kandy lake

Kandy Lake (Nuwara Weva)

Kandy Lake with the Walakulu wall around it

Island at the centre of the lake

Queens Bathing house on the edge of the Kandy lake

This artificial lake was built by the last king of Kandy (and of Sri Lanka), Sri Wikrama Rajasinhe to beatify the Temple of the Tooth Relic by excavating paddy fields in 1807. He called this artificial lake the :Kiri Muhuda" or the Milky Ocean.
He also added the "Valakulu Bamma" (the clouds wall) around the lake but before he could complete, British forces invaded the city of Kandy and prisoned the last Kandyan King in 1815. The Walakulu Wall still remains in the same unfinished state with a length of 2060 feet. The triangular holes in the wall has been used to light oil lamps in the night. This same design has been used for the outer wall of Sri Dalada Maligawa. He also built a dam across the lake to travel to the other side of the lake but then he destroyed it from both ends leaving only a portion in the centre creating an island. On the Dalada Maligawa side of the lake is theQueens Bathing House. Which is partially in the lake itself. The perimeter of the lake is about 3.4 km and the walakulu wall runs to about 2060 feet around the lake.

temple of tooth- kendy

Located in Kandy, long a center of the Buddhist faith, the stunning 17th-centuryTemple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa) is believed to house the left upper canine tooth of the Lord Buddha himself. This precious relic attracts white-clad pilgrims, bearing lotus blossoms and frangipani, every day.

History

According to legend, the tooth was taken from the Buddha as he lay on his funeral pyre. It was smuggled to Sri Lanka in 313 AD, hidden in the hair of Princess Hemamali who fled the Hindu armies besieging her father's kingdom in India.
It immediately became an object of great reverence and was enshrined in a series of nested jeweled reliquaries. The tooth was brought out for special occasions and paraded on the backs of elephants, which are sacred to the Buddha. where it survived numerous attempts to capture and destroy it.
When the capital was moved to Kandy, the tooth was taken to the new city and placed in temples built to honor it. The temple was originally built under Kandyan kings between 1687 and 1707, but later severely damaged during the 18th-century colonial wars against the Portugese and Dutch. After the wars, the original wooden structures were restored in stone.

In January 1998 Hindu Tamil separatists bombed the temple, damaging its facade and roof. Restoration began immediately afterward.