National Museum of Kandy is located next to the Temple of the Tooth Relic in part of the former Royal Palace of Kandy. The bulk of the exhibits is housed in Palle Váchalova that served as home to the king's concubines, and now there is a huge amount of royal relics, including thrones, scepters and ceremonial swords from the 17th and 18th centuries. Another part of the exhibits in the main building of the palace.

Palle Váchalova used as a repository for historical artifacts made by Kandy Art Association established in 1832, and artisans Matale. The museum was opened to the public in 1942.

This museum once housed the royal harem, now has the crown jewels and reminders of pre-European Sinhala life. Exhibits include guns, jewelry, tools and other items from the era when the Kandy was the capital and after the British colonial era. The museum is a statue of Sir Henry Ward, the former governor of Ceylon, which was originally found in front of Hotel Queen.

The auditorium is characterized by tall columns supporting the roof, was the venue of the Congress leaders of Kandy, where in 1815 it was decided to cede power to the United Kingdom. There exposed signed in 1815 an agreement on the transfer of the province of the Board of Kandy UK. In this document, a major cause of transmission of the province appear: "cruelty and oppression of the ruler of Malabar, in an arbitrary and unjust infliction of physical torment, pain and death without trial, and sometimes without charges or possible commission of a crime, and general contempt and violation all civil rights, have become flagrant, massive and intolerable. " Shri Vikram Rajasinha declared, "because of non-compliance with the traditions and the sacred duty of the monarch, the power in the province of Kandy was given to the sovereign British Empire."

The National Museum, along with the archaeological museum, four churches and two monasteries, together make up one of the objects in the so-called Cultural Triangle, Sri Lanka (vertices of a triangle formed by three ancient capital of Kandy, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa).