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The Vishnu Devale is dedicated to the Hindu God Vishnu. Vishnu is considered a sober divinity who was committed to the protection of Buddhism from its beginning. He is the god that protects Sri Lanka, thus if he protects Sri Lanka he protects Buddhism.<br/><br/>

Kandy is Sri Lanka's second biggest city with a population of around 170,000 and is the cultural centre of the whole island. For about two centuries (until 1815) it was the capital of Sri Lanka.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.<br/><br/>

Kandy is Sri Lanka's second biggest city with a population of around 170,000 and is the cultural centre of the whole island. For about two centuries (until 1815) it was the capital of Sri Lanka.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.<br/><br/>

Kandy is Sri Lanka's second biggest city with a population of around 170,000 and is the cultural centre of the whole island. For about two centuries (until 1815) it was the capital of Sri Lanka.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Asgiriya Vihara, the ‘Monastery of the Horse Mountain’, was built by the family of Pilima Talauve in the early 19th century, on a plot adjoining the ancient royal cremation ground. The Asgiriya Vihara is a rather smallish, inconspicuous temple, but as one of the seats of Goyigama religious power, of great significance.<br/><br/>

From the early 19th century onwards, during the Esala Perahera, the sacred Tooth Relic would be deposited for the last night of the festival at the Asgiriya Vihara. Together with the Malwatte Vihara, it is also one of the wealthiest temples in Sri Lanka.
Asgiriya Vihara, the ‘Monastery of the Horse Mountain’, was built by the family of Pilima Talauve in the early 19th century, on a plot adjoining the ancient royal cremation ground. The Asgiriya Vihara is a rather smallish, inconspicuous temple, but as one of the seats of Goyigama religious power, of great significance.<br/><br/>

From the early 19th century onwards, during the Esala Perahera, the sacred Tooth Relic would be deposited for the last night of the festival at the Asgiriya Vihara. Together with the Malwatte Vihara, it is also one of the wealthiest temples in Sri Lanka.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Esala Perahera (the Festival of the Tooth) is the grand festival of Esala held in Kandy in Sril Lanka every July or August. Known for its elegant costumes, it has become a unique symbol of Sri Lanka. It is a Buddhist festival consisting of dances and nicely decorated elephants. There are fire dances, whip dances, Kandian dances and various other cultural dances. Elephants are usually adorned with lavish garments.<br/><br/>

The Esala Perahera in Kandy is believed to be a fusion of two separate but interconnected 'Peraheras' (Processions) – The Esala and Dalada. The Esala Perahera which is thought to date back to the 3rd century BCE, was a ritual enacted to request the gods for rainfall. The Dalada Perahera is believed to have begun when the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha was brought to Sri Lanka from India during the 4th Century CE.<br/><br/>

The Modern Perahera dates back to the reign of the Kandyan King Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe (1747 – 1781 CE). During these times, the Tooth Relic was considered private property of the King and the public never got a chance to worship it. However, King Rajasinghe decreed that the Relic be taken in procession for the masses to see and venerate.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Tavik Frantisek Simon (1877–1942), was a Czech painter, etcher, and woodcut artist. Although based mainly in Europe, his extensive travels took him to Morocco, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, and Japan, images of all of which appear in his  artistic work. He died in Prague in 1942. Largely ignored during the Communist era in Czechoslovakia, his work has received greater attention in recent years.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Tavik Frantisek Simon (1877–1942), was a Czech painter, etcher, and woodcut artist. Although based mainly in Europe, his extensive travels took him to Morocco, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, and Japan, images of all of which appear in his  artistic work. He died in Prague in 1942. Largely ignored during the Communist era in Czechoslovakia, his work has received greater attention in recent years.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Sri Lanka had always been an important port and trading post in the ancient world, and was increasingly frequented by merchant ships from the Middle East, Persia, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. The islands were known to the first European explorers of South Asia and settled by many groups of Arab and Malay merchants.<br/><br/>

 

A Portuguese colonial mission arrived on the island in 1505 headed by Lourenço de Almeida, the son of Francisco de Almeida. At that point the island consisted of three kingdoms, namely Kandy in the central hills, Kotte at the Western coast, and Yarlpanam (Anglicised Jaffna) in the north. The Dutch arrived in the 17th century. The British East India Company took over the coastal regions controlled by the Dutch in 1796, and in 1802 these provinces were declared a crown colony under direct rule of the British government, therefore the island was not part of the British Raj. The annexation of the Kingdom of Kandy in 1815 by the Kandyan convention, unified the island under British rule.<br/><br/>

 

European colonists established a series of cinnamon, sugar, coffee, indigo cultivation followed by tea and rubber plantations and graphite mining. The British also brought a large number of indentured workers from Tamil Nadu to work in the plantation economy. The city of Colombo was developed as the administrative centre and commercial heart with its harbor, and the British established modern schools, colleges, roads and churches that introduced Western culture.<br/><br/>

 

On 4 February 1948 the country gained its independence as the Dominion of Ceylon. It changed its name to Sri Lanka in 1972.
Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex and houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country.
Tavik Frantisek Simon (1877–1942), was a Czech painter, etcher, and woodcut artist. Although based mainly in Europe, his extensive travels took him to Morocco, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, and Japan, images of all of which appear in his  artistic work. He died in Prague in 1942. Largely ignored during the Communist era in Czechoslovakia, his work has received greater attention in recent years.