Feb 6 Columbo, Sri Lanka

After a day at sea yesterday today I joined a morning tour to the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya, a revered Buddhist Temple on the banks of the Kelani River. It’s considered by many devotees as one of the few sited sanctified by a visit from the Buddha, 2500 years ago! In my mind I was expecting to enter a very large building, but instead found the Temple is a courtyard with several buildings. We left our shoes on the bus and walked through the main gate to a hard-packed sandy surface with stone sidewalks here and there.

The outer wall was lined with people seated on small mats praying and chanting from paperback books. It was eerily similar to entering a monastery as the monks are chanting the divine office. In the center of the courtyard is this mammoth, gnarly tree called the Bo. A small shoot of this tree was transplanted from the main tree in India MORE than 2500 years ago. People were lined up around the tree with a cup of water, a few flowers and incense. As it became their turn, they climbed a few steps and watered the tree. Then placed the flowers on a shelf nearby. The significance of the flowers (and they were placed EVERYWHERE once we were inside some of the buildings to observe) is to remind us of our immortality. The fresh flowers would be wilted by evening and dead the next morning. A rather sobering thought!

The Monk spoke for about 45 minutes. With his accent and the chanting and musical instruments outside the window it was difficult to catch everything. One thing he stressed was that Buddhism is not a religion, but a way of life. He spent quite a bit of time teaching people to silence themselves by breathing in and out. We in the Catholic tradition call it “contemplative” prayer. I suspect what the people were doing when first arrived was “vocal” prayer. The flowers that would be dead by morning would certainly cause one to “meditate!” All in all, it was a very interesting experience.

Now we will be at sea for 2 days as we journey to Phuket, Thailand.