Temple of the Tooth Relic (Dalada Maligawa)

Kandy was the capital of the Singhalese Kings from 1592 to 1815. Fortified by a terrain of mountains and the difficult approach Kandy managed to operate in independence from Dutch, Portuguese and the English till 1815. The city is a world heritage site declared by UNESCO, in part due to this temple.

The Sri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a temple in the city of Kandy in Sri Lanka. It was built within the royal palace complex which houses the one of the two surviving relic of the tooth of Buddha, an object of veneration for Buddhists.

The Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy, the temple which houses the Sacred Tooth Relic of The Buddha, is possibly the most sacred Buddhist shrine in the world. It is venerated not only by Buddhists in Sri Lanka but by Buddhists all over the world.

The entrance to the temple complex is through the “Maha Vahalkada”. There are two walls on the sides of the “Vahalkada”. The outer wall is called “Walakulu Bamma” (wall of clouds). This same pattern is also used in the wall surrounding the Kandy lake. The inner wall is called “Diyareli Bamma” (wall of water ripples). Both these walls are built with holes to place oil lanterns during the night.

Next to the Temple of the Tooth, the Kandy National Museum once housed the concubines of the Kings of Kandy and now contains a clutter of royal and noble relics including thrones, sceptres and ceremonial swords, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, before the kingdom’s final decline. It was here that the Kandyan chiefs finally surrendered to the British in 1815. After inviting them in to depose the unpopular king Sri Wickrama Rajasinha, the rebel chiefs attempted to dismiss the British with perfunctory thanks, only to find that their new rulers had no intention of leaving. The museum is open Saturday-Thursday 09:00-17:00.

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