On the shore of a quiet lake in the hill city of Kandy stands the Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. It houses what Buddhists revere as a tooth of the Buddha himself, and for many centuries it has been one of the most important places of pilgrimage in the Buddhist world. Its story weaves together devotion, adventure and the history of the Sri Lankan nation.
Relics after the Buddha’s passing
The Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16) describes how, after the Buddha’s cremation at Kusinārā, his relics were divided among eight kingdoms and clans, each of which built a stūpa to honour them. Later traditions record that several teeth of the Buddha were preserved, and one of them, the left canine, came to be kept in the kingdom of Kalinga on the east coast of India. See also The Four Holy Places.
A princess and a hidden treasure
According to the Sri Lankan chronicles, including the Cūḷavaṃsa (the continuation of the Mahāvaṃsa) and the Dāṭhāvaṃsa, “the chronicle of the tooth”, the relic was threatened during a time of war in Kalinga in the fourth century CE. To keep it safe, the king entrusted it to his daughter, Princess Hemamālā, and her husband, Prince Danta.
Disguised as ordinary travellers, the couple made the long journey to Sri Lanka. Tradition tells that Hemamālā hid the precious relic in her hair. They arrived in Anuradhapura during the reign of King Sirimeghavaṇṇa (Kitsiri Mevan), who received the relic with great honour and enshrined it in a special building. He also began an annual festival in which the relic was displayed to the people — the forerunner of the great procession held today.
The relic and the right to rule
Over time, the tooth relic came to be seen as a symbol of sovereignty in Sri Lanka. The belief grew that whoever possessed the relic had the right to govern the island, and that the king had a sacred duty to protect it. As capitals moved — from Anuradhapura to Polonnaruwa, and later to several other royal cities including Dambadeniya, Kotte and finally Kandy — the relic moved with them, and a new temple was built for it each time.
In Kandy, the last royal capital, a temple was built beside the royal palace from the late sixteenth century onwards, with later kings enlarging and rebuilding it. When the Kandyan kingdom came under British rule in 1815, custody of the relic remained a matter of great importance to the people. Today the temple is cared for by its lay custodian, the Diyawadana Nilame, together with the senior monks of the Malwatta and Asgiriya chapters.
Daily worship and the Esala Perahera
The relic itself is kept in a series of nested golden caskets in an inner chamber and is very rarely shown in public. Daily rituals, known as tēvāva, are performed several times a day, accompanied by the beating of traditional drums. Pilgrims bring lotus and jasmine flowers, and the temple is especially crowded on Poya days.
The most famous event is the Esala Perahera, held each year in the month of Esala (usually July or August) and culminating on the Esala full moon. Over several nights, the streets of Kandy fill with:
- richly decorated elephants, led by a great tusker carrying a casket that represents the relic,
- Kandyan dancers and drummers in traditional dress,
- whip-crackers, fire dancers and torch-bearers lighting the way,
- processions from the four dēvālayas (shrines to protective deities) associated with the temple.
The perahera is both a deeply devotional occasion and one of the great cultural festivals of Asia, drawing visitors from around the world.
World Heritage and a time of trial
In 1988 UNESCO inscribed the Sacred City of Kandy, including the Temple of the Tooth and the royal palace complex, as a World Heritage Site. On 25 January 1998, during Sri Lanka’s civil war, the temple was attacked with a truck bomb attributed to the LTTE. People were killed and the front of the temple was badly damaged, though the relic chamber was not harmed. The temple was restored, and worship continued — a quiet sign of the resilience of the community that cherishes it.
What we can learn
Why do Buddhists honour a relic? Not because a tooth has magical power, but because it brings the Buddha vividly to mind. Seeing the golden casket, devotees recall that a real human being walked this earth and found the way to freedom — and taught it out of compassion. Hemamālā’s brave journey shows what people have been willing to do to protect what they hold sacred. For us, the deeper relic is the Dhamma itself, which the Buddha said would be our teacher after he was gone. We protect it best by living it, and by taking refuge in the Three Jewels.
Visitor tip: wear white or modest clothing covering shoulders and knees, remove shoes and hats, and avoid posing with your back to Buddha images for photographs.
