3D digitisation and inventory of the core area of the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy

Short description

The content of the research project funded by the German Federal Foreign Office is the digitization and documentation of the Sri Dalada Maligawa Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

The "Venerable Temple of the Tooth Relic" in the highlands of Sri Lanka is one of the most important Sinhalese cultural assets and the most significant Buddhist pilgrimage site in the country. In 1988, the complex, together with the old town of Kandy, was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The whole complex consists of an inner temple complex with a reliquary, drumbeating corridor, monks' wings and devotional gallery for the numerous worshippers. Next to it there is the tower-octagon, which houses the temple library with valuable documents of the last centuries, as well as the audience hall and the old royal palace, which currently houses the archaeological museum of the temple. This entire complex is enclosed by an extensive garden and the moat in front of it, with its associated main portal. This heterogeneous complex is the product of various structural additions made to the original shrine complex over the centuries. In addition to the stress caused by the high numbers of pilgrims and visitors, it is also endangered by natural environmental factors such as earthquakes and monsoon rains and has been the target of terrorist attacks, most recently in 1998, due to its overriding cultural and religious significance. The digitization, surveying and documentation of the existing temple complex serves both as a preventive, digital safeguarding measure of the actual condition and as a basis and presentation aid for visualizations by the temple's own media department.