The Buddha's Tooth: Western Tales of a Sri Lankan Relic

366 Pages·2021·7.904 MB·English

by  Professor John S. Strong

The Buddha’s Tooth
BUDDHISM AND MODERNITY
A series edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr.
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The Buddha’s Tooth
Western Tales of a Sri Lankan Relic
JOHN S. STRONG
University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2021 by The University of Chicago
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Published 2021
Printed in the United States of America
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ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 78911- 8 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 80173- 5 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 80187- 2 (e- book)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226801872.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Strong, John, 1948– author.
Title: The Buddha’s tooth : western tales of a Sri Lankan relic / John Strong.
Other titles: Buddhism and modernity.
Description: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2021. | Series: Buddhism
and modernity | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021001502 | ISBN 9780226789118 (cloth) |
ISBN 9780226801735 (paperback) | ISBN 9780226801872 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Gautama Buddha— Relics—S ri Lanka. | Buddhism and
state— Sri Lanka.
Classification: LCC BQ924 .S767 2021 | DDC 294.3/3/77095493— dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001502
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1 992
(Permanence of Paper).
For Sarah
and for our children
Anna and Aaron
and our grandchildren
Isaac
Cyrus
Caleb
Esther
Madeline
Zoe

CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments / ix
Note on Usage / xiii
Introduction / 1
Part I : the Portuguese and the tooth relIc
ONE / The Tale of the Portuguese Tooth and Its Sources / 19
TWO / Where the Tooth Was Found: Traditions about the
Location of the Relic in Sri Lanka / 43
THREE / Whose Tooth Was It? Traditions about
the Identity of the Relic / 73
FOUR / The Trial of the Tooth / 109
FIvE / The Destruction of the Tooth / 125
CONSPECTUS OF PART ONE / The Storical Evolution of
the Tales of the Portuguese Tooth / 145
Part II : the BrItIsh and the tooth relIc
SIx / The Cosmopolitan Tooth: The Relic in Kandy before
the British Became Aware of It / 153
SEvEN / The British Takeover of 1815 and the Kandyan Convention / 177
EIGHT / The Relic Returns: The Tooth and Its Properties
Restored to the Temple / 203
NINE / The Relic Lost and Recaptured: The Tooth and
the Rebellion of 1817–1 818 / 223
TEN / The Relic Disestablished: Missionary Oppositions to the Tooth / 245
ELEvEN / Showings of the Tooth: The Story of the King
of Siam’s visit (1897) / 267
TWELvE / Showings of the Tooth: The Story of
Queen Elizabeth’s Shoes (1954) / 285
Summary and Conclusion / 307
References / 317
Index / 339
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book has been simmering on a project back burner for many years. I
first became interested in the topic of part 1 when I gave a lecture on the Por-
tuguese destruction of the Buddha’s tooth relic at the Center for the Study of
World Religions at Harvard University in 1994. I thank the then director of
the Center, Lawrence Sullivan, for inviting me to deliver it, and for his per-
ceptive comments on that occasion. Three years later, I repeated more or less
the same presentation as the Stewart Lecture at Princeton University, where
Alexander Nehamas suggested I expand the talk into a book. My response, I
fear, was to let the thing sit for over a decade while I pursued other projects.
I revived the topic, however, in a paper I gave at a conference organized by
Alexandra Walsham in 2008, at the University of Exeter, on the compara-
tive study of relics (see Strong 2010). But it was not until 2015– 2016, when
a sabbatical from Bates College and a Guggenheim Fellowship gave me the
leisure time needed for research, that I realized that my early forays into
the subject matter had been severely limited in scope and perspective. I am
grateful to both Bates and the Guggenheim Foundation for their backing.
I would also like to thank Bates for its help in defraying some of the costs
of publication of this book with a subvention; such support in the midst of
the COvID- 19 pandemic— especially after one’s retirement— is remarkable.
The second part of this book has an even more distant origin, dating
back to 1969 when, thanks to a “Wanderjahr fellowship” from the Watson
Foundation, my wife and I lived for three months in an apartment on the
top floor of the Queen’s Hotel in Kandy, directly across the esplanade from
the Palace of the Tooth (Dalada Maligawa). My first visits to the temple date
from that time. They were continued in 1986–1 987 when I lived in Kandy
again, this time for over a year—fi rst as director of the ISLE Study Abroad Pro-
gram, and then as a Fulbright fellow teaching at the University of Peradeniya.