Our Story

Waruna Jayasinghe, the founder of the Samadhi Centre, has a deep-rooted passion for architecture, nature and art. He was the only non-architect in history to be nominated for the prestigious Geoffrey Bawa architectural award for his work on the Samadhi Centre. His dedication to sustainable architecture is evident in the way he regenerated the jungle on an abandoned tea estate he purchased 25 years ago, where he slowly built the hotel with respect to nature and traditional Sri Lankan architecture.

Waruna's dream of building the Samadhi Centre was so strong that he started an antique gallery in Colombo to fund his dream. As a local from Kandy, where his father was an antique furniture restorer and dealer, Waruna inherited a love of antiques and incorporated them into the Samadhi Centre's design. The Samadhi Centre grows many of its medicinal herbs and food on the property, and Waruna is currently developing a food forest that feeds both humans and local wildlife. His passion for sustainability and the environment shines through in every aspect of the Samadhi Centre. The Kandy Samadhi centre is a family run and owned business , Yumi who is Waruna’s wife is an artist and yoga teacher who guides wonderful yoga classes at the centre .