Kandy
The city of Kandy is located 116 kilometers from Colombo. It is 465 meters above sea level and nestled in the mountainous central region of the island. The city resisted many invasions by Portuguese and Dutch, who occupied most of the island from the 16th century onwards.
Kandy remained the last independent capital of Sri Lanka. However, it is still considered the religious and cultural central of the country, with numerous temples and monasteries, Buddhist colleges and beautiful parks and gardens.
The tooth is kept in a two story shrine which is covered with a golden canopy and fronted by a museum where many Buddha images are kept. Most of them are gifts from different countries and different paintings depicting the various events in the history of the tooth are also displayed here.
A replica of the tooth, together with its on rate and beautiful caskets, is displayed once a year during the “Esala perahara”. This is the island’s largest annual celebration, being celebrated for ten days with colorful and elaborate parades of dancers, drummers and elephants, around a million peoples attend this festival each year. Due to security concerns, the actual tooth is never brought out for the festival.