About Sri Lanka - Kandy

World famous Kandy the name of hill capital in Sri Lanka is a strong hold of the Sri Lankan kings, a place for culture and a religious centre. It is the most beautiful town among the cold hill and is above 510 metres in the sea level. Kandy which has a current population of 110,049 citizens, was found in 14th century by the Sri Lankan ancients.

No wonder the focal point of Kandy is the famous "Dalada Maligawa", a place where the sacred tooth relic of Buddha is enshrined. This is a famous World Heritage Site declared by the UNESCO. The rare paintings with vegetable colours, visualize the sinhala culture very well. The frescoes, marvelous wood carrying gives a splendid view to the palace, which was firstly built in 1592 AD. Seeing the palace and the rituals to the sacred tooth relic gives you a unforgettable memory to the life time. Ritual of Dana(food) Offering sound of drums, and offering flowers gives a little wet to your eye if you have seen them in real.

Once a year in August you can see the Kandy Esala Perehara, the most beautiful procession in the country which is world famous. Here you can see the replica of the relic casket on the elephant is paraded on the street in the night with it's full splendid view. This caparisoned elephant who belongs to the palace gives you an unbelievable sight to your eyes. With glittering ornament and the majestic walk with two other elephants beside makes the picture unbelievable to the foreign eye. Most wonderful thing here is 80-100 caparisoned elephants accompanied the procession with the hundreds of dancers visualizing the true Sri Lankan culture unique to Sri Lanka. This is the only procession in the world gathering this much of elephants.

You must not miss to see the artificial lake in the centre of Kandy which was built in 1806. It gives a splendid view to the ancient splendor. The Royal Botanical garden which is also situated in Kandy begun as a pleasure garden of the Sinhala kings extend up to 57 hectares. Here you can see plants and trees both tropical and indigenous provides you amazing variety of tress plants, flowers and a treasure to a botanist. Walking among the big shady trees, hearing the noises of the birds, feeling chilly climates of the hills gives you a homely image of Sri Lanka and a bit of tropical rain forest. You will never forget the feeling among the trees and beautiful flowers.

For dedicated shoppers, Kandy is a heaven. You can buy quality and valuable furniture, wood carvings, and silver, brass, ebony, bronze carvings. Handlooms, batiks and world famous Sri Lankan jewelry are the eye catching shopping to a visitor.