Day 80 and 81 of 138 of our world cruise from Fort Lauderdale to London on the Viking Sky
First this blog is a bit late due to internet issues as we sailed in the Indian Ocean, but finally did get a chance to publish it.
On Sunday March 9th, we docked in Columbo, SriLanka at 2pm and quickly disembarked for our overnight excursion to the city of Kandy in the central province of the SriLanka island.
Our excursion was one I found fascinating 6 months ago when we made our reservation – a visit to the temple of Buddha’s tooth relic a sacred religious place for Buddhist throughout the world. The other novelty of the trip is an audience with the abbot monk of the temple and a discussion with one of the monk teachers of the monastery.
the trip was a cultural experience- first the 100 km trip between the port in Colombo and the center of Kandy took over 4 hours with a rest stop for a light meal at the midpoint. We stopped also at a clothing department store as well because one of the requirements we had for going into the temple was one must wear all white – head to toe having knees and shoulders covered. So I promptly got fitted for white pants, dress shirt, socks. It costed me only $44 in a country known for its textiles.
We arrived near 7:30 pm at the hotel – it was a moonless light so all we could see was single bulb lights of homes on the hillside surrounding the city.
Ranked as a 5-star hotel, the Earls Regent Kandy hotel had a Dinner was very nice buffet dinner and even had a very nice jewelry store (SriLanka is know for precious stones).
We retreated to our room on a Sunday night and set our alarm for 4am because we needed to be at the temple before sunrise which was just after 6am. So our stay at the hotel was rather short.
It appears that everyday and three times a day, at Sri Dalada Maligawa, in Kandy, Buddhist followers make a procession of offerings to the tooth in the temple. Hundreds of people were there- offerings included bowls of rice, flowers and money. The tooth is important since they believe whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country. Buddhist nuns from Vietnam Nam were there as part of their pilgrimage to the relic carrying beautiful orchids. We were able to go into the chamber that housed a 7-layer locked casket holding the tooth relic and pay respects. The entire procession and touring the temple’s statues and paintings was over by 7am.
Afterwards our 10 person excursion returned to our hotel, had breakfast and checked out prior to going to the monastery.
At the monastery we went into a room where the abbot of the monastery greeted visitors and we sat with him while our guide introduced him and interpreted what the abbot was saying. He was interested in that we are from USA and that they had several monks who travelled there. After our brief audience we went to another section of the monastery to sit with one of the monks teachers who has been a monk since he was 9 years old! He spoke English, teaches at the local college and welcomed our questions – he did answer questions retelling Buddha stories that were more of like parables to understand Buddhist approaches to life and seeking happiness. He did mention that they are using technologies to spread their messages and teachings. He was very generous with his time and conversation was very good.
What resonated for me was that Buddhism is more of a theology than a religion. Buddha really just was searching to become a better person every moment. While his followers are great in number, they have social peace and harmony because of their dedication to Buddhism.
