Caparisoned elephants, heritage sites, symphony and cacophony of religious carnivals, tourist spots, get way destinations, long drives and museums beckon you if you are planning to travel to the great Kandy Kingdom in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Aditya Bee leads the reader through the wonders of Kandy, a land of myths and mirth.
The teardrop shaped emerald island of Sri Lanka is a beautiful destination with sunny beaches, surfing, diving and whale watching, national parks teeming with flora and fauna, ancient cities and temples, tea estates and culture and cuisine that will leave you asking for more!
One of my favourite places to visit in Sri Lanka is the sacred city of Kandy, established in 1353, by King Wickrama Bahu III as Senkadalapura. It remained the capital of the Kingdom of Kandy till the British took over in 1856.
Kandy is the site of the world famous Sri Dalada Maligawa, more popularly known as The Temple of the Tooth. It was built over almost a century from 1687 to 1782, with successive Kandyan kings adding buildings to the royal palace and the temple itself.
The temple is where the annual eleven day long Esala Perahera is held. A time when all of Kandy dissolves into a frenzy of colour, motion and music, caparisoned elephants, dancers and firecrackers mark this, the most famous of Sri Lankan festivals, each day the casket containing the Replica of the Buddha’s tooth relic is taken out in a procession. As the five Devales (seats of the deities that reside in Kandy) take turns to lead the procession, which finally culminates on the Poya (full moon day) with the water cutting ceremony on the Mahaweli Ganga river outside Kandy city.
Apart from the eleven days of cacophony and whirlwind of noise and colour that mark the Perahera, Kandy is surprisingly laid back and peaceful, gentle traffic circulates through the city and a meter gauge train line snakes it’s way west towards Colombo, north to Matale and all the way to the southern coast.
Kandy is home to over 125,000 and is Sri Lanka’s second largest city. Apart from a Buddhist pilgrimage centre, it is the capital of the Central Province and was declared a UNESCO world heritage city in 1986. The city is laid around the placid waters of the Kandy Lake created by royal order by King Wickrama Singhe in 1807. It teems with fattened and sluggish fish, secure in the knowledge that they cannot be fished. During a leisurely walk around the lake, on its banks you will get to meet ducks, egrets, cormorants and aquatic monitor lizards sun bathing languorously, a pair of rather weathered pelicans and even the odd jungle rooster!
The lake has many a story that belies its peaceful appearance, King Wickrama Singhe faced resistance in the creation of his project and impaled a hundred of those that disagreed with his plans on the lakebed. The small island in the middle of the lake is said to have housed the king’s harem, thereafter the British utilized it as a munitions store. Today visitors to lovely Kandy town with its colonial buildings, colourful markets and its picturesque lake need not fear impalement, though you may be gently goaded to view the Kandyan dance performances by itinerant touts who will sidle upto you!
The lake’s northwestern edge features a white wall that was added on by the British after they forced the Kandyan kingdom to secede in 1815. This established British rule in Ceylon and brought to an end the kingdom that defied Dutch and Portuguese invaders for over three centuries. The road to Colombo took another eleven years to build and the railway, and most of the colonial buildings that continue to stand strong today quickly followed. Amongst these, are the lovely Queen’s hotel and the now restored exquisitely Royal Bar and Hotel, my favourite place for a quite pint or two, or if you are upto it, some smooth Old Arrack. There’s a lot of accommodation available in all categories with the pricier resorts being located a distance from the hustle and bustle of the town centre on the banks of the Mahaweli Ganga river.
I highly recommend the simple digs of the Olde Empire Hotel which overlooks the lake and the entrance to the tooth temple. This small hotel built as a coffee traders offices in 1857 offers various types of rooms with colonial era furniture, hat stands, planter’s chairs and wooden floors and a balcony that offers you a pleasant view of flower sellers, the temple, the lake and the Queen’s that lies just across the road.
The temple of the tooth also has the stuffed remains of ‘Raja’ the temple’s most famous tusker who died in 1988. The temple was repeatedly bombed during the 25 year civil war, with the most severe attack in 1998 that killed scores of devotees and destroyed the facade and ingress of the main building. All this has since been restored and the royal palace and the queens bathhouse that till recently was a police station are accessible to visitors.
A must visit is the Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya, already well established by the Kandyan kings, it was further enhanced and commercial plants from all over Sri Lanka collected and grown in its conservatories and shady walkways. Nearby are also the University of Peradeniya and the Trandsort museum, a small collection of toad building equipment used by the British to cut through the jungle and Rovk to create a link between Kandy and Colombo which lay 72 miles southwest.
Another interesting excursion is to the Pinnewala Elephant Sanctuary on the road to Colombo and visits to the Garrison Cemetery and Tea Museum within Kandy city.
Kandy serves as a launch point southward for expeditions to the hill station and tea estates of Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Hatton, the sacred Adam’s peak, with the footprint of the Buddha. Or to Horton Plains and the World’s end with its sheer drop of over a 1000 ft. With it’s amazing views, if you are lucky to go up there on a clear day, otherwise all you will end up doing is looking into an impenetrable cloud! The city which is referred to by Sri lankans as Mahanuwara (big city) or just Nuwara (city) and officially known as Kanda Uda Rata, remained a stronghold of Kandyan independence despite vigorous attacks by the Portuguese and Dutch forces during 15th to 17th centuries. It took the guile of the British and the frustration of the local populace against the excesses of King Wickramasinghe to bring to an end a four century long rule with secession to the British who unable to pronounce the complicated name of the city referred it to as Kandy, which has nothing to do with a boiled sugar confection!
Come and discover an appropriately sweet city and a special experience that awaits you in Kandy!
The city is an excellent stopover if you are heading north along the famous A9 to the former ‘Vanni’ that was controlled by the LTTE till the civil war ended in 2010. Going along the A9 for a couple of hours north gets you to the ancient monastery at Dambulla and further along, to the palace of Sigiriya placed as if by magic upon the plug of a long extinct and eroded volcano.
To get to Kandy from India, one can fly into Bandaranaike International Airport from Bangalore, Chennai, Madurai, Mumbai and New Delhi. Take a taxi directly from the airport or spend a day in Colombo and take the meter gauge train which provides scenic travel as you climb from sea level to an altitude of 500 mts. For those looking for a more innovative way to get there, a sea plane service from Colombo will deposit you gently, but with a lot of spray on the Mahaweli Ganga river, a couple of kilo meters out of Kandy.
