Every July and August in Kandy in the highlands of Sri Lanka, a very special festival is held. At the centre of Kandy is the Temple of the Tooth, home of the Tooth Relic, the holiest relic in all of Sri Lanka as it’s supposed to be one of the teeth of Buddha himself. According to legend, it was brought to the island sometime in the fourth century and, taken care of by the Sinhalese kings, and so came to symbolise the power to rule Sri Lanka. The Chinese even sent two military expeditions to try and take it in the 13th and 15th centuries.
There are scholars that believe that the original tooth was actually taken by the Portuguese and destroyed in the 16th century, but whether or not the relic which is held in the Temple today is actually the original doesn’t strike me as being very important, because the traditions that have built up around this relic, the original or not, are simply fascinating.
Its roots go back millennia, and at least a few hundred years in its modern form. Each year, the tooth is paraded through the streets. And tonight Kandy is just getting ready for the show…
00:00 Intro
00:27 Road to Kandy
01:02 Kandy
01:36 Botanic Gardens
03:10 Temple of the Tooth
04:55 Esala Perahera
10:14 Cleaning Up
