Ancient World Tours and Travels

Sri Lanka’s picturesque highland capital, 115 km from Colombo, a

World Heritage Site, is set amid tea and spice gardens, mountains, lakes and Rivers, 490 meters above sea level. It was also the last stronghold of
Sri Lanka’s king against a series of conquests by the Portuguese, Dutch and the British. The last king Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe was taken captive to Goa, India in 1815 by the British. Kandy’s suburbs have a host of temples with a fascinating medieval ambience and fine examples of period architecture, sculpture, inscriptions and painting. It is also a major spice-growing district. A visit to a spice garden en-route to see clove, cardamom, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon and pepper being grown and processed should not be missed.

DALADA MALIGAWA

Kandy’s main attraction is the Temple of the sacred Tooth Rrelic of the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. Brought to Sri Lanka in the 4th century AD, the sacred Relic has ever since been the symbol of sovereignty for its rulers and have always been enshrined in great splendour. The Dalada Maligawa is a magnificent shrine, with decorative walls, moat, turrets, golden roof and fine wood-work.

The Esala Perahera, Asia’s most spectacular pageant.

Kandy is the venue of the annual Easala Perahera, a glittering medieval Buddhist pageant and one of Asia’s most spectacular festivals, held to honour the sacred Tooth relic of the Buddha. It is held for ten nights by torch and moon light in July-August in the streets in Kandy. This spectacular period-pageant is a parade of massed highland dancers, drummers, musicians, chieftains, dignitaries and acrobats in medieval costumes and scores of caparisoned elephants.

THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS

Six kilometers from Kandy, at Peradeniya, the magnificent river-girdled 57-hectare Royal Botanic Gardens, laid out in 1832, are among the finest in the world. Its treasures of tropical flora include fine collections of orchids, aromatic spices, medicinal herbs, palms and rare endangered plant species.