I Stopped At...

2013/12/28 It had been one and half years since I was in Sri Lanka last. Hambanthota a remote city situated near 200Km away from Colombo had gone through so many development phases in the past several years. My parents took me across Hambanthota to the sacred shrine of Katharagama letting me witness the "Change for Good". Well, all through out the journey I noticed only the beautiful greenery and rich nature still intact of the raging development process. Following are some scenarios I managed to capture on the way to Katharagama. It was  a cloudy solid day. The following were taken on the way back. The sky was till cloudy but held it that way all the way till we go home. All these beautiful giants in water can be seen from the main road(Thissa- Katharagama Road) as the road runs over the Thissa Reservoir bunt. This reservoir is believed to be built by King yatalathissa around second century BC. This was resotred later by the British who col...

2010/11/21 The annual Katina Ceremony held at the Mejirodai Sri Lankan Buddhist temple was held on 21st  Sunday,of November 2010. It started at 7 o`clock in the evening with the Buddha Pooja at the nearby Japanese Temple.   The playing of the Sri Lankan traditional drum signifies the start of the ceremony.   Monks are seated and the listeners are seated below the monks sitting level. After the traditional Sri Lankan way of starting the Japanese chief monk starts chanting in the Japanese way. We followed the Sri Lankan chantings but the Japanese chantings were little bit difficult to follow.  Monks leave the Japanese temple in a row to the Sri Lankan temple taking the "katina poojawa" with them in a parade. Katina Poojawa means the sacred cheevaras and Pirith book kept in another place away from the temple. Monks keep them away from the temple to keep them safe from the rains in early ages, because the mo...