Tooth of Buddha: A Story of Worship, Heritage & Wars (Temple of Tooth, Kandy, Sri Lanka)

It was the year 1561. The Portuguese Viceroy of Goa Constantino De Braganca handed over the tooth of Buddha to the Archbishop of Goa. The King of Pegu, now called Myanmar, had offered him 50,000 pounds sterling as a ransom to save the tooth from destruction. But the Archbishop of Goa placed the tooth in a mortar and crushed it to powder. The powder of the relic tooth was then burnt in charcoal and after that, the burnt powder along with the charcoal used in burning it was thrown into the river Gomti. This was the account given by Portuguese historian Diogo de Couto.
The story of the tooth relic starts around 2500 years ago when the body of Buddha was getting cremated after his Parinirvana in Kushinagar in the Gangetic plains of India. Khema, a Bhikkhuni and one of the two Prime female disciples of Buddha grabbed the left upper canine tooth from the ashes.
Dathavamsa or “Chronicles of Tooth” written in 310 AD in Sri Lanka gives a detailed account of the long journey of the tooth after the cremation of Buddha.

Chapters :

0:00 - Intro
0:47 - The Sacred Tooth Relic
4:13 - Relic Leaves Kalinga
5:10 - Relic arrives in Sri Lanka
6:18 - Wars over Relics
7:33 - The Portuguese Capture of Relic Tooth
10:56 - British Rule and the relic
11:28 - Terror Attack
12:01 - The Temple of Tooth



#Buddha #Buddhism #Buddhist

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