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Claim: Social media posts claiming to show footage of Sri Dalada Wandanawa (a sacred exposition of the Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha) currently ongoing at the Temple of the Tooth Relic in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Fact: These photographs can be traced back to March 2025, before Sri Dalada Wandanawa opened to the public on April 18, 2025.
A one-minute-long footage showing a group of people paying their obeisance to the sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha at the Temple of the Tooth Relic in Kandy, is going viral on multiple social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.
One such post on TikTok shared by user @_star_prince, reads, “This is for those of you who cannot visit [in person],” insinuating that this footage is in fact from the special Sri Dalada Wandanawa.
Similar posts can be found here, here, here, here, and here.
What is Sri Dalada Wandanawa?
Sri Dalada Wandanawa event is a Sacred Exposition of the Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha, organised by the Government under the instruction of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, after 16 years. The last time such an exposition was held was in the year 2009. During the event, all members of the public are welcome to visit the temple and access the sacred tooth relic and pay obeisance to it for free at specific time periods. More information about the event can be found here and here.
Due to the significant cultural and religious value of the event and the large number of visitors, surpassing 3,00,000 as of April 24, waiting in queues, we decided to check the validity of this footage, claiming to be from the event.
We first conducted a reverse image search of the key frames of the footage and found that the video dates back to a TikTok post by a user named Black Eagle, originally from March 9, 2025. The TikTok has no text or caption, but uses the hashtags #sridaladamaligawa and #danthadathu, signalling that they are from the Sri Dalada Maligawa or the Temple of the Tooth Relic.
While the special exposition, Sri Dalada Wandanawa, was announced to the public on March 2 by the President’s Media Division, there were no further updates until the logo was released on March 24.
On a closer look at the viral footage, Newschecker team noticed that the video appears to have been recorded during a Theva ceremony (daily services), which is a ritual that is held at the temple thrice a day, marking the role of Ananda Thero attending to Lord Buddha during His lifetime. According to the official website of the Temple,
“The rituals dedicated towards Lord Buddha which was carried out by Ananda Thero back then, are being carried out today as Theva (daily Services) which are led by the Maha Nayaka Theros of Malwathu and Asgiri Chapters and followed by the residing Maha Sanga of those temples who are dedicated to do the rituals.”
Members of the public can donate special offerings towards a Theva ceremony and thereby view it in person. The viral footage appears to show one such ceremony, as per the photographic documentation on the official website of the Temple of the Tooth Relic.
Moreover, during the special Sri Dalada Wandanawa, visitors have been clearly instructed by the Police not to use their phones. Phones are to be strictly switched off per the instructions.
On April 22, 2025, the Sri Lanka Police also announced that videos claiming to show the Sacred Tooth Relic are circulating among social media users despite tight security measures forbidding photography and videography. The Criminal Investigations Department has launched a probe to understand whether such imagery is real or altered/AI-generated. Information about the probe can be found here and here.
Social media posts claiming to show footage of the Sri Dalada Wandanawa event currently ongoing at the Temple of the Tooth Relic in Kandy are from an old theva/daily ritual ceremony.
Our Sources
TikTok by Black Eagle, posted on March 9, 2025
Description of Daily Ritual or Theva Ceremonies on the official website of the Temple of the Tooth Relic
Instructions to Visitors of the Sri Dalada Wandanawa on the official website of the event
‘Photo of Sacred Tooth Relic; CID Launches Probe’, published on The Island, April 21, 2025
‘Sri Lankan police investigate photo of Buddha’s tooth relic’, published on The Guardian, April 21, 2025
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