Temples in Nuwara Eliya: 7 Hindu Kovils and Buddhist Temples to Visit (2026)

Seetha Amman Temple is the most famous temple in Nuwara Eliya, and the one most Indian visitors come for. It stands at Sita Eliya, about 5 km south-east of town on the A5 towards Hakgala and Badulla, where Hindu tradition places Ravana’s Ashok Vatika, the garden where Sita was held captive. The painted gopuram faces a fast, clear stream. On the far bank, on a flat black rock, are the large hollows that devotees call Hanuman’s footprints, now outlined in bright paint.

The shrine started a century ago as stones for Rama, Lakshmana and Sita after three darkened idols were found near the riverbank. Indian Tamils, whose families came to Sri Lanka as tea-estate workers under the British, built the temple you see now and still look after it. In 2021 a stone from Sita Eliya went to India for the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Water from the Sarju river in Ayodhya was later flown here for the temple’s Kumbhabhishekam in May 2024.

The newest building on site is the Ashok Vatika Meditation Centre, opened in August 2025 and covered next. Sit there for ten minutes after the puja and the only noise is the stream.

Arrive before 10 am on weekends. Tour coaches from Kandy roll in by late morning, and the riverside steps get crowded. For the full story and practical details, read our Seetha Amman Temple guide.

The Ashok Vatika Anushree Meditation Centre is the newest place of worship around Nuwara Eliya and sits inside the Seetha Amman complex. India and Sri Lanka marked its start in April 2023, when Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay laid the foundation stone, and it opened in August 2025.

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath and India’s High Commissioner Santosh Jha opened it on 3 August 2025, and devotees in New Delhi paid for the building. It is a meditation hall, not a temple with its own deity, so there is no puja schedule. Visitors go in quietly after praying at Seetha Amman. Phones go on silent. If you are travelling with older family members, it is the one place on the Ramayana trail with proper seating and shelter from the drizzle.

Gayathri Peedam is the Hindu temple most visitors miss, even though it is inside Nuwara Eliya town on Lady McCallum’s Drive. It is also called the Sri Lankatheeswarar Temple, and sources describe it as the first temple in Sri Lanka built to the goddess Gayathri. Swami Murugesu, a Kandy-born sage remembered as Gayathri Siddhar, founded it in the 1970s. After he died in Chennai in 2007, his samadhi was placed in the temple’s Gayathri Mandir.

The Ramayana link here is to Ravana’s son Meghanath (Indrajit), who local belief says performed his penance to Shiva on this spot to win his powers before the war with Rama. The Shiva lingam is said to have come from the Narmada river in India. It is a smaller, quieter place than Seetha Amman. You can see it in 30 minutes, which makes it an easy stop on the way out of town on any route.

More detail is in our Gayathri Peedam guide.

The Sri Bhakta Hanuman Temple sits on a ridge at Ramboda, about 30 km north of Nuwara Eliya on the A5 towards Kandy. Allow close to an hour for the drive, because the road drops through a long run of hairpins. Chinmaya Mission built it, and its consecration date was 8 April 2001. Local tradition holds that Ramboda is where Hanuman searched for Sita, and the name is often read as “Rama’s army”.

Inside is a 16 ft granite Hanuman, the main image, by Chinmaya Mission’s own count. What most visitors remember, though, is the terrace. From it you look down over tea estates to the Kotmale valley, and on a clear morning you can trace the river towards the reservoir where two of the Buddhist temples below stand. Hanuman Jayanti brings the biggest crowds. On an ordinary weekday at 7:30 am you may have the terrace to yourself.

Combine it with Ramboda Falls, just down the road, and with tea at one of the estate factories on the same stretch.

Our Shri Bhakta Hanuman Temple guide covers what to see nearby.

Divurumpola is a Buddhist temple with a Hindu story at its centre. It stands about 20 km from Nuwara Eliya on the Welimada road, near the 96 km post and roughly 4 km before Welimada town. Sita Eliya is about 5 km out of town on the same road, so Divurumpola lies roughly 15 km beyond Seetha Amman Temple.

Tradition says this is where Sita went through the Agni Pariksha, the trial by fire that proved her purity to Rama. Divurum means “oath” in Sinhala, and the place-name carries that meaning. For generations, villagers in this area have settled disputes by swearing an oath at the temple, believing a false oath here brings misfortune. It is a social custom, not a court process.

The grounds hold a white stupa, a Bo tree and a shrine room, and Hindu pilgrims on the Ramayana trail come alongside local Buddhist families. Late afternoon is the best time, when the light softens over the paddy and vegetable plots of the Welimada plateau.

Mahaweli Maha Seya is the one Buddhist site on this list you can see from far away. The white dome stands 88 m tall, second in Sri Lanka only to Ruwanweli Seya at Anuradhapura, and it looks down over the Kotmale reservoir. The Mahaweli authorities built it to make up for the temples lost when the valley was flooded for the Kotmale Dam.

President J. R. Jayewardene laid the foundation stone in 1983. Work then stalled for years and the stupa was only declared open on 20 June 2016, by President Maithripala Sirisena. It was built around a stainless-steel frame, an engineering design credited to Dr A. N. S. Kulasinghe of the Mahaweli Cultural Foundation. Expect a wide, quiet terrace, a long walk around the base, and a lot of sky.

The drive is about 45 to 50 km from Nuwara Eliya, down through Ramboda and around the reservoir, so plan it on the same day as the Hanuman temple.

Kadadora Vihara, formally Kadadora Sri Priyabimbaramaya, is the strangest temple near Nuwara Eliya, and the one you are least likely to actually see. Work on the Kotmale Dam began in 1979, and when the reservoir filled in 1985, about 57 villages and 54 religious places in the valley went under the water. Kadadora was abandoned and slowly sank with them.

When a long dry spell pulls the reservoir down, the walls of the shrine room surface again. Its central sanctuary once held the main Buddha statue, and its walls were painted with scenes from the Buddha’s life and the Jataka stories. Sri Lankan papers reported it breaking the surface again in early 2024. In a normal year you will see only water, so check local news before making the drive, and pair it with Mahaweli Maha Seya so the trip is worth it either way.

Don’t climb on the exposed walls. The structure is fragile and has been underwater for four decades.