Wednesday January 29, 2014
The most sacred relic in all Sri Lanka is a tooth of Buddha himself. When his body was burned in south India, like it is common after dead, some of his mortal remains were rescued from the ashes, like this tooth. At least that´s what the legend says….Pilgrims from whole Sri Lanka come here to worship this relic in daily ceremonies.
You can only see the golden casket where it is kept inside, and we had to wait in line for maybe 1,5 hours until we could throw a very short-maybe two seconds-gaze on this golden casket. Photos not allowed right in front, only from far. Everything is accompanied by the rhythmic drumming and the oboe-like flutes that are part of the ceremony.
Some families who bring food donations have the privilege to sit in a special area just opposite of the tooth for the whole time of the ceremony and can worship the tooth from there.
There are some small museums attached to the temple that are nice to see, all about the history of the temple and buddhism.
They always have special areas and lines for „the foreigners“ here, which feels kind of strange. Makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable.
I think if they put simply „tourists“ it would sound a little bit more friendly and welcoming.
On our way back to town we saw some water lizards and the city life felt like going back to normal after such a long time inside the temple sight.
