Kandy
The kingdom that never surrendered
Kandy is a city in Sri Lanka's central highlands and the seat of the island's last independent kingdom, which held out against European powers until 1815. It centres on the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, which houses a tooth relic of the Buddha, and was inscribed by UNESCO in 1988.
The account
Kandy held out. Portuguese, Dutch and finally British forces took the coast comfortably and then spent nearly three centuries failing to hold the interior, defeated less by armies than by the terrain and the fevers that came with it. The kingdom fell in 1815, and even then by treaty and internal defection rather than by assault.
That long independence is why Kandy feels different from the coastal cities. The architecture, the dance, the drumming, the crafts — this is where the older forms survived European contact with the fewest edges knocked off them.
The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic sits at the centre of it, beside the lake. The relic is not displayed; it rests in a series of nested caskets within an inner chamber, and what pilgrims queue for is the opening of the chamber doors during the daily puja, three times a day, announced by drums and horns. You are in the presence of a closed golden casket. It is, for most people, more affecting than seeing the thing itself would be.
Possession of the relic was for centuries understood to confer the right to rule the island. That is the reason the temple sits inside the royal palace complex rather than apart from it, and the reason the Esala Perahera each July or August — a procession of caparisoned elephants, dancers, whip-crackers and fire — is a matter of state as much as of religion.
In brief
- Kingdom fell
- 1815, by the Kandyan Convention
- UNESCO inscription
- 1988
- Temple pujas
- three daily — dawn, midday, evening
- Esala Perahera
- July or August, ten nights
- Altitude
- approximately 500 metres
- Region
- Kandy, Central Province
- Coordinates
- 7.2906, 80.6337
Questions about Kandy
What is the Temple of the Tooth?
- The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy houses what Buddhists venerate as a tooth of the Buddha. The relic is never displayed — it rests inside nested caskets in an inner chamber, whose doors are opened during three daily pujas. Historically, holding the relic legitimised rule over the island.
When is the Kandy Esala Perahera?
- The Esala Perahera runs for ten nights in July or August, with the exact dates set by the lunar calendar and announced each year. The processions build in scale nightly, and the final two nights are the largest. Accommodation in Kandy books out months ahead.
How far is Kandy from Colombo?
- Kandy is about 115 kilometres from Colombo. By road it takes three to four hours depending on traffic. The train takes around three hours and is the better option — it is the first leg of the hill-country line, and the climb into the highlands begins before you arrive.
