Kandy Lake, Sri Lanka

Kandy Lake (31 August, 2005)


Kandy Lake is a manmade lake created in 1807 by the last Sinhalese ruler of Kandy, King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, using forced labour. It is the main body of water in the city of Kandy in central Sri Lanka. The king used land which was paddy field to create the lake. It stands as an indictment of the excesses of the Kandyan monarchy for wasting away national resources to built an ornamental lake at a time when the kingdom was under serious threat.

When a hundred of his advisors advised King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe against building the lake, he had them impaled on the reservoir bund of the paddy field which he was converting into the ornamental lake. It was not long before the British captured him, with help from his own noblemen disgruntled by his irrational policies.

Royal Bathhouse, Kandy (31 August, 2005)


Kandy Lake has a perimeter of 2.1 miles and a maximum depth of 60 feet. A decorative wall, called Walakulu wall, runs for 2060 feet along the banks of the Kandy Lake. In the middle of the lake is an island housing the Royal Summer House. Sri Dalada Maligawa, or Temple of the Tooth Relic, is located beside the lake across the road. On the opposite side of the road from the Temple of the Tooth Relic is the Royal Bathhouse, which is used by the king's wives and concubines as a bathhouse. The British added one more storey to the structure to house a library.

It is impossible to miss the Kandy Lake if you are visiting the city, as it is located smack in the middle of town. I had the good fortune to walk around and admire it, when I explored Kandy with a small group of AsiaExplorers members, and am documenting it here for your enjoyment.

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Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.

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