Kandy was the last independent capital of the Sinhalese kings, held from 1592 to 1815 when the British annexed it through the Kandyan Convention — a political agreement extracted after palace intrigue, not a military siege. The city’s Dalada Maligawa houses the left canine tooth of the Buddha, a relic brought to Sri Lanka in the 4th century CE whose possession conferred the right to rule; three daily puja ceremonies have been held without recorded interruption since the temple’s foundation. Three other UNESCO World Heritage Sites lie within 80 kilometres.
Kandy and the Temple of the Tooth Relic City centre — on-site
The Sacred City of Kandy received UNESCO World Heritage status in 1988. Situated in the central highlands at approximately 500 metres above sea level and surrounded by forested hills, Kandy was the political and religious capital of the last Sinhalese kingdom from 1592 to 1815. Its geographic position made it exceptionally difficult to capture: successive Portuguese, Dutch, and early British military expeditions reached the city but could not hold it, repeatedly driven out by guerrilla warfare, disease, and logistical failures in the steep hill terrain. The British conquest in 1815 was accomplished not through military superiority but through the Kandyan Convention, a document signed by the Kandyan nobles after they turned against their own king, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, whose authoritarian rule had made him deeply unpopular. The British agreed to protect Buddhist institutions, including the Temple of the Tooth; this commitment was subsequently enshrined in Sri Lankan constitutional law after independence in 1948.
The Dalada Maligawa — the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic — is the centrepiece of Kandy’s UNESCO-protected core zone. It stands on the north bank of the artificial Kandy Lake, built in 1807 by Sri Vikrama Rajasinha as the last major construction project of Kandyan kingship. The relic housed within the temple is the left canine tooth of Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhist tradition holds that the tooth was retrieved from the funeral pyre at Kushinagar (in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India) after the Buddha’s death in approximately 483 BCE, though no historical documentation exists from that period. The first written record of the relic in Sri Lanka dates to the 4th century CE, when it was reportedly brought to the island by Prince Danta and Princess Hemamala of the Kalinga kingdom, concealed in Hemamala’s hair to protect it during the sea crossing.
The political significance of the tooth was explicitly understood across the history of Sri Lankan kingship: possession of the relic was understood to confer the right to rule. Kings who controlled it displayed it prominently in processions and housed it in successive palace-temples as their capitals moved. This logic was so firmly embedded that the Portuguese, when they captured a tooth relic in 1560 CE, publicly ground it to powder and burned the remains — an act they understood as a strike at the theological legitimacy of Sinhalese kingship. (Sri Lankan Buddhist authorities maintain that the true relic was hidden before the Portuguese arrived and that the destroyed tooth was a replica; the temple’s relic is presented as continuous from the 4th-century arrival.)
The current temple complex was built and expanded over the 17th and 18th centuries. The innermost shrine, the Vadahitina Maligawa, houses the golden casket containing the relic; the casket is nested inside six progressively larger caskets, only the outermost of which is publicly displayed during puja ceremonies. Three puja ceremonies — Thevava — occur daily at 05:30, 09:30, and 18:30, marked by the sound of traditional drums (udakkiya, davula, and tammettama) and the blowing of conch shells. Visitors are welcome at puja outside the ceremony’s most sacred moments, and the queue to view the relic chamber is managed by temple staff.
The annual Esala Perahera, held over ten nights in July or August, is among the largest Buddhist processions in the world. Dozens of elephants, elaborately dressed in gold and jewelled cloth, process through the streets of Kandy each night; Kandyan dancers, fire-jugglers, and standard-bearers accompany the procession. The golden casket — not the tooth itself, which does not leave the inner shrine — is carried on the back of the Maligawa Tusker, a ceremonially significant elephant. Total attendance across the ten nights runs into hundreds of thousands. Hotels and guesthouses in Kandy fill many months in advance for the Perahera period.
Central Highlands and Sinharaja Forest Reserve 20 km and 80 km south and southwest respectively
The Central Highlands of Sri Lanka received UNESCO inscription as a serial World Heritage Site in 2010, covering three separate high-elevation zones: the Peak Wilderness Protected Area (containing Sri Pada / Adam’s Peak, 2,243 metres), the Horton Plains National Park (plateau at 2,100 metres), and the Knuckles Conservation Forest. The first two are accessible from Kandy within a day’s travel.
Horton Plains, approximately 50 kilometres south of Kandy via Nuwara Eliya, is a montane grassland plateau at 2,100 metres supporting endemic flora that includes a Rhododendron species found nowhere else in the world, as well as the purple-faced langur, sambar deer, and leopard. The site’s signature viewpoint, World’s End, is an abrupt escarpment where the plateau drops 880 metres in an almost vertical cliff face, with views extending to the southern coastal plain on clear mornings. Cloud typically obscures the view by mid-morning; the standard advice is to begin the 9-kilometre circular walk from the park entrance before 07:00 to reach World’s End before cloud cover builds. Baker’s Falls, a 20-metre cascade fed by the Belihul Oya river, is a secondary feature on the same circuit.
Sri Pada — Adam’s Peak — rises to 2,243 metres and supports one of the most well-documented pilgrimage routes in Asia. A footprint depression at the summit, approximately 1.8 metres long, is venerated as the footprint of the Buddha by Buddhists, of Adam by Muslims, and of Shiva by Hindus — an unusual instance of a single geological feature carrying sacred significance across three traditions simultaneously. The pilgrimage season runs from December to May, when the ascent is made via a staircase of approximately 5,500 steps; the climb takes three to five hours from the base at Dalhousie. The sunrise from the summit is sufficiently famous that pilgrims regularly begin the night ascent by torchlight to be in position before dawn.
Sinharaja Forest Reserve, 80 kilometres southwest of Kandy (approximately two and a half hours by road), received UNESCO status in 1988. It is the last substantial block of tropical lowland rainforest in Sri Lanka, covering approximately 88 square kilometres. The reserve supports 60 percent of Sri Lanka’s endemic tree species, and its biodiversity includes 21 of Sri Lanka’s 26 endemic bird species — making it one of the most productive birdwatching sites in South Asia. The purple-faced langur, the Sri Lankan leopard, and the endemic Sri Lanka spotted chevrotain are present, though the leopard is rarely observed. Trails are accessible with a guide from the village of Kudawa on the northern perimeter; the guides are community-managed and trail access fees apply.
Anuradhapura, the first capital of Sri Lanka from 380 BCE to 1017 CE, lies approximately 190 kilometres north of Kandy on the A9 highway (three to four hours by road). It contains ten UNESCO-protected monuments, including the 103-metre-diameter Ruwanwelisaya Stupa and the Sri Maha Bodhi — the oldest historically documented tree in the world, planted in 288 BCE from a cutting of the original Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya.
Practical information
Kandy is accessible year-round, though the city and its surrounding highland zone are drier and most comfortable from January to April. The hill country receives rain from two monsoon systems: the southwest monsoon (May–September) delivers rain to the western slopes, and the northeast monsoon (October–January) brings rain to the eastern side. Kandy town itself, positioned in a valley, is sheltered from the worst of both, but expect afternoon showers from May through November. Average temperatures in Kandy range from 20 to 30°C, cooler than the coastal lowlands.
The Colombo–Kandy rail journey on the Main Line takes approximately two and a half to three hours and is widely regarded as one of the most scenic rail routes in Asia, ascending through rubber and tea estates via a series of switchbacks. The Kandy railway station is a ten-minute walk from the Temple of the Tooth. By road, Kandy is approximately 116 kilometres from Colombo; the journey on the A1 highway typically takes two and a half to three hours depending on traffic through the Kadugannawa pass. Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) at Colombo is the international gateway for most visitors; taxis and private transfers to Kandy from the airport cost approximately USD 40–60 and take two to three hours.
Sri Lanka requires an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) for most nationalities, available online at USD 20 for a 30-day single-entry permit. SAARC nationals receive a free visa on arrival. The local currency is the Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR); ATMs are widely available in Kandy city centre. Kandy’s tourist infrastructure is well-developed, with accommodation from budget guesthouses to colonial-era hotels within walking distance of the lake and temple. Dress code at the Dalada Maligawa requires covered shoulders and knees; sarongs are available for loan or hire at the entrance.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is in the Temple of the Tooth, and can visitors see the actual relic?
The Dalada Maligawa houses a golden casket said to contain the left canine tooth of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha. The relic is stored within a series of seven progressively smaller caskets nested inside each other, each more ornate than the last. The outermost casket — a large golden vessel decorated with jewels and the insignia of successive donors including Kandyan kings — is placed in a display position during the daily puja ceremonies and is visible to worshippers and visitors from the railing of the upper shrine chamber, though at a distance. The innermost caskets, and the tooth itself, are not publicly displayed under ordinary circumstances. The last recorded public display of the actual tooth relic occurred in 1961, when it was shown briefly to mark a significant occasion; photographs from that event are displayed in the temple museum. The relic was stolen from the temple in a Tamil separatist bombing attack in 1998 — the bomb destroyed part of the outer temple structure — though temple authorities maintain that the relic itself was undamaged in the inner sanctum. Visitors queue to pass through the upper shrine chamber during and immediately after puja, when the golden casket is on display. The puja ceremony itself lasts approximately 30 to 45 minutes and involves drumming, the blowing of conch shells, and the offering of flowers, all carried out by hereditary temple officials whose families have held these roles for generations.
Why was the Kandyan Kingdom the last to fall to British rule, and how was it finally captured?
The Kandyan Kingdom survived Portuguese rule of the coastal lowlands (1505–1658), Dutch rule (1658–1796), and the first phase of British administration (from 1796) for an unusually long time because of geography: the central highlands form a natural fortress, with narrow passes and forested ridges that neutralised the military advantages of European firearms and made sustained logistics nearly impossible. Three major British expeditions between 1803 and 1815 failed to hold Kandy. The 1803 expedition resulted in the near-total destruction of a British garrison left in the city; the survivors were executed, an outcome that became a significant grievance in British military culture. The 1815 success came from a different direction: internal political fracture within the Kandyan court. King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, who had come to power in 1798, was a member of the Nayakkar dynasty from South India rather than a Sinhalese king, which had already eroded his legitimacy with the Kandyan nobility. His increasingly authoritarian rule — including executions of nobles and restrictions on the traditional privileges of the Kandyan aristocracy — drove the chiefs to approach the British and negotiate a transfer of sovereignty in exchange for protection of Buddhist institutions and preservation of noble rights. The Kandyan Convention of 2 March 1815 was signed by the British representative John D’Oyly and the assembled Kandyan chiefs; the king was captured without battle and exiled to Vellore, India, where he died in 1832. The British subsequently found the Convention’s commitments, particularly regarding Buddhist privileges, politically inconvenient, and the Uva–Wellassa uprising of 1817–1818 — suppressed with considerable violence — was in part a response to British failure to honour the Convention’s terms.
What is the Esala Perahera and when is the best time to attend?
The Esala Perahera is a ten-night Buddhist procession held annually in Kandy in the month of Esala (July–August in the Gregorian calendar), culminating on the Nikini poya (full moon). It is one of the largest Buddhist festivals in the world and one of the oldest continuously held festivals in Asia; records of its celebration in Kandy date to the 17th century, and antecedents in Anuradhapura extend the tradition much further back. The procession grows in scale over the ten nights, reaching its largest form on the Randoli Perahera, the final four nights, when dozens of ceremonially dressed elephants process through the city. The Maligawa Tusker — the temple’s principal ceremonially significant elephant — carries a golden casket that symbolically represents the tooth relic, flanked by attendants carrying traditional fly-whisks and fanbearers. Kandyan dancers (up and Kandyan drum corps, fire-jugglers, acrobats, and standard bearers accompany the procession over a route through central Kandy lasting approximately three hours each night. Seating along the route is available in paid grandstands erected for the event; standing positions on the pavement are free but extremely crowded. The final night, the Maha Randoli Perahera, is the largest, and tickets for grandstand seating sell out many weeks in advance. Kandy accommodation is booked months ahead for the Perahera period, and prices rise significantly; visitors intending to attend should plan well in advance or consider day-tripping from Colombo, though the return journey after the procession ends — around midnight — requires private transport as trains and buses fill rapidly.
