Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic -------- Kandy Sri Lanka
The Temple of the
Sacred Tooth Relic [1], located in Kandy, Sri Lanka, houses the
famous tooth relic or śarīra of Buddha. The temple itself is the most important
pilgrimage site in Sri Lanka. Moreover, the sacred Tooth Relic has a close
relationship with many of the important historical events occurring in Sri
Lanka for the past 1700 years.
Firstly, according
to local practices, pilgrims should wear white or light-colored clothes while
visiting the temple. (One should certainly not wear revealing clothing or shorts into the temple.) They must also remove their shoes before entering the
temple and enter barefoot.
Every day around
noon for a short period, the sacred Buddha relic will be open for viewing and
worship. However, pilgrims may not take photographs at the same time. They have
to stand a few meters away from the relic facing it from the backside to take
pictures.
Besides viewing the
relic, the temple also offers many other worthwhile activities. For example,
one can view the austere Buddha statues, the exquisite murals and relief
carvings, other sacred relics, and so on.
In September, the
garden outside the temple abounds with beauty and rich religious significance,
as the many śāla trees are abloom with beautiful large pinkish flowers. The
flowers of the śāla tree wither away quickly.
Therefore, they remind us that the world is transient. Moreover, according to
the Pali Tripitaka, Buddha was born next to a śāla tree, and he reached parinirvāṇa while resting between
two śāla trees.
Every year around
July or August, the Sri Lankans celebrate the ten-day long festival of Esala Perahera with a gorgeous
and lively five-section parade organized and sponsored by the Temple of the
Sacred Tooth and four nearby devales.
The first section of
the parade comes from the Temple of the Sacred Tooth. On display are male
dancers attired in colorful costumes beating small hand-held drums while
dancing traditional local dances, a group of elephants in exquisite clothing
walking in a procession – one of them has a relic stupa duplicate on its back,
and so on.
The second section
of the parade comes from the Nātha Devale. Nātha is the Sri Lankan
name for Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva.[2]
Although Sri Lanka is a Theravada Buddhist country (and in general, Theravada
Buddhists only worship the Buddha and Maitreya
Bodhisattva), Sri Lanka’s people have had a long history with Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva. Hence
some aspects of the original belief in Avalokiteśvara
Bodhisattva have been retained and localized. After that, it transformed into
the belief in Nātha. Nowadays, Sri Lankans believe
that Nātha is the future Buddha. That is why some Sri
Lankans believe Nātha is most probably Maitreya Bodhisattva, the next Buddha to come after the parinirvāṇa of Gautama Buddha. However, some
others believe Nātha is Avalokiteśvara
Bodhisattva, the next Buddha to come after the parinirvāṇa
of Amitābha Buddha.
Also, not so long ago,
every March or April during the Sri Lankan New Year, because the Sri Lankans
regarded Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva as a bodhisattva
who cured diseases, Nātha Devale
would distribute free herbal medicine to the people. There is still the custom
among local pilgrims to first visit Nātha Devale to make a vow and then visit the Temple of the
Sacred Tooth to worship Buddha.
[1] The Temple
of the Sacred Tooth is also known as the Sri Dalada Maligawa.
[2]When I
mentioned the subject of visiting an Avalokiteśvara
Bodhisattva temple in Sri Lanka with a Sri Lankan friend, he suggested the Nātha Devale in Kandy.