Page 43 - Inside Sec 1_มาตลังกา.indd

PRESENTATION IN ENGLISH 51

claimed their part for raising Stupas and the Malla were not able to withstand a coalition
against them. The Brahmin Do◊a calmed the situation by making everyone accept a

distribution of bones in eight lots. The tradition wanted that the Gods and the Næga 1
each received a third of the relics, the remaining third was for humans. (J. Filliozat,
1953 : 491-492).
In the sharing, the Brahmin had hidden the right eyetooth of the Buddha in
his turban. Judging that the Brahmin was not capable of honoring with dignity the holy
2
relic, the god Indra grabbed it and placed it in Cº¬ama◊icetiya of the Tævatiμsa heaven .
2
The Brahmin had concealed two other canine teeth, but one was grabbed by a Næga , and
the other stolen by a man who took it with him to Gandhara.
3
There remains the fourth canine tooth, the left eyetooth . According to the chronicle
of Dæ†havaμsa (Malalasekera, 1960 : I, 1069), it would have been picked by a follower
of the Buddha, on the premises of the cremation, and given to king Brahmadatta who
would have made of it an object of worship by raising a palace to house it.
The years go by and the centuries succeed one another. The beliefs change, and
the people also. Repeatedly, the sacred tooth narrowly escaped being destroyed by those
who had no faith in Buddhism and who did not understand how one could worship a
piece of bone, as sacred as it was. The king of Dantapura, the “ City of the Tooth ”, then
took the decision to put the relic in a safe place, on another continent. To do this, he
asked his daughter, princess Hemamælæ, and his son-in-law, opportunely called Danta,
i.e. “ the tooth ”, to take the relic with them and to go to Lanka. Hiding the precious relic
in her bun, the princess and her husband reached their destination and handed it to

king Sirimeghava◊◊a (362-409 A.D.) who kept it carefully in Dæ†hadhætu-ghara, the
“ House of the Tooth ” (John Strong, 2004 : 190-196).
The tribulations of the Tooth-relic did not end then. Tossed about by events, it
passed from one city to another and finally found it base in Kandy, in the sixteenth
century, where a festival is organized every year in its honor. It is the Perahera, or
“ Procession ” in Singhalese. The reliquary which contains the sacred tooth is placed on
the back of an adorned elephant before being paraded through the streets of the city. The
night of the full moon of August, the festival reaches its peak : dozens of elephants
march past at the same time. The show is much appreciated by Buddhists, but also by
tourists, who become numerous for the occasion.

1
Mythical being similar to a snake and generally living in water. In some of the Lao and Tai classical
works, they do not live in a river or a lake but in a magnificent underground realm.
2
The Cº¬ama◊icetiya cetiya was erected by the god Indra to hold the hair and the right eyetooth of
the Buddha. A detailed description of the Tævatiμsa is given by G. Cœdès et C. Archaimbault (1973 :
162-164).
3
The tradition attaches special importance to the canine teeth of the Buddha since all words he
uttered in his teaching passes through them.