Kandy, the third world heritage capital city of Sri Lanka, is regarded as one of the most sacred places for Buddhists locating in the beautiful lush green hill country, a very contrast with dry flat land of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. Similar to Anuradhapura, the center of Kandy is the sacred city, but for Kandy, its sacred area is quite small only comprise of the former royal palace complex and nearby associated shrines and temples.

The most important place of the sacred city is the famous Sri Dalada Maligawa or the Temple of the Holy Tooth Relic of the Lord Buddha. The temple is actually a part of the Kandyan royal palace, so the temple is a good example of Kandyan architecture, a Sri Lankan national style. Not only the temple, the nearby four small Hindu shrines for local gods and goddesses are also very interesting for study local belief that use Hindu gods as the protectors of Buddhism.

The Tooth relic is very important for Sri Lankan as it is the symbol of sovereignty over Ceylon, so every time Sinhalese move their capital city, the Tooth will go with them except Colombo. Even today the president has to come to pay respect the Tooth every year and become state tradition. Apart from local Sri Lankan, all Buddhist around the world especially Thai and Japanese come and make lots of donations to this temple as part of their pilgrimages.

Every visitor to the Temple of the Tooth has to walk on bare foot and pass security checkpoint as in Anuradhapura, but the atmosphere here is much more relax. Inside the complex is decorated with many beautiful objects from annual temple parade. The shrine that is housing the Tooth is very small, but its decorative wall is truly a masterpiece of art. Hundreds of worshippers put their flower to make beautiful flower carpet liked in front of the shrine, praying and chanting for their good lives was an indescribable moment. After visit the shrine, do not forget to admire the beautiful golden roof donated by the Japanese government to protect the whole complex from rain and sun.

To be honest, if you are not Buddhist, this place is just another temple that has more beautiful decoration and lots of worshippers. But in terms of world heritage site, I will not question its spiritual value, this is the only place you can admire the last authentic of Kandyan royal architecture which cannot be compared with any other place in this world, and this reason alone can make this place to be a world heritage site. I think this place is deserved to be protected by UNESCO more than many other European site that using only criteria IV for inscription.