Sacred City of Kandy 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka

Kandy is located in the central highlands on the Mahaweli River and on the shore of an artificial lake. Lake Kandy, the main body of water in the city of Kandy in central Sri Lanka, is a man-made lake created in 1807 by the last Sinhalese king of Kandy using forced labor. The king used land which was paddy field to create the lake. It stands as an indictment of the excesses of the Kandy monarchy for wasting national resources to build an ornamental lake at a time when the kingdom was under serious threat. When a hundred of his advisors warned King Sriwikrama Rajasinghe against building the lake, he had them impaled on the reservoir section of the paddy field, which he was converting into the ornamental lake. It wasn't long before the British captured him with help from his own noblemen, disgruntled by his irrational policies. The sacred city of Kandy is situated on a plain in the middle of what is called the hill country. Tea plantations and cool hill stations surround it. Kandy's existence dates from the 14th century. Until 1815, it was even the capital of the country, then called Ceylon. Kandy doesn't possess the monumental wealth of the capital of the island, but built in a valley deep in the hills around an artificial lake, the city has much charm. Kandy has a large market as befits a major centre, with shops inside a main building on two levels, as well as street front shops. Sri Lanka's cultural heritage and skilled craftsmanship, passed down through the ages, have had a great influence on local handicrafts. Stalls are piled high with every kind of fruit, vegetable and spices, and there really is a bustling atmosphere. From the 13th or 14th century, Kandy became a centre for both Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism, the religion's two major sects. The most important of its many Buddhist temples is the Temple of the Tooth, which enshrines a sacred relic of the tooth of the Buddha. The precious relic attracts white-clad pilgrims, bearing lotus blossoms and frangipani every day. On the outside, the temple buildings aren't magnificent or elaborately decorated. White with red roofs, they cluster around Lake Kandy. Of the original temple and palace, little remains. The octagonal tower, the moat, the fortifications and the main shrine housing the tooth. Nearly everything else is recent. According to legend, the tooth was taken from the Buddha as he lay on his funeral pyre. It was smuggled to Sri Lanka in 313 AD, hidden in the hair of Princess Hemamali, who fled the Hindu armies besieging her father's kingdom in India. It immediately became an object of great reverence and was enshrined in a series of nested jewellery liqueries. The tooth was brought out for special occasions and paraded on the backs of elephants, which are sacred to the Buddha, where it survived numerous attempts to capture and destroy it. When the capital was moved to Kandy, the tooth was taken to the new city and placed in temples built to honour it. The temple was originally built under Kandy kings, but later severely damaged during the 18th century colonial wars against the Portuguese and Dutch. After the wars, the original wooden structures were restored in stone. In striking contrast to the plain exterior, the interiors of the temple buildings are richly carved and decorated with inlaid wood, ivory and lacquer. The history of the tooth relic prior to its arrival in Sri Lanka in the 9th year of the reign of Kringshi Mekhavana is scant fragmentary and full of fantastic detail. It was passed from one person to another until it ended up in a city that later came to be named after it, Dantapura, Tooth City. For 800 years, the tooth was kept at Dantapura. Orissa and Sri Lanka had close political and cultural ties with each other, and members of the Orissian royal family were sometimes invited to become king of the island when a monarch died without an heir. In 1560, the Portuguese, who were constantly fighting with the Sinhalese for control of the island, triumphantly announced that they'd captured the tooth. They took it to Goa, where a huge public gathering was held, during which Archbishop Don Gaspar, with spiteful glee, desecrated it, burnt it, and then had its ashes thrown into the sea. It was the Sinhalese, however, who had the last laugh. Sri Lankan kings sometimes had replicas of the tooth made, to confuse those who might want to seize it during times of uncertainty. The Portuguese had in fact captured one of these replicas. In 1545, the tooth was brought to Kandy, where it's remained ever since. The door frame and dragon arch above it are similar to those at the entrance to the tunnel, only brightly painted. Four huge elephant tusks are sometimes kept on the porch. Twenty-six pillars with wooden capitals supporting triple corbels, all painted with lions, birds, fantastic beasts and flowers, support the lower roof around the shrine. At the far end of the shrine is the entrance to a museum, housing Buddha images and other gifts offered to the temple over the years. Upstairs is the Sri Dalda Museum, housing an excellent collection of documents, photos and documents relating to the history of the tooth. Daily rituals are carried out at various offering times at the shrine. A dress code applies for entering the temple. Sri Lanka is the oldest continually Buddhist country, Theravada Buddhism being the major religion in the island since its official introduction in the second century BC by The tradition of wood construction in Sri Lanka is seen in the pre- and post-historic periods, especially in association with cave shelters. Timber construction has been used in the front portion with wooden doorways and window openings and wattle and door partitioning. The timber construction tradition has developed and been perfected over 2,000 years. It shows the contribution to culture made by the genius of the ordinary and anonymous carpenters, joiners and woodcarvers during the medieval period. These well-preserved masterpieces of wooden architecture prove that timber is one of the most suitable building materials for Sri Lanka. Degaldorowa Viharaya is located in the village of Amunugama, seven kilometres from Kandy. Alongside the temple is an impressive belfry. The main chamber was created by making a large cavity under a huge granite rock. A path carved of rock leads to a higher terrace where the bow tree and the stupa are located. Degaldorowa Viharaya is a cave temple with Kandyan era paintings and architecture. The arch at the entrance, painted in white, is in sharp contrast with the murals. The rock-cut chamber consists of two roofed antechambers, a drumming hall and an intermediate vestibule. Gadaladaniya, a temple complex atop a rock outcrop, was built during the reign of Bhuvanakabahu IV in 1351 AD. This bizarre shrine is enclosed in a cloister-like stone structure called the gadige, and galmaduwa refers to its stone structure and the pyramid that can be seen at the top, called the gopura. The lower floor is made of stone and the upper ones are of brick and stone. It has intricate stone carvings lining its walls and a beautiful structure. Inside, the ceiling is recognised as one of the best examples of the Kandyan era paintings. This temple was an attempt to combine the features of Sinhalese, Indian, Islamic and Christian architectural styles. The rock-strewn arms of the Mahaweli embrace it, the roads to Teldeniya and Haragama, the backdrop of mountains. The Fatima shrine stands in these surroundings, small, chaste, a veritable Roman candle of a shrine, a church that holds fast to its dogma, prayer, penance, reparation. Sri Lanka is a small tropical island off the southern tip of India. The island is divided ecologically into a dry zone, stretching from the north to the southeast, and a wet zone in the south, west and central regions. This contrast in rainfall, combined with topographical differences, has fostered the development of regional variation in economy and culture. Rice is the main food in Sri Lanka. Around 879,000 farming families are engaged in paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka, that's 20% of the country's population. Of the 20 known species of rice, only two are cultivated, the widely grown Asian rice and the hardier African rice. There are two cultivation seasons, namely Maha and Yala, which are synonymous with two monsoons. The central highlands of the country, with low temperatures throughout the year, annual rainfall and the right level of humidity are more favourable geographical factors for the production of high quality tea. The industry was introduced to the country in 1867 by James Taylor, the British planter. Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka, acclaimed as the best tea in the world, has its inherent unique characteristics and reputation, which have lasted more than a century. Sri Lanka contains no less than seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Six of these sites are testament to the country's rich history of over 2,000 years. This sacred Buddhist site was the last capital of the Sinhala kings, whose patronage enabled the Dinahala culture to flourish for more than 2,500 years, until the occupation of Sri Lanka by the British in 1815.