Temple of the Lord Buddha’s Tooth or Sri Dalada Maligawa is one of the most sacred places in Sri Lanka. The history of this place dates back to 1595. It is known to be only place in the world to have the Tooth of relic of the Lord Buddha.
This temple is one of the greatest tourist attractions. It is said that the tooth of relic is an original tooth obtained after passing away of Lord Buddha. It has been brought to Sri Lanka in 313 AD. Foreign invaders have tried many a times to destroy it and insult Buddhists in the history. All these attempts have failed and it is lively available even today. It is being carried on the back of one of the sacred elephants only once a year in an celebrating event called Perahera.
In the King’s era, the tooth of relic was the symbol of ownership of the kingdom. Therefore, it was a key point when it comes to political power. The Kings wanted to protect it and keep it near the capital of the Kingdom. This became a target of foreign invaders and got attacked many a times by Dutch and Portuguese. It was also attacked by a lorry of bombs of LTTE terrorists in 1998 and was restored by great effort.
The arts and crafts available here cannot be seen anywhere in the world. The ancient architectural skills can be properly seen when visiting this place.
