History of Kandy perahera

Paying homage that Tooth Relic of lord Buddha which was also the symbol of sorority started in a very small and simple manner. King megawanna decreased that the Tooth Relic should be brought out from its enshrined place. So that homage could be rendered in a Perahera.In course of time this ceremony has become one of the most spectacularly. Pageants in Southeast Asia or perhaps the whole world. In the 18th century, The proper kandy perahera was began. It in the reign of King Kirthi Sri Rajasinha .During his reign, he invited a number of Buddhist monks from Siam to Sri Lanka to help restore the Islands monasteries and it’s Theravade orthodoxy.The visiting monks protested to the king that the predominant religious activity of Kandy’s Hindu devalas was unseemly in a Buddhist royal capital. The king accordingly ordered that a solemn annual procession of the Tooth Relic be forthwith instituted, and that a procession of Kandy’s four devalas be Incorporated in the open homage. The Perahera maintains this tradition today.