properties that had been confiscated by the Portuguese were not returned. In the Kandyan kingdom of the interior, Buddhism remained the state religion. Kandyan rulers continued to patronize Buddhist institutions as the ancient Sinhala kings had done, and they remained in control of the tooth relic. Through much of the 18th century, however, the sangha was in a weakened state, with the ordination lineage broken. The Buddhist "priests" of the kingdom lacked the proper ordination rites (at least 5 fully ordained monks are required to fully ordain a new monk). These Buddhist religious figures who were not really proper monks ("bhikkhus"), but served a similar role to traditional monastics were called ganinnanses. Kandyan kings did attempt to re-establish the ordination lineage through their religious links to Burmese Buddhism, but these were not very successful. The most successful attempt to revive the sangha was led by Weliwita Sri Saranankara Thero (1698–1778), who restored the higher ordination on the island by inviting monks from Thailand (thus founding the modern Siam Nikaya which survives to this day). With the support of the Kandyan king Kirti Sri Rajasinha, Weliwita also worked to establish the primacy of Buddhist ritual, and the modern form of the Festival of the Tooth Relic dates to this time. It was also during this period that Kirti Sri Rajasinha issued a decree stating that only those of the govigama caste could join the Siam Nikaya, and those non-govigama bhikkhus which did exist were exiled or prevented from participating in higher ordination. The reigns of Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1747–1782) and Rajadhi Rajasinha (1782–1798) also saw the restoration of many Buddhist temples that had been destroyed in previous wars as the building of new temples (particularly in and around Kandy, such as Malvatta, Gangarama and Degaldoruva). British rule In 1795–1796, the Dutch territories in Sri Lanka came under the control of the British East India Company. In 1815 a British army conquered a politically divided Kandy and deposed the Sinhalese king. The British retained Sri Lanka until 1948 (though it remained a dominion until 1972). The initial treaty of surrender, the Kandyan Convention, stated that the Buddhist religion would be protected and maintained. The first half of the 19th century saw the formation of a new monastic fraternity, the Amarapura Nikaya, by monks and would-be monks of non-govigama castes. They travelled to Burma in the first decade of the 19th century to