Kandy is the last capital of the Sinhalese kings, and the Temple of the Tooth is only the start of it. The two Sri Lankan heritage sites on this list are the reason it exists: between them they document thousands of viharas, rock inscriptions and half-forgotten shrines across the country, many within an hour of Kandy, most with directions and none with a ticket office.
The other three cover the trip itself — the train up from Colombo, the Knuckles range, the tea estates, and how long you actually need before the hill country starts to feel like the point of the whole island.