Sri Lanka Trip - Day 8: Celebrating Vesak in Kandy

The owner of the Flower Inn told us there was a direct bus passing by Sigiriya daily at 6:30am. That was too early for us. Instead we waited for one of the regular local buses to Dambulla. There were no Kandy-bound buses starting from the Dambulla. What we had to do was to wait for one of the passing intercity buses heading to Kandy. The first one was very crowded and I did want to squeeze in with our backpacks. We were lucky. After another 15 mins, I mini aircon bus came by and there were seats. The ticket to Kandy was Rs200 each and the journey was shorter than expected (2.5 hrs). This was the only air con bus we took throughout the Sri Lanka trip.

We choose to stay in the Olde Empire hotel, which was right next to the entrance of the Tooth Temple right city centre of Kandy. It's an old and rather quaint colonial building. We took the fan room without attached bath for Rs649 a night (It was Rs1400 for the one with attached bath).

We arrived in the midst of Vesak celebrations. (8th May was Vesak day in Sri Lanka while in Singapore it was the 9th May). There were Buddhist flags and colorful banners put up along the streets. What was most interesting were the lanterns that were being put up. From the cheap made-in-China paper collapsable ones to the elabarote hand-made ones, almost every building and house hung some lanterns.

Being right next to the Tooth Temple, we get to see the hustle and bustle of Vesak celebration. There were throngs of people queuing up to enter the temple and many vendors selling flowers outside. There was security screening at the entrance. Sheung and I decided that we would not join the crowd to squeeze into the Temple. Besides that fact that we have to pay to get into the temple (it is not covered by the Cultural Triangle pass), I simply do not believe that the tooth enshrined in the temple was a relic of the historical Buddha. I did not find the temple building particularly interesting either. Instead we wandered around the city and soaking in the atmosphere of Vesak celebration.

In Sri Lanka, there is an interesting mix of Buddhism and Hinduism, pretty much like there is a mix of Buddhism and Taoism in the Chinese cultures. The Hindu deities are very much worshipped by the Buddhists as well, and appeared to be co-opted as Dharma-protectors. Almost all the buses we took have this interesting panel of Buddha flanked by various Hindu gods like Ganesha, Murugan, Lakshimi etc.

In Kandy, there are 4 significant devales (Hindu-Buddhist shrine) dedicated to 4 Hindu deities. We went to the Kataragama Devale (Kataragama is more commonly known as Murugan in Singapore. Aka Skanda). This looked mostly like an Hindu temple but for the Buddha shrine within its compound. What was interesting were the wall paintings in the shrine. Besides a painting of Kataragama, there were rows and rows of various personalities worshipping the Buddha, including one of a lion. I thought these paintings looked more interesting and artistic than those at Dambulla. There is also a Bodhi tree behind the Buddha shrine. It's really an interesting shrine that's well worth a visit.

The next thing we caught was a procession that was going around the lake. There was a contigent of flag bearers and dancers followed by two elephants with 2 young man on it. We followed it for a while before we lost it.

Although we did not go to the Tooth Temple, I still wanted to go to a Buddhist temple. It was after all Vesak day. So we dropped in at the Malwatte Maha Vihara. Here's we ran into the dance and elephant contigent as they were dispersing. It was only when we went to the main shrine then we realized what that procession was about. It was not a Vesak celebration after all. Rather, the two young men (actually one of them was just a boy) who were riding the elephants were new monks. The procession brought them to Malwatte Maha Vihara and here they were being ordained. So we stayed for quite a while as we observed the ordination ceremony.

From the Malwatte temple, we took a slow leisurely stroll around the parameter of the Kandy Lake and look at the various lanterns the shops and houses had put up.

We would have likely missed the procession of the tooth relic if not for some fortuituous timing. It was turning dark when we walked back to the town center. We bought water and snacks at a supermart and then went back to the hotel to drop our shopping. Then I noticed that the fire engine came by and washed the roads. As we were starting to head out for more sight seeing again, we noticed that people were starting to gather around the entrance to the Tooth Temple, apparently waiting for something to happen. I asked around and was told that there was a procession. So we hang around and waited.

Series of crackling sound lead the procession. I thought it was fire crackers, but it was really the sound made by whips crackling on the roads. Slowly the procession came out from the entrance of the Tooth Temple. After the whip contigent, there were further contigents of drum dancers and fire dancers. Then there were elephants brightly decorated with little bulbs. Finally, there was an elephant with a niche atop it, which I suppose holds the Tooth, for person where bowing in reservance as it passed. The last of the contigents was a group of men dressed like princes and kings. I am not sure if the royal houses of the Kandyan kingdom are still around or not, but it did looked like the contigent was representing some sort of royalty.

After the procession finally headed back into the Tooth Temple, we headed towards the clock tower. The streets thronged with people. Free drinks being given out for free by some shops or at some make-shift stores. We had some spiced ginger tea from one of the stall (It was quite nice, except that I found it a little too sweet. Sheung would disagree because "too sweet" does not exists in his dictionary.)

Near the market place, we came upon an interesting pandel. At first I was wondering why people were all standing and looking at some painted panels. Then we noticed that the panels, which obviously depicted some stories, had numbers on it. We figured out that the singing that was going on was actually telling some stories depicted on the numbered panels. At first, I thought it was a jakata story about the Bodhisattva digging out his eyes for a blind man. But when I looked carefully, the main character was a nun, not a monk and it did not look like any jakata story I know (I've to admit I don't know too many jakata stories to begin with).

We then came by the police station and found that they had many nice lanterns within their compound. But the lanterns were being the fence. We tried our luck and asked for permission from the policemen at the gate to enter the station to look at the lanterns. They let us in!

We wandered the streets till late and had our dinner in an Indian "hotel". I had a thosai which was very tasty. It was sweeter and less sour than the ones I get back in Singapore.

It was an tiring but very interesting day.