The shrine is built on the summit of the rock called Panhalgala in the village of Rabbegamuwa, in the Udunuwara division of Kandy district, approximately 12 km from the Peradeniya bridge. It can be accessed from two directions; from the Colombo-Kandy Road and from the Gampaha-Kandy Road. Lankathilaka, together with another Buddhist shrine at Gadaladeniya and the Embekke Devale dedicated to God Kataragama, all dating from the fourteen century, form an important trio possessing distinctive architectural and decorative features. They attract art and archaeology lovers, and scholars from all over the world. Overlooking the eastern escarpment of the rock, the surroundings provide a magnificent panorama of distant hills, paddy fields and natural beauty. The site had been selected for its beauty and peaceful environment, at a proper distance from the nearby village. This hamlet is well-known for its traditional vocations, which are part of its ancient cultural heritage.

The temple bears the same name as the famous construction of Parakramabahu I at Polonnaruwa. Inscriptional evidence at the site provides information regarding the date, the founder and the chief architect of the temple. The foundation dates from 1344 CE, being the pious dedication of Senalankadhikara, a minister of Bhuvanaikabahu IV of Gampola (Gangasiripura). The chief architect was Sthapatirayar, a South Indian. The original building has undergone several stages of development in later times. The temple has maintained its significance throughout the centuries, as seen from the various donations mentioned in the inscriptions. In the second half of the fourteenth century the scholarly incumbent monk of Lankathilaka was the grandson of the founder of the temple. According to the Culavamsa, the ruler, Parakramabahu VI of Kotte (1412-1467 CE), carried out some stucco embellishments. The major decorative elements in the form of murals are possibly the work of Kirti Sri Rajasimha (1747-1780 CE).

Apart from being an important architectural monument, this shrine is also significant from a religious point of view, since it combines the worship of the Buddha with that of Hindu gods. The shrine retains special units for the images of Hindu and indigenous deities. This feature of religious synthesis is also evident at Gadaladeniya, which belongs to the same period .
The Lankathilaka image house is a fine example of a Buddhist-Hindu shrine of the fourteenth century. The Buddhist shrine faces east and the Hindu devale is orientated to the west. This magnificent edifice of brick and stucco, positioned on the saddle of a dominant cliff, originally had a grand flight of steps of about 45 metres leading to the Buddha shrine. The residence of the monks is at the lower terrace and is of the courtyard type. This has the traditional appendage of grain stores and auxiliary functional units. The fields, belonging to the lay-guardians of the temple, extend beyond the irrigable land.

To the west of the shrine, and the devale, is the extended ridge of the cliff, which holds the main gateway leading out of the inner court. The other sacred edifices of the inner court are the Stupa, the Bodhi-tree, the preaching hall, and the kitchen to prepare food for the gods. The secular units in the same court are the official circuit-room and office of the chief lay-guardian. There is a large inscription in Sinhalese and Tamil on the bare rock of the inner court. Beyond the gateway, is a long processional path leading up to the depository, meant to hold the symbols and weapons of the deities which were carried in ceremony and placed there for public veneration during the annual festival. With the depository position being about half a mile from the gateway, there was adequate space to locate the many houses of the servants on the two sides of this main street. The high ground set apart for the servants for services to the shrine was that found immediately behind the houses. The main street extends beyond the depository to link the shrine to the adjacent villages, and to the other religious establishments. This type of shrine-centred village was a common layout of the rural fourteenth century phase of Sri Lankan rural planners.

The Lankathilaka had been originally designed as a type of Buddhist image house where Hindu figures were placed on the exterior in niches at the centre of each of the outer walls and on the two sides of the front facade. This type of shrine-layout has parallels in Hindu temples such as those commonly found in Tamil Nadu and Chandi Singasari in Java. However, with time the outer walls were converted into an enclosed ambulatory with entrances to it from all four directions, frontal to each of the five shrines. The main entrance to the west had an additional vestibule with a mandapa in front.

The edifice originally had four storeys as described in the inscription, but this masonry structure has collapsed, and today only the ground floor is used, although a part of the second storey remains. The second storey is attributed to have had images, and the remains of the stairway to this are still seen at the back of the main image. The third storey is credited to have had a recumbent image and the fourth, a stupa, in which sacred books were enshrined. Once the two upper floors collapsed, the remaining structure was roofed with a wooden canopy.

The porch is arched, containing two pairs of sculptured guardians brandishing swords. The ceiling shows the outlines of flower scrolls that covered the whole space.

The subject-matter conforms to the traditional themes of the Kandyan period, namely, the recording of the twenty-four Buddhas of the Past, the Twenty-four Proclamations, the Seven Weeks and the Sixteen Sacred Sites. No narrative themes have been painted inside the cells. Repetitive depictions of the Buddha, the Buddhas of the Past, and the arahats occupy most of the painted space. Emphasis has been given to portrayals of historical figures, such as the king Kirtisri Rajasinha, the patron Senalankadhikara and the incumbent, probably the Pirivena Maha Sthavira, Lanka Senevirat - the grandson of the founder. The four godheads of the Hindu pantheon, Siva, Vishnu, Brahma and Indra, whose depictions normally appear in association with the makara thorana in other shrines, have been here given added importance, by being provided with the complete retinue of consorts and vahanas. This is in conformity with the religious synthesis which had been brought about during this period, in accommodating Hindu gods within Buddhist shrine. The series of Jataka stories are no longer found here, and even the episodes from the life of the Buddha have been reduced to the depiction of the Seven Weeks after Enlightenment and the Sixteen Sites believed to have been visited by him. The most striking feature of Lankathilaka is the important role played by decorative elements, which occupy as much space as didactic and devotional scenes. The designs are varied and delicate, especially those upon the ceiling, which are unsurpassed in beauty and elegance in the history of art in Sri Lanka.

The majority of the paintings belong to the time of Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1747-1780 CE). The sculptured Buddha images, makara thorana and its associated divinities were all probably contemporaneous with the founding of the shrine in the fourteenth century, and were apparently remodeled and repainted during the eighteenth century. Instances of repainting occur in the shrine room and in the porch. Clumsy and decadent imitations of the elegant tree-motif upon the throne of the main Buddha image have been repeated several times upon the walls of the shrine room. The same can be said about certain motifs painted on the corbelled roof of the same room, displaying poor reproductions of older designs.

The traditional pigments of the Kandyan painters have been used, but most colours have been toned down into a harmonious scheme, avoiding the harsh contrasts normally encountered in other temples. The usual colour for the trees is grey-green, although creepers are leaf-green. Bright red is used for the background of the scenes and for flowers, although pink and grey are applied alternatively for the lotus throne of the painted Buddha figures. The colour combination of green and red for creeper-patterns on a white background is quite distinctive. A special preference for white can be noticed in these paintings. It regularly appears as the background of the decorative themes, the makara (dragon) figures, the pillars that support the makara thorana, as well as the cushion behind the chief Buddha image. Black gives clear delineation to many complex designs, while gold, applied to the sculptured figures of the Buddha, adds lustre to the entire colour scheme.

The main Buddha image, is in proportion to the vast size of the shrine. The Buddha figures wear the Kandyan style of robe. There is a tendency towards a square shaped figure being favoured during this period. However, they are distinctive in the elongation of the torso and in the elegant curves, which features could have been taken from the fourteenth century images of the shrine. The halo has a tall conical shape, different from the cylindrical type with a curvilinear top usually encountered in the art of the Kandyan period.

Each of the trees of Enlightenment of the twenty-four Buddhas show an individual character in the treatment of the branches and leaves. The branches show serrated contours, which have no parallels elsewhere. The kadupul flowers display a developed form, which is a combination of the usual form with that of the other floral motifs. The hansa puttuva (conjoined swans) motifs record the best presentation of its kind in the realm of Kandyan period paintings. The narilatas (nymph flowers) seen among delicate creepers with red flowers are among the best of their kind.

The use of square panels as background for the repetitive depictions of the Buddha recalls the style of Ridivihara, Gangarama and Dambava. The hand pose, however, is always the vitarka-mudra, in contrast to the samadhi pose encountered at other places. The occurrence among them, of long panels containing standing Buddha figures, is a special feature, which Lankathilaka shares with Gangarama. The flower sprigs shown on the cushion behind the main Buddha figure are similar in form to those found at many other shrines, such as Dambava, Dambulla and Gangarama, where such designs are contained within a diamond-shaped frame. Decorative bands consisting of continuous rows of diamond patterns are used extensively. The alternating circle and diamond motif also appear upon the prabha mandala of the standing Buddha figures, although displayed in a rather ornate form.