Dodanwala Ambalama, Kandy

Dodanwala Ambalama is a modest square wayside rest about two kilometres from central Kandy, reached along Sri Dharmarathana Mawatha. It stands on a stone platform roughly two feet above ground, with four timber uprights rising from square stone bases to a shallow hipped roof. The roof carries two kinds of tile: ordinary clay tiles on the steeper upper slopes, and traditional half-round Sinhala tiles on the flatter lower sections.

Stone-slab seats are set at three different heights inside — the platform nearest the entrance lowest, the side platforms raised about five inches above it, and the back platform a further five inches above that. This arrangement is said to reflect the caste-based seating hierarchy that prevailed in the Kandyan period, with higher platforms reserved for higher-status travelers. Unlike some surviving ambalamas, this one has no raised sleeping platform, or kottapila.

An inscription in Sinhala on one of the stone pillar bases records that the ambalama was built in 1875, paid for by a private benefactor whose name was not recorded. It was declared a protected archaeological site on 30 September 2022.