The city of Kandy and its relic Bashny.Net

Kandy - "high" city in the central part of Sri Lanka, located in the center of the country. Its height is almost 500 meters above sea level. Its main attraction is considered to be the Temple of the Tooth Relic, which you can find in today's photo essay.




I was in Sri Lanka during the so-called rainy season and Candy often drizzling drizzle. Kandy was the capital in the late 16th century, when King Radzhasingh won the "feudal war" and moved the main city of the country. Now it is the sixth largest city in the island of Ceylon.



In Sri Lanka, a separate education - school for boys and girls, it is still the legacy of British girls go here in this amusing school uniform, but since 1956 have already appeared, and general school. The first Europeans to colonize the island tried and Portuguese in the 17th century the city fourfold resist their attacks, and then the Dutch.



What surprised me in Kandy is the fact that the city also has a cork in which I spent some time. But Dad on a bike lucky girl from school, this picture is the absolute norm for a tropical island. At first the Portuguese, then the Dutch and the "occupied" part of the island, but still the center of Sri Lanka to remain independent. The last king of Sri Lanka - Sri Vikram Radzhasinghe deserved rejection of the nation and its chief minister, defected to the British, who by that time had already won all the possessions of the Dutch, and helped the colonialists occupy the city. The British were successful in Portugal, and the Dutch conquest of the island by 1915 the island became a colony of the British Empire.



March 2, 1815 the last king of Sri Lanka abdicated, ending a 24-century-old monarchy and 225 years of independence of the principality of Kandy. So it collapsed last royal capital. There in the city and the railway station, which was built under the British in the mid-19th century, now I wish I had walked there, it's a really interesting history of memorial to.



On the day of my arrival in the city were local elections, the president arrived here and the city whole lousy kishil police.



More Kandy is an interesting "artificial" lake, built by the same last king. In the center of the lake is a small island on which Sri Vikram Radzhasinghe kept his harem. English "Lord" loved to ride around the lake on a boat and built around a beautiful wall. It's more recommendations where to walk in Kandy, I have to get to the lake, too, did not have enough time.



The current prison town, located in the heart - a local architectural feature. It was built in the British in 1864 for taming customs of local people.







Here's a cool plate, I saw in a public toilet in the city of Kandy, if it was sold, I would have bought the same home. This instruction on the use of the toilet requires girls to continue to sit for the entire "process", and the boys to come a little closer, because it may be shorter than they (boys) think.



Kandy is very, very interesting town, I would have gladly walked with a few hours of its streets, people took off, but instead why it went to a local botanical garden. I would have time to tie with a visit to the botanical gardens, because it does not cause me even a little bit of interest. Royal Botanic Garden Peradeniya was founded back in the 13th century and served as a place for walking royals. And in the 19th century moved here more and Botanical Gardens in the south-west coast of the island. There is an orchid garden, where they collected about 1,000 species here like to go and take pictures of a woman closeup of his face next to white flowers, Tipo "Orchid - beautiful and I am beautiful." Action is deeply intelligent and enjoys great popularity among the "beauty" of many nationalities floor



This flower is called the Pigeon (Dove) and is notable for the fact that within it is the pistil or stamen, I do not remember exactly how it is called, is very similar to a pigeon. Without the glasses understand where is the pigeon is not easy.



Alley "cabbage palm" or Evterpa in the park. Peradeniya one of the largest botanical gardens in the world, with an area of ​​about 60 hectares. For lovers of botany here collected about 45 thousand species of plants, but its favorite plant - cannabis, here I am, alas, is not found.



In the Botanical Garden a huge number of flying foxes, which are hanging on the trees almost no traffic. To bring at least some "dvizhuhu" need to come to the tree on which they hang, and it pretty shaken.



Then we can see how they begin to fly. But do not try to throw a stone at them, still do not get)))



The park itself is a huge green area, on which you can walk, relax and rest from earthly cares.



Curved palm Botanical Gardens, they are called "drunken trees" or pine Cook.



Huge baobab tree, but these trees are much more interesting than in Africa, where they grow in the wild, for example in Senegal.



After visiting Peradeniya I read in a guidebook that many heads of state put in his garden trees. In 1891, the last Emperor of the Russian Empire Nikolai 2 ironwood planted here, here and there a tree planted by the world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, a pity that the trees I could not see.



But the most important tourist and religious attraction of the city of Kandy - certainly the temple Dalada Maligawa or the Temple of the Tooth Relic. Indian Prince Buddha was born about 600 years before Jesus Christ, he reached "enlightenment" and died at the age of 80 years. According to one version, one of his disciples at the time of the earthly body cremation of Buddha, snatched from the funeral pyre Divine tooth. According to another version after the cremation of the fire got 4 teeth that followers of Buddha were divided into 16 parts and sent to various churches for storage. I could not find in any guidebooks Google information, what other churches are part of the tooth of Buddha, if we follow the second version. In the first version of a single tooth of the Buddha it was kept in India, but in 371 AD an Indian princess Hemamala brought him to Ceylon, hiding in her hair. Relic first kept in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and then only in the 18th century BC was brought to Kandy. To store this shrine and temple Dalada Maligawa built or the temple of the tooth of the Buddha.



The guidebook says that the temple is best visited during the puja - worship ceremony of the tooth, which runs daily at 6:30, 10:30 and 19:30. I found the evening ceremony and made a conclusion that it is better to go to church when there is no ceremony, no. Around loud music, lots of tourists and Buddhists and huge queues, which were the first McDonald's restaurant on Pushkin in Moscow in the 90s. I feel better when everything is more peaceful.)) Tooth Relic is seven caskets, nested one inside the other on the principle of nesting dolls.



Here in the golden stupa and is a sacred relic. During puja, 3 times a day to the tooth tray of 42 different dishes on a daily basis takes 30 kilograms of rice, and in the evening is also a drinks tray 8. But not for nothing that Leonid Brezhnev said: "The economy must be economical."



To get into the very room where the relic is kept, it is impossible, you can only look inside and see a golden casket in the form of the stupa, but I preferred to take it from a distance "televichok." See the tooth of the Buddha alive - the inheritance of the elect, an honor granted such British Queen Elizabeth 2 and the Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova.



Another interesting statue in the temple of the tooth of the Buddha - golden Buddha.



In the temple for art lovers is the "Art Gallery" shows the history of Sri Lanka.



To the left of the church is a building with 78 columns, here in 1815, a contract was signed Kandyan and ended the history of the state of Kandy. Sri Lanka became a part of the British Empire, and here was subsequently signed an agreement on the country's independence from the "British invaders»))



Last look at the temple. An interesting fact that just behind the church in the center of the city are completely untouched jungle. It was the "Forbidden Forest" Kandyan kings when Kandy was the capital of Kandy. The forest is located in the immediate vicinity of the Temple of the Tooth and Royal Palace, before there could be no one other than the royals. Ceychas this forest-reserve and tourists can see. In 1998, a terrorist organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which I wrote in a previous post, organized a terrorist attack in Kandy. Four militants on a truck loaded with explosives broke into the territory of the temple. The explosion occurred near the main Buddhist relic of the country, while 7 people were killed and 25 injured.



At the temple there is a monument to the monk, who made a heroic act. He was outraged by the fact that the March 2, 1815 before the signing of the Kandyan Convention on the recognition of Sri Lanka, a British colony, the British in the morning raised their flag at the signing of the document was scheduled for 6 pm. He lowered the English flag, and again raised Lankan for which he was executed rapidly and quickly became a national hero. Here is a city of Kandy, about which Sri Lankans are proud to say who was in Sri Lanka and did not see Kandy - he did not see the miracle.



Source: mikeseryakov.livejournal.com