Asgiri Maha Viharaya and Adahanamaluwa Gedige Viharaya

Asgiri Maha Viharaya is one of the two headquarters of the Siyam Nikaya, sharing custodianship of the Sacred Tooth Relic with Malwatte; some 565 temples across Sri Lanka now come under its authority. It was founded on the instruction of King Parakramabahu IV of Kurunegala, who reigned from 1305 to 1335, when Commander Siriwardhana brought monks from the Valasgala hermitage at Yapahuwa to establish the monastery — the name Asgiri is said to derive from Valasgala by way of the Pali Acchagiri. The Purana Viharaya, or old temple, houses a Buddha statue under a Makara Thorana arch and images of Natha and Saman; the complex also has a recumbent Buddha some 36 feet long carved from rock. The Meda Pansala was added in 1767 by Meegastanne Dissawe of Dumbara, and the Aluth Viharaya in 1768 by Pilimathalawe Dissawe. The site was designated a Protected Monument in 1970.

The Gedige, standing on the upper of three terraces above the Meda and Palle Maluwa, is built of solid masonry with thick walls and a vaulted roof, a style set apart from the timber-and-tile temples common elsewhere in Kandy and closer to the stone architecture of the Natha Devale and Gadaladeniya Vihara. It is reckoned the second-oldest stone building in Kandy city. Tradition holds that it was raised by King Vikramabahu III of Gampola in memory of Queen Chandrawathie, cremated on the site — the terrace below served as the royal cremation ground for Kandyan kings, until railway construction between 1878 and 1880 cleared away what tombs remained.

On the final night of the Kandy Esala Perahera, by a custom traced to King Kirti Sri Rajasinha, the Relic Casket from the Temple of the Tooth is brought to the Gedige before the last procession sets out. And in 1815, when the British raised their flag at the signing of the Kandyan Convention, Wariyapola Sumangala, the Anunayake Thero of Asgiriya, hoisted the Sinhalese flag back up.