Being one of the premier Buddhist schools in the country with a history of more than 125 years founded by Sir Henry Steel Olcot in 1887 as Kandy Buddhist High School.



Several kandyan nobles including Dullawe Adhikaram, Wadugodapitiya Punchirala Korale, T.B. Panabokke and A.D.J. Gunawardena were instrumental in starting a buddhist college in Kandy. It eas decided that a plot of land in front of the Old Palace near the Tooth Relic Temple, adjoining the Natha Devalaya was the best for building the school. But there was an obstacle in that the plot was covered by a Bo tree, held sacred by the Buddhist, which had to be felled for putting up a school building.