A Journey To World Heritage City Kandy

Kandy is the most beautiful city in Sri Lanka, located in up country. When we talk about Kandy, the most important thing is “Dalada maligawa”, the temple of tooth relic of the lord Buddha and the lake "Kandy Lake" adds more beauty to this wonderful city.

Few years ago we went on a journey to Kandy. In fact, it is such a memorable journey. I went there with my family. It is about 110 km away from Colombo. Therefore, we left early in the morning. When we reached Kandy it was around 9.30 in the morning. First, we visited Temple of tooth relic which is called "Dalada Maligawa" in Sinhala. It is the pride of the Kandy city which attracts so many local and foreign tourists.

 The Sacred Tooth Relic Temple In Kandy:

The Tooth Relic of Gautama Buddha was brought to our country by Prince "Dantha" and Princess "Hemamali". Princess was hiding the sacred tooth relic in her hair. This happened during the reign of Sirimeghavanna of Anuradhapura. King enshrined it in Isurumuniya. But with the foreign invasion it was enshrined in number of different kingdoms. Finally, it was brought to Kandy and king "Veera Narendra Sinha" built the present palace.

This palace was attractively built and it is consisted of magnificent wood carvings as well.  Moon stone was built with stone carvings. Palace is consisted with "Palle Malaya" which is lower floor and "Udu Malaya" which is upper floor. Sacred tooth relic is enshrined in a chamber which is decorated with Gold and Ivory. There are nice paintings on walls inside the palace.

 An archaeological museum is also located in the temple premises which have so many things to see such as ancient Buddha statues, coins, swords and precious jewelries. We also visited this museum after worshipping sacred tooth relic. It took about three hours for us to worship and look around the palace and the museum.

Peradeniya Botanical Garden:

After having lunch, we went to Peradeniya Botanical gardens. It is about 10 km away from Kandy city. This garden is located closer to Mahaweli River. Garden has more than 4000 species of plants and flowers. This garden covers a land area of 147 acres. Peradeniya Botanical garden was established in1843.There are different types of avenues such as Palmyra Palm Avenue, Double Coconut Avenue, Cabbage Palm Avenue and Royal Palm Avenue. And also there are many kinds of flowers, Roses, Orchids, Daisy, Lilly to name few. Orchids are planted in a separate glass house.

This garden is suitable for relaxation, it is a nice place to have a walk in the evening and sometimes it is a playground for kids. No matter how old you are you can enjoy visiting this lovely place. Even newly married couples come for their wedding shoots as it provides attractive location for photography. 

There are also valuable herbal plants and other species too. Foreigners love to visit this botanical garden. However, we spent there more than three hours.

 Though I didn’t want to leave this place we had to do so as they close the park at about 5.30 in the evening.

  So, it was the time to bid farewell to people and welcome nocturnal creatures to this magnificent paradise. When the darkness embraces mountains and sparkling stars appear in the sky, it was the time for us to descend the "Kadugannawa" to reach Colombo……

Summary: I wish this small article will give readers some idea about Kandy city and its main tourist attractions Temple of Tooth relic and Peradeniya Botanical Garden.