Kandy is a major city in Sri Lanka located in the central province. Kandy is my favorite place to live. The city is located in between multiple mountain ranges including Knuckles mountain range and the Hanthana Mountain Range and has a  soothing climate due to its location in the centre of the island and the high elevation which gives the area a cooler and wetter temperature than the climate of the rest of the country. Kandy is both an administrative and religious city and is also the capital of the Central Province. The city was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1988.

I grew up in Gampola town  which belongs to Kandy district and It is  about 20km away from Kandy city. I went to Swarnamali Girls’ School that is situated in Kandy city, so I have so many good memories of this beloved city. Because of the beautiful environment in the City, Kandy  is identified as the city of romance  by most Sri Lankans.  People who live in and around this city would not like to leave. I am also one of them but I had to move to Western province of Sri Lanka because my husband works in Colombo.  

There are so many places that you can visit if you come to Kandy. Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic or “Sri Dalada Maligawa” is the number one of them. It is a buddhist temple and located in the royal palace complex of the former kingdom of Kandy and the relic of the tooth of the Lord Buddha is rested there. It is  one of the most sacred places of worship in the Buddhist world.  The relic has played an important role in local politics since ancient times  because  it is believed that whoever has the relic holds the governance of the country. 

There are two chapters of monks  as  “Malwatu” &  “Asgiri” and they conduct daily worship in the inner chamber of the temple. Rituals are performing three times daily, at dawn, at noon and in the evening. Many devotees visit Sri Dalada maligawa for blessing. 

There are two gateways known as “Nawa Wahalkada” and “Maha Wahalkada” to enter the palace complex.  “Wahalkada” is a name that is used to call a gateway or entrance to a special area or premises.  “Nawa Wahalkada” (new gateway) is the entrance just in the front of the famous “Queen’s Hotel”. These gateways had been constructed in recent times. This had been constructed in accordance with the Up country architectural features.   

The historic Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy was first built by King Wimaladharmasooriya I (1592-1604) and it was destroyed by the Portuguese invaders. It is discovered by a floor plan of the palace complex that the new Buddha shrine has been rebuilt on its ruins. 

Paththirippuwa / Octagon was built in 1802 AD on the instructions of the king Sriwickrama Rajasinghe who was the last king of Nayakkar lineage.  Paththirippuawa / Octagon had been considered as the symbol of Kandyan Architecture.  Due to the bomb blast by the  LTTE terrorist  attack on 25th of January 1998 AD, Paththirippuawa was damaged. It is a  great pleasure that  the reconstruction  work did not obstruct the strength of the ancient building. 

If you visited Sri Dalada Maligawa, you could see the moat / Diya agala, the tunnel / Ambarawa, Wada sitina maligawa, Hewisi mandapaya etc. For more details you can go to the official website of Sri Dalada Maligawa.