3/6: Kandy's Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic

Ranjan, our tuk tuk driver for the afternoon to the mountain devales or shrines and temples north of Kandy, dropped us off back in the city at The Church of St. Paul close to 6. The church was responsible for the upkeep of the 163 graves of the British officers and family members at the Kandy Garrison Cemetery that we'd visited just the afternoon before after our arrival from Colombo. Unfortunately, however, the church was closed because of the late hour.

I bet with a large infusion of cash, the rather decrepit building across from the church could be turned into something pretty fabulous.

The most famous sight in Kandy was undoubtedly the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic as it was Sri Lanka's most important Buddhist relic as it contained a tooth of the Buddha as you might have guessed! We'd purposely left our visit to the evening as that was when prayers would take place and the room where the tooth was located would be open.

Once inside the temple grounds next door, though, we were able to glimpse more of the church.

As we didn't enter by the revered main temple, we wandered first through a series of smaller temples, none of which were named. As there had been a bombing here a year earlier, security was very tight to enter the grounds with a close examination of our backpacks.

A sign said, "You are now approaching the sacred precincts of the Natha Devala dedicated to Lord Natha, the future Buddha." Because of that, no one was permitted to walk across the sacred premises wearing any sort of footwear or headgear. Fortunately, the late hour meant it was no longer hot, so going shoeless wasn't uncomfortable for our tootsies! 

When setting out that morning for the Ceylon Tea Museum, then the Peradeniya Botanic Gardens, followed by the mountain shrines, we'd made sure to both wear pants and have our shoulders covered knowing we'd be ending the day at this temple. The reason was we'd observed the night before many tourists being turned away for not wearing the proper attire. 

Buddhist prayer flags fluttered in the breeze at what I suspected was the 19th century Audience Hall based on a tour book description about an open-air pavilion with stone columns that had been carved to look like wooden pillars.

We were fortunate that the crowds had been very sparse while walking around the minor temples because we had read that we might have to jostle with Chinese tour groups and Thai monks for space. Even though it was still the early days of the coronavirus and there weren't then any advertised cases in Sri Lanka, that may have played a part in the smaller crowds outside. 

The main temple in the background:

There were several religious museums in the complex but given we'd been playing tourist for close to ten hours by then, our interest in touring them flagged so we concentrated on only seeing the main tooth shrine known as the Vahahitina Maligawa. We snagged spots upstairs on the floor behind a large group of schoolchildren waiting for the puja or offerings or prayers to take place when the heavily guarded room in front of us housing the tooth would open.

Given the importance of the temple to Sri Lankans, I want to share with you the history of Buddha's tooth. The sacred tooth was said to have been snatched from the flames of the Buddha's funeral pyre in 483 BC in India and smuggled to Sri Lanka during the 4th century AD when it was hidden in a princess's hair. After moving around the country for hundreds of years, it ended up here in Kandy. In 1283, an invading Indian army took it back but it was retrieved by King Parakramabahu III.

The tooth gradually grew in importance as a symbol of sovereignty, and it was believed that whoever had possession of the tooth relic could then rule the island of Sri Lanka. Some say the Portuguese seized the tooth in the 16th century and burned it in the devoutly Catholic city of Goa, now part of India, and where we'd planned to spend about a week at the end of March. However, the Sinhalese claim that the Portuguese stole a replica tooth and the real one had been safe elsewhere. Rumors abound the real tooth may be hidden even now and the tooth kept in the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is only a replica!

Whatever the truth, the temple was built under Kandyan kings from 1687-1707 and also from 1747-1782. The entire temple complex was part of the Kandyan royal palace. Just like male Muslims believe they must visit Mecca, Saudi Arabia once in their lifetimes, Sri Lankan Buddhists believe they also must make a pilgrimage to the Sacred Tooth Temple once in their lifetime.

Not being Buddhists and not having access to any sort of a guide to explain what was happening, Steven went downstairs and I stayed put to save our spots outside the guarded room. After waiting patiently for what seemed like forever and seeing everyone else leave, the constant noise of drummers downstairs led me there, too. I sure didn't want to miss out on seeing the monks enter and anything else that might happen!

Clearly, downstairs was where the action was happening!

No idea what or who this fellow was but he must have been important as we all had to stay clear. 

While we all waited still longer, three drummers played these drums for close to half an hour with hardly a break. I loved the music so much I took a video of them.

I found myself by happenstance in a perfect spot to capture the procession of pura or offerings.

Thanks to texting, I was able to locate Steven in the throngs of people. We rushed back upstairs to then watch hundreds of worshipers slowly make their way in single file to just outside the guarded room where the tooth was (theoretically at least!) kept. 

The man in the enclosure made sure the faithful didn't tarry!

As worshipers passed the opening, each was blessed and had no more than a moment to glance inside. The tooth was kept in a gold casket shaped like a dagoba or stupa, that itself contained a series of six dagoba caskets of diminishing size, just like a Russian doll.

When the line finally became a trickle, we, too, made our way to the doorway to be blessed. I don't remember seeing anything inside the room where the tooth was kept as we were hustled on. Regardless, it was still a beautiful experience and worth every moment.

The temple looked smashing at night when we finally called it a day.

If my pedometer app could be trusted, Steven and I walked almost 8 miles and 18,000 steps that day! Rain had been forecast all day but it only poured cats and dogs when we finally stopped for dinner close to 8. Luckily, it only drizzled in our 'air-conditioned' tuk tuk ride back through town and up the hill to our digs. Then the deluge began in earnest - we couldn't even hear the ac in our room because the noise from the rain was so deafening!

Next post: Traveling north to Dambulla via a stop at a spice and herb garb garden followed by lots of climbing!

I am also finally finishing up the blog from our trip last fall to Ireland and the United Kingdom, about time, right?! Here's the link to the latest post about our exciting drive through the Western Highlands of Scotland from Glasgow to Oban via the pre-historic Kilmartin Glen:

https://bergersadventures7.blogspot.com/2020/04/929-glasgow-oban-via-pre-historic-sites.html

Posted on April 28th, 2020, on a gloriously sunny day in Denver's burbs. Steven and I hope that you are taking care of yourself and not just everyone else who might need you in these troubled times.

3/6: Kandy's Mountain Temples

After just touring the delightful Peradeniya Botanic Gardens in Kandy, we hired Ranjan, a tuk tuk driver, to take us into the hills surrounding the city to tour some of the devales or shrines dedicated to deities. Ranjan said the rate for the Three Temples Loop would be LKR3,000, about $15, for the extensive drive and that would include returning us to downtown Kandy. That seemed very reasonable to us since there was no public transportation available to possibly visit each devale and temple. 

Colorful murals decorated many walls along the road.

Embekka Devale, dedicated to the worship of the Hindu deity Mahasen, was constructed in the 14th century although it was obvious that many changes had taken place since then.

Before entering the beautiful temple, we took the time to admire the carved wooden pillars that depicted swans, eagles, wrestling men, and dancing women.

Even the door handle was elaborately detailed.

We'd arrived shortly before a large group of elementary school students who tried to practice their limited English peppering us with questions as we left the drummers' hall!

In the village across from the temple, this man had carved some beautiful pieces that were very similar to what we'd just seen on the pillars. If they hadn't been so heavy, we would have bought one in a minute. But Steven and I were still figuring that we had another almost four months to go on our trip to Asia and the Middle East and sure didn't want to lug such a heavy souvenir for all that time. Little did we know of course, that we'd be heading home in just ten days from then because of the coronavirus! We instead selected the much lighter carving of the sun he'd done after learning it was intended as an entrance sign. It looks perfect now up in our hallway and reminds us of our visit to Embekka.

As we drove next to Lankatilake Temple, Ranjan pointed out the fields where rice and lots of herbs were grown. He added that cinnamon plants were planted at higher elevations.

This was but one of many roadside shrines we saw that day in the hills above Kandy.

The 14th century temple, located on a rocky bluff, was considered the most impressive in the region. We had to leave our shoes at the entrance before walking through the gate.

We were very surprised when we read that the temple was divided into two halves: one half was Buddhist and the other was Hindu! 

What we later learned from Ranjan as we couldn't understand what was what, was this seemingly minor entryway only was actually Hindu but the rest of the temple was Buddhist. The Image House was the predominant structure in any Buddhist place of worship.

Once we walked through the curtain at the prompting of the guide or perhaps the caretaker, he showed us the baked clay walls and roof that were 1300 years old. 

Never did we expect such a stunning temple inside beyond the second curtain! As we walked around with two other tourists who were from France as so many were we'd already noticed in Sri Lanka, we saw lots of highly decorated Buddhist statues.

The caretaker pulled the curtain aside to reveal another statue.

Stone elephant figures adorned the friezes all around the temple below the statues.

The throne was carried around the town at the annual festival in September. 

After leaving the lush interior of the Image House, we spent quite a bit of time wandering outside to gaze at the temple literally located on the rock. Decorated with mostly sculptured elephants, it originally had four stories but the masonry structure collapsed so only the ground floor remained. 

Another shrine on the temple grounds:

Ranjan kindly showed us the main gateway carved out of the rock on the eastern side of the temple by which many pilgrims made their way up to the temple. Remember, everything was constructed atop this ONE rock - just amazing!

Ranjan next showed us one of the largest inscriptions in Sri Lanka that we had also missed and was also carved into the rock. Carved in medieval Sinhala and Tamil languages in the 14th century, it provided information about the founder and chief architect. It also stated that paddy lands, cattle, and buffaloes were donated for the temple's maintenance. The inscription also mentioned those who opposed the donations would be born in hell and as dogs, crows, and pretas, whatever the latter were!

Thank goodness Ranjan was willing to show us around after we'd given it our best shot and were totally confused as to what represented the Hindu and Buddhist portions of the temple plus pointing out us all that we'd missed! I really appreciated that, at no point, was there any pressure in terms of rushing to see the next sight unlike drivers we've hired in other countries.

Our next destination was Gadaladenya Temple, another 20 minutes away, and situated on a magnificent rock by the side of the road. The Buddhist temple with the Hindu annex also dated from the 14th century and was built by King Buwanekabahu, the fourth ruler of the Gampola Kingdom. The first thing we saw was the main pagoda which had four small pagodas of the Buddha around it with eight statues of elephants.

As we walked into each pagoda entrance we saw vividly painted frescoes and Buddhas.

Across from the pagoda was this fellow who sold paintings of the temple and other religious sites we'd be visiting in the next few days as well as providing tourist information and acting as the ticket taker!

The temple was also built atop a massive rock just like the one at Lankatilake. We were so fortunate that it wasn't uncomfortably hot as we had to walk around shoeless out of respect.

In front of the temple was a moonstone and, on either side, were mythical animals called Gajasinghe with the head of an elephant and the body of a lion. At the doorway were two famous pillars with even more carvings. It was protected by scaffolding and a tin roof to prevent the temple from further erosion from rain.  

The temple's Image House was decorated with very beautiful stone carvings of famous Kandyan dancers whose designs were taken from an Indian architect named Pallawa. 

A magnificent gilded seated Buddha was at the center of the temple.

I wondered about the origin and age of the elephant tusks and what they represented.

Several small pools surrounded the temple and pagoda which contributed to the peacefulness and serenity of the site.

In the late afternoon, we headed back to the city of Kandy located only about 15 kms away but, with rush hour traffic, it took longer than the distance would indicate. Ranjan chose to go down the wrong side of the road to get there faster as did most other tuk tuk drivers. I guess they figured the 'rules of the road' only applied to car drivers! I asked Ranjan what was the speed limit for tuk tuk drivers and he said 45-50 kph but it sure seemed like he went a lot faster than that on the mountain roads. Thank goodness Ranjan was the only tuk tuk driver we had in Sri Lanka who had a boom box in his vehicle. Steven and I could have done without the 'pleasure' of listening to reggae music for several hours as we drove through the countryside and back to Kandy!

Gail and Denis: You'll no doubt also notice if you are also lucky enough to visit Sri Lanka next year the absence of traffic lights in the country. Instead, there were traffic cops at major intersections to direct cars and willing tuk tuk drivers.

Another seated Buddha shrine in Kandy:

Next post: The Temple of the Tooth that night, the main reason most people visit Kandy!

I am also trying to finish up writing posts from our trip last fall to Ireland and the United Kingdom. Here's a link to my latest post about what we thought of surprisingly glorious Glasgow, Scotland:

https://bergersadventures7.blogspot.com/2020/04/928-discovering-glorious-glasgow.html

Posted on April 23rd, 2020, from springtime in Denver. Steven and I hope you stay well, hopeful, and connected during these troubling times.