The Holy Temple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa) (WHS), Kandy, Sri Lanka

The setting
Located scenically in the backdrop of the steep wooded hills of Udawattakele forest Sanctuary in the lush valley of the medieval kingdom of Kandy, the gateway to central highlands is Sri Lanka's holiest Buddhist shrine, the Temple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa). This is the prime monument, supreme edifice of pilgrimage of Sinhalese Buddhist populace of the island. It is within this magnificent temple that sacred Tooth relic of Buddha is deposited. The Temple sits on the northern shore of man-made Kandy Lake (1807 AD), with a white parapet (1809) surrounding it (a nice walk), the lovely centrepiece of the town, just east of the Kandy city centre.

History
The original three storied resplendent temple was built in 1687 AD by King Wimaladharma Suriya the 2nd (1686-1704). The temple was modified by a succession of Kandyan kings throughout a century, principally during the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1746-1778). Arguably, the holiest temple in Buddhism-a profound religion of non-violence (even in self-defence) & compassion-was ironically embellished by the cruellest & most tyrannical king ever reigned in the history of the island: Sri Wickrama Rajasinha, the last king of Lanka (1797-1815).

Religious tolerance
Robert Knox, one of the numerous English prisoners of King Rajasinha narrated "Not only was there complete freedom of worship, but Kandyan kings granted lands to Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims & Christians. The Christian religion, he (the king) does not in the least persecute, indeed he honours & esteems it". The king's numerous European guests - POW (prisoners of war), shipwrecked sailors, army deserters & assorted diplomats - were free to marry natives, free to live a normal life but cut off from the dense jungle surrounding of Kandy while the gateways were heavily guarded. Robert Knox escaped & wrote of his years (1660-1680) in Ceylon, "An Historical Relation of Ceylon" in England. The chroniclers of Mahawamse (the great chronicle of 2550 years of unbroken history of Lanka), Buddhist monks end the narration of King Vimaladharmasuriya the 1st (1592-1603), who inflicted major defeats on the Portuguese beginning with the multiple humiliation on the General Conquistador Pedro Lopez de Zousa (Zousa lost Dona Caterina to the king too) with an impartial obituary. "He ridiculed the idea of all religious tenets, permitting everyone free religious exercise according to their own will & pleasure. In fact, he was in every sense of the word, a finished courtier".

The octagonal tower
The most eye-catching exterior feature is the octagonal tower (Pattirippuwa), projecting into the moat which surrounds the temple. It is still traditional for new heads of state to make their first address to nation from the historic octagon.

Surroundings
The moat itself is bounded by two walls adorned with elephant carvings. The outer wall with pointed tops is called Diyareli Bemma (Wave-Swept Wall): the inner, with rounded tops, is the Walakula Bemma (Cloud-Drift Wall); the recesses in each are for small Petri dish like earthen lamps lighted in the night. Facing the temple are bo-tree shaded four Devales (shrines) of Hindu deities: Pattini, Devale dedicated to the goddess of chastity; 14th century Natha devale dedicated to God Natha, a future Buddha, Vishnu shrine dedicated to God Vishnu & God Kataragama (Skanda). The practice of tolerance of Buddhists towards other religions had been one of the significant aspects of the island throughout its 2550 years of unbroken recorded history.

The Entrance
The entrance to the imposing temple, painted pale rose & roofed with terracotta tiles is through the Maha Vahalkada (Great door), which was formerly the main entrance to the royal palace as well as to the temple. A sumptuous carving of Lakshmi, Hindu Goddess of wealth & good fortune, consort of Vishnu stands by the entrance, once again, testifying to the practice of tolerance of Buddhists towards other religions. We go through the gateway, turn to our right & walk up further over steps carved with dwarf figures & covered by a canopy painted with lotuses & pictures of the pageant till we come to a gorgeously carved stone door adorned with a moonstone step (the traditional semi circular slab of granite welcome step decorated with concentric semicircular rings of intricate & fine carvings of bestial & floral designs), guardstones & topped by Dragon Arch. We continue through the painted corridor, over another moonstone into the interior of the temple.

Drummer's courtyard
In front of us is the Drummer's courtyard, which leads to the two-story main shrine itself. It is confusing to note while some parts have been lavishly embellished, some parts are left plain or almost unfinished for some unknown reasons. However, the overall effect is still undeniably impressive. The most intricate carving is on the two stone side-doors (that to the left is also equipped with splendid gold locks) while the main doors are fashioned of gorgeously decorated silver. The whole shrine is surrounded by gold railings & fronted by a moonstone & four elephant tusks sheltering two stone lions. The walls are decorated with a colourful & intricate carvings of entwined swans (a symbol of union & marriage), lotuses, vines & lions, & dotted with painted medallions of the sun & moon, a symbol of the kings of Kandy which can be found all over the city-the image of the twinned heavenly orbs was designed to represent both the light-giving & the eternal nature of their rule.

Recitation Hall
From the drummer's courtyard, a set of stairs to the left (as we face the main shrine) leads to the upper level; halfway up we'll pass the casket in which a replica of the Tooth Relic is paraded during Kandy Esala Perahera pageant (pageant) along with golden flags & ceremonial urns & a small dagoba. At the top of steps is Pirith Mandapaya (Recitation Hall) with lattice wooden walls. This leads to the entrance of the Tooth Relic chamber itself, on the upper level of the main shrine.

Tooth Relic chamber
The beautiful ornate brass doorway into the shrine, framed in silver & decorated in a riot of embossed ornaments, with auspicious symbols including dwarfs, some holding urns of plenty, more entwined swans, peacocks, sun & moon & dragons. Paintings to either side of the door show guard stone figures bearing bowls of lotuses, surrounded by Makara Toranas (dragon arches). The Interior of the Tooth Relic chamber is divided by golden arches into three sections. The Sacred Tooth Relic of Buddha is kept in the furthest section, the Vedahitina Maligawa (Shrine of Abode). The eye-catching gilded canopy over relic chamber was added by late president-ever industrious workhorse-indomitable R. A. Premadasa. Caged behind gilded iron bars is the stupa shaped large (5 ft tall) outer casket made of silver. Inside it are seven similar caskets of decreasing sizes with each one, except the last (smallest) one, containing the next smaller casket in it. The innermost casket, the 8th, the smallest one contains the Holy Tooth Relic itself. There are three different keys to the eight caskets; one held by the temple's administrator, the others by the heads of the Malwatta & Asgiriya Buddhist monasteries. The casket can only be opened when all three are in attendance.

Kandyan tradition
Unlike at numerous Buddhist pilgrimage sites in the ancient kingdoms of Lanka, we don't find ancient or medieval Buddha images at the Temple of the Tooth. Absence of those in no way, escape our observation. It is possible that the kings of the medieval Kandyan kingdom (1592 -1815) assumed it wasn't required to erect the images while the tangible relic of Buddha, itself was deposited for the veneration at the temple. It is also possible the temple of tooth was built to stand unique among all traditional Buddhists Temples. In this context, perhaps it would be pertinent to remark herein itself that unlike the 10,000+ small rain water reservoirs & hundreds of large rainwater reservoirs (ancient irrigation engineering marvels with some man-made rainwater reservoirs resembling inland seas (The Sea of Parakrama - 2100 ha) that were built solely for the purposes of irrigation with great emphasis on United Biology, Kandy lake was built solely for a decorative purpose.

The Sacred Tooth Relic of Buddha
The holy tooth relic was brought to Lanka from India during the reign of King Sirimeghavana (303-331 AD) of Lanka. When King Guhasiva of Kalinga (central-eastern India) faced defeat, the Tooth relic was hidden in his daughter Hemamala's hair & she was spirited away to Lanka. Arrival of Holy Tooth Relic with the Orissan princess caused a sensation. A fine temple was built to deposit the Tooth relic. The Perahera procession was initiated giving birth to the most colourful festival of the island, the tourist attraction of international standing, spectacular Kandy Esala Perahera pageant (parade + pagent + procession + celebration + veneration + rainwater conservation ritual) held in the month of July each year for a fortnight. Every hotel room is booked up in advance by the tour operators for the foreign tourists & local tourists. Sri Lankans love to tour in their land.

As the glorious ancient capitals Anurdhapura (437 BC-845 AD) & Polonnaruwa (846 AD-1302 AD) fell, the tooth Relic finally ended up in Kandy. Since its arrival the Tooth Relic has been the most sacred object of Buddhism, the most precious symbol of pride of the Sinhalese & sovereignty of the island. Treasured with veneration, carried around, hidden in sanctuaries, protected by the ancient kings of Lanka from the marauding Dravidian invaders from South India & protected by the medieval kings of Lanka from the Portuguese (1505-1656) & Dutch (1656-1796) who held sway in the coastal towns, the tooth has traversed through innumerable travails & calamities of the island even as recent as 1998.
In 1283 it was carried back to India by an invading Dravidian army, but was soon brought back by King Parakrambahu the 3rd (1298-1302 AD). In the 16th century, Portuguese, who did everything humanly possible to erase the island off its Buddhist heritage, seized what they claimed was the Holy Tooth Relic, took it away to Goa, pounded to dust, then burned, & then threw the ashes to the sea in front of a rat tag band of the Portuguese viceroy in Goa, a bishop & numerous other sadistic dignitaries. "Not so" is the Sinhalese rejoinder, they were fobbed off with a replica tooth & the Holy Tooth Relic remained safe.

Barbarism & Savagery
Year 1998. That was at the bloody hands of the barbaric terrorists who weren't able to break into the premises, suicide bombed at the entrance, with a truckload of explosives, damaging the Octagon. The scars have been repaired; crash barriers erected; the foreign tourists returned joining the unperturbed local devotees. To give the due credit to the devil, the exploitative British colonialists (1815-1948), we mustn't fail to remark that the colonialist British, honouring the convention-the document of capitulation of Lanka - in 1815, entrusted the Sacred Tooth Relic to the Buddhist Monks to retain the heritage of the island. The modern terrorists didn't entertain such notions: their barbarism has no bounds. The savagery hatched to destroy a world heritage site, barbarism hatched to wipe off the tradition & culture of Sinhalese & Buddhism in Sri Lanka, by providence, didn't come to desired end of terrorists

Also accessed from the temple of the Tooth are Raja tusker Museum, The Aluth Maligawa, and The Sri Dalada Museum.

Tusker Raja Museum
The much adored elephant which carried the Tooth Relic casket in the Kandy Esala Perahera pageant for half a century was offered to the temple by a pious Buddhist family when he was very young. Raja was 85 when he died in 1988 after a half century of devoted service to the temple. Remains of the Sathdanta cast (meaning among other features, that seven part of its body-four legs, trunk, penis & tail-touch the ground when it stand upright) tusker elephant is stuffed & erected. Today it stands with its head high albeit in a glass cubicle.

The Aluth Maligawa
The Aluth Maligawa was built in 1956 to celebrate the 2500th anniversary of the Buddha's final extinction. The interior, as if to compensate for the lack of Buddhist imagery in the main section of the temple, is filled with an array of Buddha statues, many donated by foreign countries, which offer an interesting opportunity to compare, Asian variation, ethnic designs of traditional Buddhist iconography.

The Sri Dalada Museum
The first floor shows pictures of all the various cities & shrines in which the Tooth Relic is supposed to have rested during its travels & travails around Sri Lanka, along with photos of damage caused by the 1998 terrorist bombing, bringing home the remarkable scale & skill of the restoration carried out since then. The Octagon was damaged while the main shrine stood unharmed. The highlight is the gorgeous silk Buddha footprint which is said to have been offered to the temple in the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1746-1778).

The Audience Hall
Rebuilt in the Kandyan style as a wooden pillared hall, the penultimate ultimate betrayal of the island, the document of capitulation sans war to the British, by the Kandyan Ministers of the King (betrayal of an island which remained a sovereign state for 2358 years) was signed here in 1815 AD.

The ultimate betrayal of the island was the so called Indo-Lanka accord signed by Chamberlain-like J. R. Jayawardena of Sri Lanka & Rajiv Gandhi of India that gave way to Indian military intervention (in the other side of the Palk Strait, it was called military assistance) in Sri Lanka in July 1987. Fortunately, for the benefit of both countries, Indian forces were completely withdrawn by Indian Prime Minister V. P. Singh in April 1990.

To the Buddhists, the supreme pilgrimage sites are where the relics of Buddha are enshrined. Beside the Holy Temple of the Tooth, Kandy there are other pilgrimage sites in Sri Lanka where Relics of Buddha are enshrines.

Sri Lanka Holidays

The Holy Temple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa) (WHS), Kandy, Sri Lanka

Relics of Buddha