Buddhist mural in old temple. Kandy, Sri Lanka; Shutterstock ID 383777581; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; GL account no.: 56530; Netsuite department name: Online Design; Full Product or Project name including edition: Digital Content/Sights

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National Museum

Kandy

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This museum once housed Kandyan royal concubines and now features royal regalia and reminders of pre-European Sinhalese life. One of the most impressive exhibits is Rajasinha II's golden crown, but for visitors the museum is let down by poor lighting, labelling and general layout. The tall-pillared audience hall hosted the convention of Kandyan chiefs that ceded the kingdom to Britain in 1815.

One of the displays is a copy of the 1815 agreement that handed over the Kandyan provinces to British rule. This document announces a major reason for the event: '…the cruelties and oppressions of the Malabar ruler'.

Sri Wickrama Rajasinha was declared ‘by the habitual violation of the chief and most sacred duties of a sovereign’, to be ‘fallen and deposed from office of king’ and ‘dominion of the Kandyan provinces’ was ‘vested in…the British Empire’.

The museum, along with four devales (complexes for worshipping deities) and two monasteries – but not the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic itself – make up one of Sri Lanka’s cultural triangle sites.

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Nearby Kandy attractions

1. World Buddhism Museum

0.03 MILES

Housed inside the former High Court buildings, the World Buddhism Museum contains lots of photographs, models and displays illustrating Buddhism around…

2. Kandy Garrison Cemetery

0.03 MILES

This well-maintained cemetery contains 163 graves from colonial times. Perhaps the most striking aspect of a visit here is learning just how young most…

3. Rajah Tusker Hall

0.04 MILES

Adjacent to the Audience Hall, the Rajah Tusker Hall displays the stuffed remains of Rajah, the famous Maligawa elephant who died in 1988. Rajah was the…

4. Audience Hall

0.05 MILES

To the north of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, but still within the compound, is the 19th-century Audience Hall, an open-air pavilion with stone…

5. Sri Dalada Museum

0.06 MILES

This museum occupies the upper two floors of the Alut Maligawa building and contains a stunning array of gifts donated by several presidents and Buddhist…

6. Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic

0.06 MILES

The golden-roofed Temple of the Sacred Tooth houses Sri Lanka’s most important Buddhist relic – a tooth of the Buddha. During puja…

7. Alut Maligawa

0.06 MILES

The three-storey Alut Maligawa is a large shrine hall displaying dozens of sitting Buddhas donated by devotees from Thailand. Its design resembles a Thai…

8. Natha Devale

0.14 MILES

The 14th-century Natha Devale is the oldest of Kandy's devales. It perches on a stone terrace with a fine vahalkada (solid panel of sculpture) gateway…

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