Kandy, a kingdom in the centre of Sri Lanka, was the last place to fall to foreign colonizers. In 1815 British troops deposed the 165th King of Kandy, thereby completing their conquest of the island.
Constance Gordon-Cumming wrote '..somewhat off the beaten track are the tombs of the Kandyan queens- not beautiful in themselves...but...glorified by the surrounding foliage. The red-tiled double roof, shaded by luxuriant palms loaded with nuts and blossom, each crown a study in green and gold and brown; gnarled old temple-trees filling the air with fragrance; and yellow-robed priests laying offerings of yellow flowers before small dome-shaped relic-shrines, beneath huge Bo-trees with spiritual-looking white stems and light foliage, which...quivers ceaselessly even when there is scarcely a perceptible breath of air.' (C.F.Gordon-Cumming Two Happy Years in Ceylon, I, pp. 247-8)