Kandy — Sri Lanka's second city and the last capital of the ancient Sinhalese kings — sits in a highland bowl at 474 metres above sea level, surrounded by forested hills and centred on the artificial Kandy Lake created by the last Kandyan king in 1807. The city's colonial elegance (a legacy of three centuries of Dutch and then British rule), its market streets, its tea estates immediately above the town, and above all the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Sri Dalada Maligawa) on the lakeside make it the cultural and religious capital of Sri Lanka — the city where the island's Buddhist identity is most intensely concentrated.
The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic — housing a tooth of the Buddha, brought to Sri Lanka from India in the 4th century CE and housed in successive temples in the island's various ancient capitals before arriving in Kandy — is the most important Buddhist site in Sri Lanka and one of the most significant in the entire Buddhist world. Three daily pujas (devotional rituals, at dawn, noon and evening) open the inner sanctuary for worshippers to approach the golden karandua (casket within casket, seven in total) in which the tooth relic is stored. The puja ceremonies, with their drumming, blowing of conch shells, and crowds of white-clad worshippers bearing flowers and incense, are profoundly moving to witness whether or not you share the faith.
The Temple Complex
The Sri Dalada Maligawa — rebuilt multiple times through Sri Lankan history, most recently after a 1998 bomb attack by the Tamil Tigers — is a complex of buildings on the lakeside, the main shrine hall approaching the relic chamber through a series of courtyards lined with friezes, elephant tusks and traditional Kandyan paintings. The inner relic chamber (accessible three times daily during puja) requires leaving shoes outside and maintaining respectful silence. The museum within the temple complex contains historical gifts to the relic — elaborate ivory carvings, crystal caskets, paintings — and tells the history of the tooth's journey through Sri Lankan history.
Esala Perahera Festival
The Esala Perahera — Kandy's great annual festival, held over 10 days in July or August (the date varies with the lunar calendar) — is one of Asia's grandest religious processions and Sri Lanka's most important cultural event. The nightly procession features hundreds of elephants (the lead Maligawa Tusker carries the golden casket containing the tooth relic's replica), traditional dancers (including Kandyan and low-country dance troupes), fire-eaters, whip-crackers and thousands of participants in traditional dress. The procession on the final night (Randoli Perahera) is the largest — tens of thousands of spectators line the streets of Kandy as the 3km procession passes. Accommodation in Kandy books out months ahead for the Perahera period.
Beyond the Temple
Kandy Lake — the artificial lake at the city's centre, created in 1807 by the last Kandyan king Sri Vikrama Rajasinha — is ringed by a beautiful lakeside walk and is particularly photogenic at dawn when mist rises from the water and the temple's white-and-gold facade reflects in the still surface. The Kandy Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya (6km west) — the finest botanical gardens in Asia, established by the British in 1821 — have the largest collection of orchids in Asia and the spectacular double coconut palms, bamboo avenue and giant Javan fig tree (its spreading crown covers 1,600 square metres). The Udawattekele Sanctuary (royal forest reserve immediately above the city) has walking trails through dense rainforest with endemic bird species, monkeys and flying lizards.
