We reached Kandy at around 3.30, our first stop being The Temple of The Tooth.

The Temple of The Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa) is believed to house the left upper canine tooth of the Lord Buddha himself. According to legend, the tooth was taken from the Buddha as he lay on his funeral pyre. It was smuggled to Sri Lanka in 313 AD, hidden in the hair of Princess Hemamali who fled the Hindu armies besieging her father's kingdom in India.

It immediately became an object of great reverence and was enshrined in a series of nested jeweled reliquaries. The tooth was brought out for special occasions and paraded on the backs of elephants, which are sacred to the Buddha. where it survived numerous attempts to capture and destroy it.

When the capital was moved to Kandy, the tooth was taken to the new city and placed in temples built to honor it. The temple was originally built under Kandyan kings between 1687 and 1707, but later severely damaged during the 18th-century colonial wars against the Portugese and Dutch. After the wars, the original wooden structures were restored in stone.

After walking round the temple, we took the bus back into the centre of Kandy, where we were taken to see a display of various Sri Lankan dances, culminating in a fire walking display. Apparently, there are various tribes in Sri Lanka who have perfected the art of doing this.