Royal Palace of Kandy

The Royal Palace of Kandy stands on the north shore of Kandy Lake in the centre of Kandy, Sri Lanka, next to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. It was the residence and court of the kings of the Kandyan Kingdom, the last independent Sinhalese kingdom, and it lies within the Sacred City of Kandy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988.

Building began under King Vimaladharmasuriya I at the end of the sixteenth century, when Kandy became the royal capital. Later rulers rebuilt and extended the complex after it was burned in wars with the Portuguese and the Dutch. The last king, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, added several buildings, including the octagonal Pattirippuwa and the lake itself. In 1815 the kingdom passed to the British, who used parts of the palace as offices and residences.

The complex is made up of several separate buildings rather than a single palace. The Magul Maduwa, or Royal Audience Hall, has carved wooden pillars and was the setting for the 1815 meeting at which the Kandyan chiefs signed the convention with the British. The King's Palace now houses the Archaeological Museum, the Palle Vahala, once the residence of the queens, holds the National Museum of Kandy, and the Ulpen Ge was the queens' bathing house. The Pattirippuwa, now part of the Temple of the Tooth, was used by the king to address the people.

Thick white walls with cloud-pattern parapets and wave-pattern openings, known as the Diyareli Bemma, run along the lake front and are a typical Kandyan feature.

Most of the palace buildings are visited as part of the Temple of the Tooth precinct or with separate museum tickets. Visitors should dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered.

Kandyan regalia and the 1815 convention in the museum

The National Museum of Kandy, in the old queens' palace, holds objects from the Kandyan period: royal regalia, weapons, jewellery, ivory and brass work, textiles and palm-leaf manuscripts. A copy of the 1815 Kandyan Convention is among the exhibits, linking the collection to the Magul Maduwa a few steps away. The Archaeological Museum in the King's Palace shows sculpture and architectural fragments from around the Central Province.