In the morning, start with a walk around the outer perimeter of the temple,

🌟 Kandy Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic: Awakening the Heart of the Sacred City at Dawn

Strolling along the softly lit Kandy Lake at dawn, the air is filled with the mixed fragrance of sandalwood and jasmine. This ancient city, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, was the last capital of the Sinhalese Kingdom, and the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is its very soul—housing the tooth relic of Buddha Shakyamuni, which was brought from India in the 4th century AD and has since become the most sacred center of faith in Sri Lanka.

🌅 **The Ritual of Morning Worship at the Sacred Temple**
By 5:30 AM, the temple’s outer area is already awake. Walking along the white walls, you encounter countless frozen moments of faith: statues of monks holding lotus flowers stand silently, and on the relief walls telling the history of the tooth relic, you can see the legendary story from 371 AD when a South Indian princess hid the tooth relic in her hair bun. The most touching sight is the white elephants preparing for the Esala Perahera procession; draped in embroidered golden silk robes, their mahouts are carefully cleaning their tusks with coconuts—a tradition that has lasted for a thousand years and will transform into a grand spectacle that empties the streets during the full moon in August.

🕌 **Architectural Codes Across Time and Space**
The golden roof of the main shrine glimmers like a miracle in the morning light. This 16th-century Kandy Kingdom-style complex holds three sacred layers: the outer octagonal tower bears the blood and tears of resisting colonial invasions; the middle gem hall’s murals depict the life of Buddha; and the innermost golden pavilion, made of pure gold, hosts the daily chanting ceremony at 6:15 AM, when the ivory-carved sacred casket is solemnly taken out, and the entire temple resonates with the rolling waves of Pali scriptures.

✨ **The Daily Poetry of Practitioners**
It is especially recommended to arrive at the inner shrine’s corridor before 7 AM to see monks holding copper bowls to receive devotees’ offerings of coconut oil—these oil lamps will light 1,886 sacred lamps at dusk. Under the Bodhi tree at the corner, elderly monks often use branches dipped in water to teach young novices to write Sinhalese scriptures; the fleeting characters on the sandy ground resemble the eternal and momentary overlap of this ancient city.

When the sunlight completely dispels the mountain town’s thin mist, try following the locals by circling the temple three times, finally stopping at the ruins of the Queen’s Hotel by the lake. Under the arches of this British colonial-era building, you can perfectly see the reflection of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and the catfish swimming in the lake, as if witnessing the spiritual heritage from ancient kingdoms to modern times. "The true Kandy always lives in the gap between the morning bell and the evening drum," a monk sweeping fallen leaves told me.

Post by aurora_ser | Aug 23, 2025