Up country Kandy & Nuwareliya, Sri Lanka

Kandy Town

Front View of Tooth Relic Temple

Lake view of the Tooth Relic Temple

The city of Kandy lies at an altitude of 488.6 meters (1629 feet) above sea level in the center of the island and surrounded by the ranges of mountains. It is still very much a focal point of Sri Lankan culture. It was the capitol of last generation of Sri Lanka`s kings until it fell in to the hands of British in 1815.Kandy was originally known as Senkadagala pura after a hermit named Senkada who lived there. Many of Sinhalese people call it “Mahanuwara” meaning the "Great City”. But the name Kandy was derived from the Word Kanda, which means mountain. Due to it’s geographical location Kandy was not an easy target for the foreign invaders who could gain the control of coastal area of the island.

Rose in Nuwareliya Tea Garden

A view of a lack on the way to Nuwareliya

Buddhist Novices in their monastery in Nuwareliya

Unlike, my hometown CHT where I experienced diverse seasons, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, I mostly experience rainy season and summer. Of course, an up-country town called Kandy is quite different in climate compared to other low countries in Sri Lanka. So as I missed winter so much, I always dreamt of going to Nuwareliya of which I used to hear rumors about being a cool climate upcountry with beautiful landscapes. Finally, there came a chance to go. Many of my friends and me from the University started our journey in the morning at 7AM after a simple breakfast. On our way to main destination, we happened to visit the small town, Kandy that I have mentioned above. I love this town because of its climate which is a bit cooler than Colombo and it is situated much above the sea level, surrounded by the hills and trees. We took our lunch in this beautiful small town in a hotel, then we visited the Tooth-relic Temple. This tooth relic temple, is one of the most sacred and historic place in Sri Lanka, which houses the tooth of the Buddha. According to history, it was a palace during the Kandian period and later it was transformed into a temple. Kandian Dance is very unique in Sri Lanka. This temple of the tooth-relic also contains a museum with lots of paintings and historic art and architectural sculptures. After touring around the Tooth-relic temple for about 2 hours we again set off towards Nuwareliya, my dream land. On our way, I was enjoying the views of Sri Lankan life styles with villages, shopping malls and housing structures, and as our bus was going through the woody lands, I could smell of the forest woods. Our bus was just going up and up through hilly road. More and more we were climbing above the sea level, I could see the lands were filled with water as here and there or rather everywhere we could find water-falls which looks so beautiful with the hills and mountains touching the clouds. As we reached near Nuwareliya I could smell the tea leaves grown there. People there most of whom are Tamils were very busy working in the tea fields. We stopped in a tea factory to see how the tea is produced and we were offered very good quality tea which we really enjoyed. I discovered that most of the vegetables distributed all over Sri Lanka are actually grown in Nuwareliya. After reaching the top of the Nuwareliya town, I almost could experience a bit of winter that I experienced long ago in CHt. It was really a nice and adventurous experience of Sri Lanka and its culture.