Discover Kandy
The last royal capital of Sri Lanka holds its heritage, its forest and its festivals within a single valley. Here is what to see, and how to understand it.
Attractions
Twelve places that between them explain the city: sacred, royal, colonial and wild.
Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic
The spiritual heart of the city and a UNESCO World Heritage site, where the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha has been enshrined since the sixteenth century. Daily thevava ceremonies are announced by drums.
Kiri Muhuda, the Sea of Milk
Commissioned by the last king of Kandy in 1807, the lake sits at the centre of the city behind its distinctive walled parapet. The lakeside walk is at its best in the hour after sunrise.
147 acres of collections
Once a royal pleasure garden, now home to an avenue of royal palms, a celebrated orchid house and a giant Javan fig that shades half a lawn. Allow half a day.
The white Buddha above the city
A hilltop statue visible from almost everywhere in Kandy, reached by a steep road or a stepped path. The terrace gives the widest single view of the lake, the temple and the surrounding ridges.
The royal forest park
A protected sanctuary immediately behind the temple, once reserved for the Kandyan court. Shaded trails pass giant lianas, a small pond and enough birdlife to keep a morning busy.
Produce, spice and everyday trade
Two floors of fruit, vegetables, spices and dry goods around a central courtyard. The upper balcony is the place to buy cinnamon and cardamom from traders who grade it themselves.
Nineteenth-century Kandy
The streets around the old Kachcheri hold the city's colonial layer, from the clock tower to shuttered trading houses and the arcaded frontages along Dalada Veediya.
The last royal palace complex
Housed in the former queens' quarters, the collection covers the Kandyan kingdom's regalia, weaponry, textiles and the 1815 convention that ended its independence.
Department of Archaeology
A compact gallery of stone carving, moonstones and architectural fragments recovered from sites across the district, with plans of the old palace precinct.
In a restored 1925 factory
Original rolling and drying machinery on the lower floors, a tea library above, and a top-floor tasting room with a long view across the Hantana range.
Seven ridges above the tea
A half-day ridge walk that starts in tea and climbs into grassland, with the Knuckles massif on the horizon on a clear morning. Guided walks leave from the tea museum.
Sri Lanka's longest river
A level riverside stretch below Getambe where the Mahaweli runs wide and slow, used by bathers at dawn and by kingfishers for the rest of the day.
Heritage
Kandy's core is a UNESCO World Heritage site, laid out around the relic, the lake and the palace precinct.
Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic
The spiritual heart of the city and a UNESCO World Heritage site, where the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha has been enshrined since the sixteenth century. Daily thevava ceremonies are announced by drums.
Kiri Muhuda, the Sea of Milk
Commissioned by the last king of Kandy in 1807, the lake sits at the centre of the city behind its distinctive walled parapet. The lakeside walk is at its best in the hour after sunrise.
Produce, spice and everyday trade
Two floors of fruit, vegetables, spices and dry goods around a central courtyard. The upper balcony is the place to buy cinnamon and cardamom from traders who grade it themselves.
Nineteenth-century Kandy
The streets around the old Kachcheri hold the city's colonial layer, from the clock tower to shuttered trading houses and the arcaded frontages along Dalada Veediya.
Nature
Protected forest begins a few hundred metres from the temple, and the tea country starts where the suburbs end.
147 acres of collections
Once a royal pleasure garden, now home to an avenue of royal palms, a celebrated orchid house and a giant Javan fig that shades half a lawn. Allow half a day.
The royal forest park
A protected sanctuary immediately behind the temple, once reserved for the Kandyan court. Shaded trails pass giant lianas, a small pond and enough birdlife to keep a morning busy.
Sri Lanka's longest river
A level riverside stretch below Getambe where the Mahaweli runs wide and slow, used by bathers at dawn and by kingfishers for the rest of the day.
Museums
The regalia of the Kandyan kingdom, the stone record of the district, and a century of Ceylon tea.
The last royal palace complex
Housed in the former queens' quarters, the collection covers the Kandyan kingdom's regalia, weaponry, textiles and the 1815 convention that ended its independence.
Department of Archaeology
A compact gallery of stone carving, moonstones and architectural fragments recovered from sites across the district, with plans of the old palace precinct.
In a restored 1925 factory
Original rolling and drying machinery on the lower floors, a tea library above, and a top-floor tasting room with a long view across the Hantana range.
Viewpoints
Two climbs give the city its scale: one paved and quick, one a half day through tea.
The white Buddha above the city
A hilltop statue visible from almost everywhere in Kandy, reached by a steep road or a stepped path. The terrace gives the widest single view of the lake, the temple and the surrounding ridges.
Seven ridges above the tea
A half-day ridge walk that starts in tea and climbs into grassland, with the Knuckles massif on the horizon on a clear morning. Guided walks leave from the tea museum.
Experiences
Walks, tastings and early starts that put you inside the working life of the hill country.
Nature
Walk the plucking fields with an estate guide, follow the leaf through withering and rolling, then taste the day's grades side by side in the factory tasting room.
Half day · 06:30 - 11:00
Food
Start at the municipal market's spice balcony, learn to tell true cinnamon from cassia, then cook a rice and curry lunch with what you have bought.
4 hours · Morning, market closed Sundays
Nature
Leave in the dark, climb through tea, and reach the first ridge as the mist lifts off the valley. Clear mornings give a line of sight to the Knuckles range.
4 hours · 05:00 start, December to March
Heritage
A guided circuit of the lake taking in the walled parapet, the royal bathhouse, the old palace precinct and the colonial frontages along Dalada Veediya.
2 hours · 07:00 or 16:30
Culture
The udarata tradition is not staged for visitors. It belongs to the temple calendar, and you are welcome to witness it.
Culture
The ves natuma and the geta bera drum are the signature of the hill country. Evening performances at the cultural centre run through the full cycle of dances and end with a fire walk.
Culture
Three times a day the inner chamber of the Sri Dalada Maligawa opens to the sound of drums and horanewa. Dress in white, cover shoulders and knees, and arrive twenty minutes early.
Craft
The carving villages east of Kandy still cut the lotus, liya vela and mythical beast motifs that decorate temple timber. Workshops take two hours and you keep what you carve.
Craft
Wax, dye, boil, repeat. Kandy's batik studios build up their patterns in as many as six passes, and most will let you take a small panel through the whole sequence.