Kandy Wax Museum

The museum occupies Ehelapola Walawwa, next to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. It was one of eighteen noble residences during the reign of Sri Wickrama Rajasinha, the last king of Kandy (1798-1815). After the British takeover of the Kandyan Kingdom, the walawwa was converted into a detention facility and remained part of Kandy's prison system, linked to Bogambara Prison, for more than 150 years, closed to the public despite earlier proposals to open it as a heritage site. One local historical account names several Kandyan nobles held here before execution, among them Keppetipola Nilame.

The building was restored by the Urban Development Authority and placed under the administration of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. It reopened on 17 July 2025 as Sri Lanka's first historical wax museum, inaugurated by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The 35 wax figures on display depict monarchs, clergy, and members of the Ehelapola family from the Kandyan Kingdom, alongside exhibits on Kandyan architecture, customs, and crafts, and a royal dining display built around period recipes. Costumes for eighteen of the figures were reconstructed by textile researchers at the University of Moratuwa, who studied more than 200 temple paintings and colonial-era records, including the writings of Robert Knox, to produce 58 garment pieces woven at thirteen handloom centres across Central Province.

A restored section of the old prison cells now holds a commercial arcade of about 40 shops. Noble house, then prison, now museum and marketplace, on the same plot of ground.