Of the seven sites on this trail, the Temple of the Tooth is the odd one out — its primary significance has nothing to do with Rama, Sita, or Ravana at all. Sri Dalada Maligawa houses what's said to be an actual tooth relic of the Buddha, considered one of the most venerated Buddhist objects anywhere in the world, with a political dimension layered on top of the religious one: traditional belief holds that whoever possesses the relic holds the right to rule Sri Lanka, a claim that shaped centuries of the island's royal politics.
Within the wider temple complex sits the Kataragama Devalaya, a shrine to Skanda — known across South India as Murugan or Kartikeya — a deity venerated in both Buddhist and Hindu Sri Lankan tradition simultaneously. That shared devotional space, where one figure is honored across two different religious frameworks under the same roof, is the temple's actual tie to this trail, rather than any direct episode from the Ramayana itself happening here.
The tooth relic itself is never displayed to the public — it's kept inside a series of nested gold caskets, the outermost of which devotees worship without any expectation of seeing the relic directly. The Esala Perahera, held each July or August, is Sri Lanka's most spectacular procession: ten nights of elephants, dancers, and drummers parading through Kandy, with the relic casket (not the relic itself) carried in state.
The temple is open roughly 5:30 AM to 9 PM with a midday break. White or light-colored clothing is traditionally preferred; shoulders and knees should be covered, with sarongs available at the entrance for visitors who arrive underdressed.
Kandy sits centrally in Sri Lanka's hill country, making the Temple of the Tooth a natural stop between the coastal sites (Koneswaram, Munneswaram) and the highland sites further south (Seetha Amman, Divurumpola).
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