Kandy
Then…
On the edge of the "Kingdom in the Mountains"
(Kanda Uda Pasrata), Kandy was the last capital of the
Sinhalese monarchy and a testament to the kings as aesthetes
in their choice of location. Kandy, or more properly
in Sinhalese Maha Nuwara ("Great City"), was
founded on a ridge of mountains with dense jungle bordering
its gardens, tea estates and paddy fields, and formed
around the artificial lake which reflects the sky, with
the arc of the royal palace skirting the water's edge.
…and
now
This royal city is also a holy city. Ever since it was
founded in the 16th Century, it has
housed one of the most sacred relics of Buddhism, a
tooth of the Buddha, collected from his funeral pyre.
Every day, at dawn, midday and dusk, the reliquary containing
the relic is venerated to the sound of drums at the
Temple of the Tooth. A depository of the last vestiges
of Sinhalese royalty, a focal point of worship for Buddhists
all over the world and an important centre of monastic
tradition, Kandy is still a capital city, despite the
creation of Colombo. It is still the custom for the
heads of state of Sri Lanka to organise important official
ceremonies here and it is here that they make their
inaugural speech. In addition, Kandy's great annual
festival, the famous Esala Perahera (July/August), which is a parade
of elephants in honour of the tooth of the Buddha, is
the most spectacular and ornate perahera on the island.
With a picturesque setting around its lake, a rich historical
and cultural heritage, good access to the Ancient Cities (Cultural Triangle)
and the Hill Country, a pleasant Mediterranean-type
climate, and World Heritage Site status, a visit to
Kandy is a must for anyone touring the island. Kandy
is the perfect size to be explored on foot, the higher
altitude making the climate conducive to long and leisurely
strolls. The city is visually rich, with narrow streets
lined with buildings of character and crowded with people.
The Municipal Market has superb displays of fruit and
vegetables, textiles and clothing, and the lake provides
an attractive focal point. Sites and activities of interest
around the city include:
Buddhist Monasteries
Hindu Devales
Kandyan Dancers and Drummers
Royal Palace
Temple of the Tooth
Udawattekele Sanctuary
Within
easy reach of Kandy are the glorious Peradeniya Botanic Gardens,
Spice Gardens, the Ceylon Tea Museum,
and the serene temples of Embekke, Lankatilaka
and Gadaladeniya (Three Temples Tour).
For those missing their round of golf, there is the Victoria Golf Course,
which is an attractive 18-hole golf course about 25 km outside of Kandy
surrounded by the Victoria Reservoir and set amidst coconut palms and tropical vegetation.
The four Hindu devales (temples),
which are perhaps as old as the city itself, are devoted
to Vishnu, Pattini, Natha and Kataragama. Interestingly,
while Sinhalese Buddhists were in the majority in Kandy,
the ancient rulers of the kingdom gave equal prominence
to every racial and religious group.
The devale devoted to Lord Vishnu
is revered by Buddhists for the role played by that
god in the preservation of Buddhism. The devale dedicated
to Goddess Pattini, a popular deity who favours chastity
and good health, is worshipped by people of all faiths.
God Natha is the third deity revered in Sri Lanka. He
is venerated for the preservation of faith and nourishment
of love and consequently has a special place in the
hearts of believers. The god of Kataragama, Skanda,
is the fourth deity worshipped for his forthright manner
in which he solves problems and gives solace to those
who are grieving.
The four Hindu devales are included
in the Kandy City tour.
Malwatte
monastery
Providing an architectural contrast to the Temple of
the Tooth with its imposing octagonal tower, the buildings
of the Malwatte monastery, the aptly-named "Flower
Garden", scale a hillside dotted with woodland
paths. Built in the 16th Century to accommodate a delegation
of monks from Burma, this is one of the largest monastic
establishments in Kandy, with 375 resident monks. Its
Assembly Hall (poyage) was decorated in the 18th Century
with elegant Kandyan columns supporting a ceiling with
painted caissons. It is still used for monastic executive
council meetings and the annual ordination ceremonies.
The whole complex is an architectural museum in its
own right, maintained each year thanks to the donations
of Buddhists from all over the world.
Asgiriya
monastery
The founding of the Asgiriya monastery dates from the
14th Century. All the sovereigns of Kandy contributed
to its image houses. The Adahana Maluwa Gedige, where
cremations of royalty took place, is the oldest. Built
in the late 15th century, it has the same austere elegance
as Natha Devale. During the Esala Perahera, the reliquary
of the Tooth is placed here on the last night of the
festival, in honour of the mother of King Kirti Sri
Rajasinha, whose body was cremated in the monastery.
Today nothing remains of the royal burials because those
that escaped pillage were destroyed during the construction
of the Kandy to Matale railway line (1878-80).
The two Buddhist monasteries are included
in the Kandy City tour.
Kandyan Dancers
and Drummers |
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The famed Kandyan dancers are not
principally a theatrical performance, but you can see them
go through their routines every night in Kandy. These performances
are extremely athletic, with great leaps and back flips. The
dancers are accompanied by drummers who beat out complex rhythms
on the geta bera, a Kandyan tapering double-ended drum - one
end is covered in monkey hide and the other with cow hide
in order to yield different tones.
This dance form flourished under the Kandyan kings and is today
considered the national dance of Sri Lanka. There are four
types: pantheru, naiyaki, udekki and ves. In addition there
are 18 vannamas (representations in dance of animals and birds).
The Ramayana has provided plenty of material for the dances,
especially Rama's dash to Lanka to save Sita, aided by the
loyal monkey-god Hanuman. But over the centuries other stories
have been absorbed, including those about kings and heroes.
Under the Kandyan kings, the dance became so beautiful and
refined that Buddhist monks admitted it to their temple courtyards
and it became an integral part of the great Kandy Esala Perahera.
The best-known costume of male Kandyan dancers is a wide
skirt-like garment. The dancer's bare chest is covered with
necklaces of silver and ivory, and bangles of beaten silver
are worn on the arms and ankles.
The performance lasts for 1 hour.
Peradeniya
Botanic Gardens |
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 Situated
in a loop of the Mahaweli River and 6 km west of Kandy,
the site of the gardens of Peradeniya was a seat of
power between 1371 and 1377, during the time of the
itinerant capitals, however nothing remains from this
period today. King Kirti Sri Rajasinha created the gardens
and later came to live here. The British made them into
the Royal Botanical Gardens in 1821. There are 4000
tropical species, either indigenous or imported, 2000
of which are varieties of trees. The whole site occupies
60 hectares of land.
 There
are extensive well-kept lawns, an Orchid House containing
an outstanding collection, an Octagon Conservatory,
fernery, banks of giant bamboo from Burma and numerous
flower borders with cannas, hibiscus, chrysanthemums,
croton and colourful bougainvillaea. The tank has water
plants including the giant water lily and papyrus reeds.
You will also see exotic species, especially palms (Palmyra,
talipot, royal, cabbage), Ficus elastica (latex-bearing
fig or
'Indian rubber tree' with buttress roots), an
amazing avenue of drunken-looking Cook's Pines, the
enormous canopy of the Java Fig (covering 1600 sq m),
and some magnificent old specimen trees. Indian Flying
Foxes are resident in the upper branches of some trees,
which you will hear chattering away to each other and
see hanging upside down or flapping bat-like to and
fro.
Most of the principal sites
of interest can be visited in a 2-hour tour from Kandy.
The buildings of the Royal Palace
complex, consisting of the King's Palace, Queen's Palace,
the Audience Hall, the Royal Bathhouse and the Royal
Summer House, represent the final flowering of Sinhalese
architecture and craftsmanship.
The
airy rooms of the Queen's Palace, complete with cloisters
and a central courtyard, have been converted into the
National Museum, where royal regalia and pre-colonial
artefacts are displayed in the rooms where once the
courtly concubines lounged. Carved teak columns support
the roof and cooling air circulates in its shade.
The surviving portion of the King's
Palace now houses the Archaeological Museum, while the
intact Audience Hall was where the Kandyan chiefs met
to officially capitulate to the British in 1815. The
Royal Bathhouse, on the edge of the lake, is a beautiful
pavilion with the traditional Kandyan roof, supported
by white columns. Today it is a ticket office.
The Royal Palace is included
in the Kandy City tour.
Most of the spices now seen and
used in Sri Lanka were initially introduced from Indonesia by the Dutch
or from other spice islands further east by the British. Once
the colonial powers realised that Sri Lanka had the ideal
climate and environment for growing all kinds of spices, the
island became extremely important to them on the maritime trade routes
through Asia, and provided great wealth and prosperity to the
island's colonisers.
Today the many spice gardens
around Matale and between Pinnewala and Kandy owe their existence
to the Europeans need of exotic spices for culinary and medical
purposes since the 16th Century. A tour of a spice garden will
show you the trees and plants from which the spices and herbs
originate, and introduce you to Ayurvedic (traditional) medical
cures.
A visit to a spice garden
normally lasts approximately 1 hour and is best enjoyed
en route from either Kandy or Dambulla.
 The Temple of the Tooth or Dalada
Maligawa contains the most sacred relic of Buddhism
and the most precious symbol of Sinhalese pride. Carried
around by the ancient kings, the sacred tooth relic
(a tooth of the Buddha himself) has witnessed and survived
all manner of calamities through the ages, including
a recent bombing by the LTTE in 1998.
 The
present Temple of the Tooth was built between 1687 and
1707, with further work carried out during 1747-1782,
and restorative work following the bombing still ongoing.
Like all buildings destined to house the precious relic,
it is a veritable strongbox. The structures visible
from the outside comprise an impressive stone rampart
enclosing the actual temple, which stands two storeys
high on a platform in the centre of a courtyard. This
enclosure wall and the octagonal tower (Patthiruppuwa)
in front of the entrance gate date from the last king
of Sri Lanka.
Daily puja (blessing) ceremonies are
performed at dawn, midday and dusk to the strident wail
of Sinhalese pipes and the beat of Kandyan drums. The
sacred relic, or more accurately the largest of a diminishing
series of caskets or karanduas that enclose the tooth
relic itself, can be viewed in the Udmale - upper story
- of the Temple.
Most of the principal sites
of interest can be visited in a 1-hour tour from Kandy.
Kataragama Devale at Embekke, Lankatilaka
Viharaya and Gadaladeniya Viharaya are spectacularly
situated on top of a small chain of rocky promontories
on the edge of a valley carpeted with paddy fields,
about 20 km from Kandy. The building of these temples
dates from the period of Gampola (1341-1408), one of
the itinerant capitals that preceded Kandy.
Most of the principal sites of interest
can be visited in a 3-hour tour from Kandy.
Kataragama
Devale
 The
Hindu devale, dedicated to the god Kataragama or Skanda,
with its sanctuary, Dancing Hall and the Drummers' Hall,
is famous for its carved wooden pillars (which may have
once adorned the Audience Hall in Kandy) with vibrant
figures of soldiers, wrestlers, dancers, musicians,
mythical animals and birds. The village has craftsmen
working in silver, brass and copper.
Lankatilaka
Viharaya
 The
Lankatilaka Viharaya dominates the paddy fields from
a granite plateau. You initially climb up a rock-cut
stairway before stepping up to a moonstone at the entrance,
and the finely carved wooden doorway flanked by guardian
gajasinhas (elephant-lions). An inscription in Pali,
engraved in the rock, dates the foundation of this temple
to 1344. Its exterior architecture belongs to the tradition
of the great gedige of Polonnaruwa, but its ground plan
is unusual, as it is a skilful combination of an image
house and a devale in one building. The inner image
house contains a stuccoed brick statue of the Buddha,
whose robe is finely pleated and folded, typical of
Kandyan art. The walls and ceiling have well preserved
frescoes, which are some of the oldest and best examples
of the Kandyan temple style.
Gadaladeniya Viharaya
The Gadaladeniya Viharaya is a small complex built on a
granite escarpment. Built of stone (showing influences
of Indian temple architecture), it has lacquered doors,
carvings and frescoes and a moonstone at the entrance
to the shrine. The brick superstructure, shaped like
a stupa, has as octagonal base. The inscriptions on
the rock by Dharmakirti date it to 1344. The principal
gilded image of the Buddha dates from the 18th Century
as a replacement for the original which was destroyed
by the Portuguese. It is framed by an elaborate makara
decoration. Unusually, there is also a shrine to Vishnu
here. Outside, there is a covered stupa and a Bodhi
tree.
Udawattekele Sanctuary is the "forbidden
forest of the kings of Kandy". Created in 1938,
it is a green space of more than 100 hectares in area
and extends along the hills to the east of the Asgiriya
monastery and behind the Temple of the Tooth.
The nature reserve is especially atmospheric
in the early morning when the forest, with its aura
of miracles and legends, resounds with birdsong. The
network of footpaths passes through luxuriant vegetation,
populated with monkeys, monitor lizards…….and
leeches after the rain!
Most of the principal sites
of interest can be visited in a 2-hour tour from Kandy.
The Victoria Golf Course is situated at
Digana, which is about 25 km east of Kandy.
Located on a 207 hectare site with a 8 km waterfront, it
overlooks the panoramic Victoria Reservoir. The
Victoria Golf Course is a championship golf course (6190 m, par 73)
designed by Donald Steel and opened in early 1999.
Stately trees, including avenues of coconut palms, lend the course an
immediate air of maturity. Impressive natural
outcrops of rocks are a distinctive feature and indeed
a hazard of the course, and the fairways are rather narrow.
However, the Victoria Golf Course Golf Architect, Donald Steel, says
"Some golf courses have a splendid undulating terrain over which the holes are
routed. Some golf courses have a scenic back drop of hills and lakes which excite
the senses. However the Victoria Golf Course near Kandy is blessed with both attributes."
A round of 18 holes at the
Victoria Golf Course, which includes green fees, golf balls, and
the hire of clubs, shoes and a caddy, will take about 6 hours,
including the transfer time from Kandy to the course itself.
The Ceylon Tea Museum is situated at Hanthana, about 5 km from Kandy, and it is a monument to the
courage and fortitude of the early planters who first established tea estates in the 1870s following
the devastating failure of coffee. The museum exhibits original machinery used on the tea estates,
many still in working order, as well as documents, books, pictures, and other memorabilia and artefacts
of historical value to the tea industry.
The rise of Sri Lanka's tea plantations over the grave of the coffee industry in 1869 followed years
of experimental planting. The first tea seeds and young plants were brought to the island from the
Botanical Gardens in Kolkatta (India) in 1839. James Taylor of Loolecondera (near Kandy), considered
as the father of the tea industry in Sri Lanka, first planted tea commercially in 1867, two years
before the coffee blight. It was fortunate that the tea grew well, for many coffee pioneers were able
to turn the death of the coffee plantations into the birth of an even greater and enduring industry
- tea. The first shipment of tea in 1872 was only two small packs containing 23 pounds (10.5 kg)
valued at 58 Rupees, a literal drop in the ocean, compared to the 280 million kilograms the country
exports today! Sri Lanka is now the largest exporter of tea in the world and boasts the largest tea
auction, which has been in operation since 1883.
A guided tour of the Ceylon Tea Museum takes about 1 hour and you can
also enjoy a refreshing cup of Broken Orange Pekoe!
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