Lankatilaka Temple

Lankatilaka — "the ornament of Lanka" — is a tall, impressive temple of the Gampola period standing on a broad rock platform about 12 km west of Kandy. The six-storey image house is visible from some distance, its whitewashed walls rising above the surrounding countryside. Inside, a large standing Buddha figure in the central shrine is surrounded by well-preserved murals and flanked by smaller subsidiary shrines.

The site includes a devale (Hindu shrine) to Vishnu adjacent to the main Buddhist image house, reflecting the dual religious character typical of Kandyan sacred sites. The walk from the car park to the temple entrance passes through a nicely atmospheric rock-cut tunnel.

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A story
Lankatilaka is built around and over a large rock, with the back wall of the image house being the bare stone of the outcrop itself. When construction began in 1344, the builders adapted to the existing geology rather than clearing it — the result is a building that seems to grow from the ground rather than sit on it. The headless Buddha inside lost its head during a Portuguese raid in the sixteenth century; the current head is a later replacement and doesn't quite fit, which is historically accurate.

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