By Alan Ho Chok Chan
Kandy: Tooth Relic Temple
Birdsong woke me, and I had an invigorating swim at 630 in the 25 metre pool. The water was teeth-chatteringly cold, but after 30 minutes, and about 30 laps later, tepid.
We had an early breakfast and checked out around 9am.
The same long and winding road led us to the Holy of Holies in Kandy : Sri Dalada Maligawa or Temple of the Tooth relic.
The tooth in question is an upper canine (犬齒 ）taken from the Buddha as he lay on his funeral pyre. Ouch !
It was smuggled into Sri Lanka in the year 313 AD, hidden in the hair of a princess. Presented to the monarch, it was held in high regard, and was in the safekeeping of successive monarchs. Thus whoever possessed the tooth relic, also ruled the country. The relic was housed in Anuradhapura, then Polunnaruwa during the first and second kingdoms, eventually Kandy became its permanent home when it was the capital of the last Kingdom before British rule.
The temple grounds is located within the Royal palace complex, adjoining Kandy Lake.
A moat surrounds it, supposedly filled with crocodiles. A white brick wall, called the ‘ water wave wall, runs around the moat and the lake , fenestrated for coconut oil lamps, lit up the temple during evening prayers. We came at the wrong hour. The temple when lighted up, scintillates like the Koh-I-Noor.
Nevertheless, there is such a sense of serenity and tranquility the visitor could feel, as he moved hatless, shoeless in a quiet column of devotees and tourists. This surely is an oasis of calm next to the hustle and bustle of Kandy town centre, separated just by a road.
The last monastery I visited that is so tranquil, so serene that not a bird sang in its bamboo forests was the Bodhinyana Monastery in Serpentine, Western Australia, also a Theravada Buddhist temple, headed by Ajahn Bramavamso, a British Astrophysicist by training. There the monks meditated in the bamboo groves, in small caves, as is usual in the traditions of forest monastery. The only sound is that of the wind rustling through the bamboo leaves…
Back to the present.
The entrance was IMPRESSIVE.
After stepping across the threshold, you passed an ornately carved stone arch doorway into the temple grounds , via a tunnel whose walls were beautifully lined with mosaic motifs of lotus flowers of different sizes and design : ranging in colours from bright yellow, orange, silver and blue. If this were the conduit to Paradise I would gladly trot !
The main chamber housing the relic is a double- storey wooden structure, with ceilings and eaves ornately carved with lotus and other decorative Buddhist’ emblems. The front doors, guarded by two pair of elephant tusks, yellow with age, is supposedly made of two sheets of ivory on which were carved in 6 panels various Buddhists’ deities.
I did not see the ivory doors, instead, the 2 panels were of beaten silver. Could the original panels have been destroyed by the Liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam during the civil disturbances?
Anyway, to view the relic housed in 7 golden boxes garnished with precious stones, you would have to move in a roundabout manner : up some steps, turn around, down some steps, turn again, until you see a wooden pen,where mothers with their children sit patiently awaiting the anointment by magic water used to ritually cleanse the relic .Thought to have healing powers, this fragrant water, called Nanumura Mangallaya, is given to devotees.
We entered a small square chamber, the sanctum sanctorum of the entire temple, covered by a golden dome, to troop slowly around the glass casing in which the golden reliquary is placed, to view the tooth you need to be here at the right time, on the right day. According to Arosha, we were two years late, or four years early, as the relic is paraded on the back of a royal elephant once every 6 years ( Online search : once a year, which is correct?)
We were then herded into the Octagonal chamber which has become the Buddhist central library now, housing invaluable Buddhist’ sutras written on palm leaves: the earliest written records of Buddha’s teachings.
When you came down the stairs you get to a prayer hall, where paintings on the walls illustrates Buddha’s life story, from the time of birth ( he emerged under his mother’s armpit ), till his Parinirvana.
Job done, we were given a short reprieve of 20 mins to roam the streets of Kandy, and then it is Bye-bye Kandy, Hello Nuwara Eliya !
( End of Part 5B) To be continued
Dr Alan Ho is a Paediatrician in private Family Practice. He also spends time golfing, swimming, playing tennis, wine tasting, playing guitar and singing. He is also a bibliophile and voracious reader.
