Temple Of The Sacred Tooth Relic, in The Royal Palace Complex Of The Former Kingdom Of Kandy Sri Lanka.

©Saman527/Shutterstock

Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic

Top choice in Kandy


The golden-roofed Temple of the Sacred Tooth houses Sri Lanka’s most important Buddhist relic – a tooth of the Buddha. During puja (offerings or prayers), the heavily guarded room housing the tooth is open to devotees and tourists. However, you don’t actually see the tooth. It’s kept in a gold casket shaped like a dagoba (stupa), which contains a series of six dagoba caskets of diminishing size.

As well as the revered main temple, the complex includes a series of smaller temples, shrines and museums.

Freelance guides will offer their services around the entire temple complex for around Rs 600, and free audio guides are available at the ticket office. An elevator facilitates access for travellers with disabilities.

The complex can get crowded as it receives many worshippers and tourists, and backpackers, Chinese tour groups and Thai monks all jostle for space. Wear clothes that cover your legs and your shoulders, and remove your shoes.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Kandy attractions

1. Alut Maligawa

The three-storey Alut Maligawa is a large shrine hall displaying dozens of sitting Buddhas donated by devotees from Thailand. Its design resembles a Thai…

2. Sri Dalada Museum

0.01 MILES

This museum occupies the upper two floors of the Alut Maligawa building and contains a stunning array of gifts donated by several presidents and Buddhist…

3. Audience Hall

0.02 MILES

To the north of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, but still within the compound, is the 19th-century Audience Hall, an open-air pavilion with stone…

4. World Buddhism Museum

0.03 MILES

Housed inside the former High Court buildings, the World Buddhism Museum contains lots of photographs, models and displays illustrating Buddhism around…

5. Rajah Tusker Hall

0.03 MILES

Adjacent to the Audience Hall, the Rajah Tusker Hall displays the stuffed remains of Rajah, the famous Maligawa elephant who died in 1988. Rajah was the…

6. National Museum

0.06 MILES

This museum once housed Kandyan royal concubines and now features royal regalia and reminders of pre-European Sinhalese life. One of the most impressive…

7. Natha Devale

0.08 MILES

The 14th-century Natha Devale is the oldest of Kandy's devales. It perches on a stone terrace with a fine vahalkada (solid panel of sculpture) gateway…

8. Kandy Garrison Cemetery

0.09 MILES

This well-maintained cemetery contains 163 graves from colonial times. Perhaps the most striking aspect of a visit here is learning just how young most…