Kandy, Sri Lanka

KANDY, SRI LANKA
Kandy Lake - All Photos (c) R. Johnson - Dancer, Kandy

Kandy, situated beside a lake in the hills just below the center of Sri Lanka, is the country's cultural center.

Temple of the Tooth
The Temple of the Tooth is said to house a relic from the mouth of the Lord Buddha, himself, which was said to have been taken from the flames of his funeral pyre and smuggled to Ceylon in the hair of a princess. The Tooth was pirated to India by an invading army but brought back. Then Catholic zealots stole something they thought was the tooth and destroyed it when the Portuguese captured Kandy. But the Sinhalese claimed it was a false tooth and that the original still rests inside the Temple of the Tooth. The temple was constructed during the time of the Kandyan kings in the 17th and 18th centuries.

FESTIVAL TIME
Sri Lanka's grandest celebration, the Kandy Esala Perahera, takes place each year in the month of Esala (July or August). It is a ten day fest which ends on the night of the full moon with a procession of drummers, dancers and elephants led by the Maligawa Tusker, a giant dressed to the nines carrying a canopy which shelters a duplicate of the reliquary of Buddha's sacred tooth.

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