The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-05-19
BUDDHAs TOOTH.
The Temple in Which it Was shrined
 and Nanerafed


 and Nenerated.
 To the traveller the chief object ol interest at Randy is the temple or pal ace of the Tooth. the shrine erected q over that relic of the body of Buddha, (which after many wanderings in India was sent to Ceylon for safe keeping early in the fourth century. Il came lover concealed in the hair of a princess iof Kalinga. and Fa Hian. the Chinese priest and traveller. described it's tenn lpie at Anuradhapura.
 h the many invasions and Malabar wars it's temple was sacked and wrecked. the tooth was carried over to India in the fourteenth century, Drought back to Ceylon in the next lcircle, and then seized by the Portu- guese in the sixteenth century, burned. pounded in a mortar by a strenuous archbishop, and the dust scattered to lthe wind in the open sea.
 The sacred Tooth was no more, but the king had one made to order of ivory and constructed this Dalada Maligawa, or palace of the Tooth, in the mountain lceuntry purposely to receive it. The new tooth was large and strong. ten. twenty times the size of a mans tooth, but its vieissitudes did not end then. Many times during the wars with Por- tuguese, Dutch and English it was spirited away for safe keeping, but since 1915 it has reposed in quiet under the egis of British rule.
 At first cock crow in the morning one hears the beat of the temple drum an- lnpuncing the first offering and ser vice of the day in honor of the Buddha There is q more convenient service at half past 3, and again at half past in the evening. and with each rat-a-plan of the drums and the wall of the piper one sees the yellow robes moving along the lakes embankment and few people going over the little moat bridge and in throughA the imposing temple gate. One follows them in, turns to the right between the inner and outer stone walls, and passes up steps to the cloister surrounding the court, in the center of which stands the palace of the Tooth. It is two story building, raised on stone platform, with square curved columns supporting the rooi. Trays of jasmine and frangipani | flowers for sale to the worshipers load the air with perfume. The worshipful one, having cleansed heart and hands and feet at stone fountain in an angle of the cloister, takes his tray of frag- rance and waits until the silver doors in their triple frame of beaten silver land gold and carved ivory swing open Then priests and people in dense compact crowd. push into a white vault perhaps fifteen square, and slowly work their way up a steep narrow stairway to another small room.
 Temple guardians in old Kandyan costumes of bunchy skirts, tight jack cts, and queer upturned, faring brimmed hats have meanwhile cleared away the flower of the preceding cere- mony, and one by one the reverent eestatic people advance through an- other silver doorway, kneel and offer up their heaps of fragrant white flowers, laying them on a table of beaten silver behind which a glass partition closes off the sacred chamber.
 Behind the glass one sees dimly golden dagoba, the seventh and outer bell shaped shrine covering the sacred relic, each shrine case as richly jeweled as the outer one, on which hang necklaces of incaleulable value. one of which holds the famous Kandyan emerald but with a seated image of the Buddha.
 Below the great emerald hung an amethyst pendant whose large central stone was nearly two inches long, but in the dim, wavering light, and seen through cloudy glass screen, it's color was infinite When the electric light is once introduced to the shrine and all the jewels show forth In full value to the shrine of the Tooth, with it's silver and gold tables, heaps and festoons of gems, will be more impressive in the material sense. gold ornament worn on the head of the large temple ele- phant when he carries the shrine of the Tooth around in great processions rivals the precious casket itself in the possession of one enormous catseye cat in diamonds.
 But while the stranger gaps at the jewel show, the faithful are waiting their turn to approach the doorway so GAbSe tu tlle SllNeE ldDlt anu ldy lHGlf flower offerings there before the frag- ment of the body of the founder of their religion. The upper room was crowded with serious faced. yellow robed priests splendid bronze shoulders and heads showing in the lamplight and all the air loaded with the cloying ffagrace of the rich white frangipant flowers that were to be offered in the shrine.
 The lower chamber was crowded as closely and We stepped out into the air with relief. Then the glib guardian conveyed us around to an inner shrine, where there was recumbent image of Buddha lying in the sleep of Nirvana, an alabaster image from Burma, and a beautiful crystal image enshrined in small silk lined ebony box. The same dripping little Christmas tree candle was thrust into this chamber of images, pushed in behind the crystal Buddha to show it's quality and little more smoke and dripping bestowed on the precious, gold brocade lining.
 M1TJU1DDIJNINI