is of recent origin of not more than 450years. The Buddhist monk who lives at the monastery there today, just below the cave, has a museum that houses some of the ancient artifacts. Visit Fa Hsien Gala and take a walk down a time channel meeting those ancestors of the present humans from the new stone age past the Neolithic and then over to the Paleolithic ages.
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