Kandy lies in a natural bowl of wooded hills at the heart of Sri Lanka, about 500 metres above sea level and a world away from the coastal heat. For more than two centuries it was the seat of the last independent Sinhalese kingdom, holding out against the Portuguese and Dutch before finally falling to the British in 1815. That royal past, together with the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic on the lakeshore, earned the old core its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Sacred City of Kandy. Today it is the island’s cultural capital and its most important centre of Buddhist worship, a place of temples, drumming and pilgrimage that still feels bound to its history.
Two nights let you take in the sacred sites, walk the lake and see a performance of Kandyan dancing, with time the next morning for the botanical gardens. Kandy also makes a natural pivot point on any tour: it is the meeting place of the cultural triangle to the north and the tea country to the south, and the starting point of the celebrated hill-country train. Our Sri Lanka travel guides have more on planning a route through the interior.
The highlights at a glance. The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is the centrepiece and the reason most visitors come. Beside it, artificial Kandy Lake, dug in 1807 by Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, the last king of Kandy, makes for an easy, shaded circuit. The Esala Perahera is the great annual spectacle, while the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya and an evening of Kandyan dancing round out a stay. From Kandy the scenic train winds south towards Ella through the tea hills.
The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic
Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, enshrines a tooth of the Buddha and is the holiest Buddhist site in the country. Historically, whoever held the relic held the right to rule, which is why it sits at the physical and symbolic centre of the old royal city. The relic itself is never shown, kept within a series of nested gold caskets, but three times daily the chamber is opened for the thevava ritual, when drummers and horn players fill the courtyards and pilgrims file past with lotus flowers. Cover your shoulders and knees and remove your shoes to enter. The complex also holds shrine rooms, an audience hall of the old kings and a museum, and the wider Sacred City around it repays an unhurried walk.
Peradeniya and Kandyan culture
Around 6 kilometres west of town, the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya spread across roughly 60 hectares in a loop of the Mahaweli River. Founded in 1821, they hold some 4,000 species, including a grand avenue of royal palms, an orchid house and vast, buttressed tropical trees, a cool, green half-day out. Back in Kandy, cultural centres stage nightly shows of Kandyan dancing, the region’s athletic, costumed dance form, complete with acrobatics, drumming and a fire-walking finale.
The Esala Perahera
Once a year, over about ten nights in July or August, Kandy stages the Esala Perahera, one of Asia’s most extraordinary religious processions. A replica casket of the Sacred Tooth Relic is paraded through the streets on a richly caparisoned tusker, escorted by scores of elephants, Kandyan dancers, whip-crackers, torch-bearers and fire dancers. The pageantry builds night after night before ending with the dawn water-cutting ceremony, the Diya Kepeema, at the Mahaweli River. It is a magnificent sight, but rooms book out months ahead and prices climb, so plan early if your visit coincides with it.
When to go, and getting around
The hill country is at its driest and clearest from January to April. The Perahera in July or August is a highlight but falls in the wetter, busier season. Central Kandy is compact and walkable, and the lakeside temple, markets and viewpoints are easily covered on foot; tuk-tuks handle the hillier hops and the run out to Peradeniya. Kandy is about three hours by road or train from Colombo, and it connects north to the ancient cities near Sigiriya and south, by the spectacular hill-country line, towards Ella. Browse the full list of destinations to build the rest of your route.
