KANDY, THE CULTURAL CAPITAL OF SRI LANKA-

KANDY, THE CULTURAL  CAPITAL OF SRI LANKA-

          Kandy, the hill capital and a vibrant city of Sri Lanka, is located about 124 kms from Colombo. It is not only a beautiful hill station, but also a cultural heritage with lot of commercial activities. We took input from www.tripadvisor.com and our stay in Mahaweli Reach Hotel (www.mahaweli.com) was itself a pleasant experience.

      Although almost every tourist visiting Sri Lanka visits Kandy but due to existence of Tooth Temple dedicated to Lord Buddha, a lot of devotees from Japan, Korea and South Eastern countries assemble hear. Kandy is a city with temple shrines and monasteries, keeping alive the Buddhist traditions. Ever since Buddha’s tooth was brought to Sri Lanka hidden in Orrisans Princess (Now Odhisa, India) hair, the relic has grown in repute and holiness in Sri Lanka.

        For nature lovers, Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya may be a paradise, which is in itself spread over 147 acres in extent. My tourist guide told me that previously it was a pleasure garden of the kings of Gampola and Kandy and now there are more than 5000 species of trees and plant in this garden.  

         Kandy is also a busy commercial city with a number of hotels, restaurants and shops. During our stay in Kandy we visited gem and jeweller workshop, where the owner showed us the cutting of precious and semi precious stones as well as making of the jewelry according to customised pattern. He also told me that Sri Lanka is specially known for its high grade sapphire. We also took an opportunity to visit a wood and mask factory. Wooden mask with its so many bright colours, were really very impressive.We found our adidas running shoes very helpful while covering hilly tracks of Kandy.

         A visit to the cultural show in Kandy was a memorable event and it helped us to understand the old traditions of Sri Lanka. During our stay in Kandy, we got a brief opportunity to attend a marriage ceremony also. It was a great view to see the performance of drummers and dancers accompanying the marriage procession.We could not resist but to capture the beautiful events in my Fujifilm Fine Pix Digital Camera.

            Some of the photographs of Kandy which I could save in my Compaq Presario Laptop, are as follows.

A VIEW FROM HOTEL WINDOW

A VIEW OF KANDY

MARRIAGE PROCESSION

 MARRIAGE PROCESSION

TOOTH TEMPLE

DRUMMERS SHOWING CULTURAL PERFORMANCE