Sri Lanka: Lankatilaka

A very few miles but a world away from Kandy, there's a linear sequence of 14th century temples--Gadaladeniya, Lankatilaka, Dodanwela, and Embekke--dedicated to Vishnu, Natha, and Kataragama, three of the guardian deities associated with Sinhalese Buddhism.  Lankatilaka (or Kandyan Lankatilaka, to distinguish it from a Lankatilaka at Polonnuwara) is often described as among the most remarkable of all Sri Lanka's temples because the building fuses in a single structure both a Buddhist vihara, or shrine, and a Hindu devale, or temple of the gods.  A tour, in short, calls for two guides, one Buddhist and the other Hindu. The architect himself was one Sthapatirayara, from South India.