Katharagama Pilgrimage – April 2014

Katharagama is a pilgrimage town, not only the Buddhists but multi religious sacred place, where Hindu and Muslim devotees also visit throughout the year. www.kataragama.org is the official web site of Katharagama Devalaya, provides information about Katharagama devalaya, Katharagama deviyo, its history, popular places for devotees to visit etc.  

      It’s more than 300Km’s from Ganemulla, where we can go on Galle Road (A2), via Matara or otherwise from Rathnapura, Udawalawa side, which is 70km’s less  than Matara side. Since new Expressway is open, we travelled via Matara, got into the Expressway from Kaduwela and ended from Matara, took only 2 ½ hours for me, where I drove at only 80km/hr and stopped over the Arcade for ½ hour.

It was Saturday and Sunday the 26^th and 27^th of April 2014, Sunny days. As predicted, Katharagama was not busy with crowd. Netha found a place to stay on Bed and Breakfast basis; it’s on the Tissamaharama-Katharagama road and has same distance about 8kms to both sides. It is “Kodigahawewa Forest Resort” on the C2 road, Julle Pallama, Tissamaharama, a cottage type Resort. This place outlooks to the Lake Kodigahawewa, which is a small scale water reservoir and over that to a hill called the Kodigahawewa Jungle, seems to be a protected area by Forest Conservation. Charges are reasonable and chalets can be accommodated by large families. http://www.kfresort.lk/ and http://www.ecolodgeslanka.com/products.htm provide more information and gallery about the hotel and the location. 

On the way to Katharagama, A2 road goes from Matara onwards. We stopped over Talalla, a small village on the coast. This place was not much popular but landscape and scenery is amazing. We stopped in a place, where the sea is bit inlet to the land and rocky. Once I was backed I searched more about Talalla on the net and found that it’s a fishing village and perfect for who seek tranquility and relaxation and tourist know this place more than locals.

 
 

There are times for the Katharagama Devalaya Puja Service, As Netha suggested; we planned to attend the service at 6 p: m: Buddhist devotees first go to the Kirivehera and then to the Devalaya, following the same tradition, we do also worshiped Kirivehera and then attended the Devala Pujawa. Devotees attend Devala Pujawa with trays of fruits and garlands, since we go to Kiriveheera first and its little distance away from the Devalaya, makes bit difficult to carry trays from the Kathagama Puja Town Area. But there are informal gangs in the Puja Town Area, who arrange transport of fruit trays on calls to the Devalaya area.  This really eases the process and they are also reliable, even-though they look rowdy.  We stood along with other devotees holding trays of fruits for the procession of pujawa in sacred shrine of Katharagama Devalaya. Procession brings in the Kapu Mahaththya and he conducts the Pujawa.

 Early in the following day, we went to the Tissamaharamaya Raja Maha Viharaya, a sacred place we use to go on our Katharagama Pilgrimages. We bought lotus flowers from Mal Kade in the Puja Area and first visited Dagabas and offered flowers and lighted lamps. This Stupa was enshrined frontal bone of relic of Lord Buddha. However article I read on web says enshrined relic is subject on debate (http://amazinglanka.com/wp/tissamaharama/#axzz34QHzxCNy). One of the reasons of visiting Katharagama in this time is to vow (Baraya) to get selected our Loku Duwa to Holy Cross College. One vow was done at Katharagama Devalaya and other one we thought to have at the sacred Bo tree in Thissamaharama Viharaya. There were only few people at the Bodhiya and one family washed altar around the Bodhiya.  We also joined with them and washed. Flowers and lighted lamps were offered at the Bo Tree and stanzas were recited solemnly. Netha was very happy about the progression because all were done before the sun rose up. 

 

 
 

We had the breakfast at hotel, bread and string-hoppers were available especially with fresh Lake Fish, “Koraliya”. Koraliya curry was cocked and it was very hot and tasty. Hotel has about 35 acres and the stretch along the lake is landscaped, we relaxed in the garden about an hour. People who love tranquility do really value this place, if you like you can do fishing, bird watching, walk around the lake and photography. There are quite a few animals can be seen, like Elephants, bear, crocodile and many more birds etc. But Architecture of chalets and hotel premises are not up-to the standards.

On our way back, bought Fried Koraliya fish from the seller on the Tissa Lake bund and stopped over Yalata Tissa Vehera. This place is not visited by many but has same historical value. The relic enshrined is not yet found, and it’s believed to be a larger Stupa than the present size due to large granite pinnacles. 

Katharagama is a place where we use to visit every year and believe that it blesses us. Next visit is also planned to redeem our vows. I have thought, we should plan the next trip to go on a different route and visit other sacred places in and around Kathragama and Tissamaharama.