The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy houses Sri Lanka’s most important Buddhist relic: the Buddha’s tooth (incisor, if you’re curious). This is another USECSO World Heritage Site.
This is a must-see for Sri Lankan Buddhists, as worshipping here improves their karmic fate.
Offering/prayer sessions occur three times per day. Loud drumming opens the ceremony, then visitors are allowed into the sacred room.
Visitors file past the gold casket in a loose interpretation of a line. As you can imagine, it’s hard to get a view as everyone surges toward the goods.
The tooth was allegedly taken from the flames of Buddha’s funeral pyre in 483 BC in India, then smuggled into Sri Lanka during 4th century AD. During that time, Buddhism was declining in India in the face of a Hindu revival.
The tooth traveled around Sri Lanka. It was a symbol of sovereignty; whoever had custody had the right to rule the island. It arrived in Kandy in the 16th century.
The temple contains two large shrines, along with a series of paintings depicting the odyssey of the Buddha’s tooth.
Upstairs is a small museum with incense, jewelry and other relics of the imperial era.
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