Tour Guide, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
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In 1982 UNESCO named Kandy city as a world heritage site due to this temple. Behind the tooth relic temple there are so many beautiful stories.
After the passing away of the Buddha, the tooth relic was preserved in Kalinga, but later prince Dhantha & his wife princess Hemamala brought it to Sri lanka. This incident took place during the reign of Keerthi Sri Megawarna in 4th C AD. King Keerthi Sri Megawarna enshrined it megagiri viharaya in Anuradhapura.it was the first place where sacred tooth relic place.later this sacred tooth relic became the legitimate claim of sri lankan kingship.without tooth relic,king couldn't be the real king in sri lanka. As a Buddhist country it was one of main duty of our kings to protect this sacred tooth relic. So they built tooth relic temples close to their palace and they daily worshiped this tooth relic. When our kingdom was moved place to place due to tamil invaders from India, the tooth relic was also moved with king.
King Vimaldarmasooriya-1 built a two storey building in Kandy to enshrine sacred tooth relic. The present tooth relic temple was built by King Veera Narendrasinghe.
Here we can see many parts among them the octagonal part or paththirippuwa was added to tooth relic temple during the reign of king KEERTHI SRI RAJASINGHE. He wanted to make tooth relic temple more beautiful that's why king built the Paththirippuwa.
Tooth relic is kept in the upper floor of inner chamber it is known as Wedaitina maligaya. The door of this chamber is carved with gold,silver and ivory, and Buddhist monks of two chapters(MALWATHU & ASGIRI)conduct daily worship concession in the inner chamber of this tooth relic temple. During the worshiping concession the door of the inner chamber is opened and we can see the inside of inner chamber but we can not see tooth relic. It is kept on a seven golden casket shape like a dagoba.
If you visit there one time certainly you will visit there again; Kandy city is one of the beautiful cities in Sri Lanka.