sri-lanka-13-full-pdf-ebook.pdf

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the ticket office. An elevator facilitates access
for travellers with disabilities.
The shrine receives many worshippers and
tourists, with fewer tourists in the morning.
Wear clothes that cover your legs and your
shoulders, and remove your shoes.

oCeylon Tea Museum mUSEUm
(map p 159 ; %070 280 3204; http://www.ceylontea
museum.com; Hantane; adult/child Rs 500/200;
h8.30am-4.30pm Tue-Sun) An essential stop
on any Sri Lankan tea tour, this museum
occupies the 1925-vintage Hantane Tea Fac-
tory, 4km south of Kandy on the Hantane
road. Abandoned for more than a decade, it
was refurbished by the Sri Lanka Tea Board
and the Planters’ Association of Sri Lanka.
There are exhibits on tea pioneers James
Taylor and Thomas Lipton, and lots of
vintage tea-processing paraphernalia.
Knowledgeable guides are available and
there’s a free cuppa afterwards in the top-
floor tearoom.

National Museum mUSEUm
(map p 146 ; %222 3867; adult/child Rs 500/300,
camera/video camera Rs 250/1500; h9am-5pm
Tue-Sat) This museum once housed Kandyan
royal concubines and now features royal
regalia and reminders of pre-European

Sinhalese life. There are some interesting ob-

jects housed here and it could be a very inter-

esting museum, but it’s sadly let down by very

poor lighting, labelling and general layout.

One of the displays is a copy of the 1815

agreement that handed over the Kandyan

provinces to British rule. This document an-

nounces a major reason for the event.

...the cruelties and oppressions of the

Malabar ruler, in the arbitrary and un-

just infliction of bodily tortures and

pains of death without trial, and some-

times without accusation or the pos-

sibility of a crime, and in the general

contempt and contravention of all civil

rights, have become flagrant, enormous

and intolerable.

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 tall-pillared audience hall hosted the

convention of Kandyan chiefs that ceded the

kingdom to Britain in 1815.

The museum, along with four devales

(complexes for worshipping deities) and

two monasteries – but not the Temple of the

KANDY ESALA PERAHERA

This perahera (procession) is held in Kandy to honour the sacred tooth enshrined in the

Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Sri Dalada Maligawa). It runs for 10 days in the month

of Esala (July/August), ending on the Nikini poya (full moon). Kandy’s biggest night of

the year comes after these 10 days of increasingly frenetic activity. A decline in elephant

numbers has seen the scale of the festival diminish in recent years – in earlier times more

than 100 elephants took part – but it is still one of Asia’s most fascinating celebrations.

The first six nights are relatively low-key. On the seventh night, proceedings escalate

as the route lengthens and the procession becomes more splendid (and accommodation

prices increase accordingly).

The procession is actually a combination of five separate peraheras. Four come from

the four Kandy devales (complexes for worshipping Hindu or Sri Lankan deities, who are

also devotees and servants of the Buddha): Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama and Pattini. The

fifth and most splendid perahera is from the Sri Dalada Maligawa itself.

The procession is led by thousands of Kandyan dancers and drummers beating

drums, cracking whips and waving colourful banners. Then come long processions of

up to 50 elephants. The Maligawa tusker is decorated from trunk to toe. On the last two

nights of the perahera it carries a huge canopy sheltering the empty casket of the sacred

relic cask. A trail of pristine white linen is laid before the elephant.

The Kandy Esala Perahera is Sri Lanka’s most magnificent annual spectacle. It’s been

celebrated annually for many centuries and is described by Robert Knox in his 1681 book

An Historical Relation of Ceylon. There is also a smaller procession on the poya day in

June, and special peraheras may be put on for important occasions.

It’s essential to book roadside seats for the main perahera at least a week in advance.

Prices range from Rs 5000 to 7000. Once the festival starts, seats about halfway back in

the stands are more affordable.