Temple of the Buddha's Tooth

The temple located north of the lake in Kandy is among the most important shrines in Sri Lanka. The main reason is that it guards the most important relic - Buddha's tooth. According to legend, the tooth was pulled from the flames of Buddha's funeral pyre in 543 BC and smuggled to Sri Lanka in the 4th century AD hidden in the hair of a princess from Kalinga.

It became the center of attention mainly because it became a symbol of the island's sovereignty and people believed that whoever possessed it had the right to rule. The construction of the Temple of the Tooth took place mainly in the years 1687-1707 and from 1747-1782 under the supervision of the Kandyan kings.

The main chapel with the tooth - Vahahitina maligava - stands in the middle of a paved courtyard. The heavily guarded room with the sacred tooth is accessible to worshippers and tourists during puja. The temple has invaluable significance for most Sri Lankan Buddhists, and at the beginning of 1998 it was damaged by a bomb.