Tag Archives: Kataragama

Catch An Elephant By Its Tail — Only In Sri Lanka!

Leave a reply

by Anura Guruge
on July 7, 2024

Click to ENLARGE. From the U.K. ‘Daily Mail’.
Prior posts about Temple Elephants on my old ‘nhlife’ blog.

I heard about this, this morning, on ‘BBC Radio‘ (that I listen to in the mornings during my amble). Another thing I have learnt, recently, from the BBC. They even mentioned that the keeper tried to stop the elephant by grabbing it by its tail! I was gobsmacked. That was pretty stupid. When elephants ‘go wild’ folks do the craziest things. Way back, close to 60 years ago, at a carnival at the (old) ‘race course’ in Colombo a baby elephant (under 1-year old) started running around and charging into tents. When it came into the tent we were in, my father, a BIG MAN (in every sense), whacked it, on the shoulder with his hand — with all his might. The baby, shrieked, just like a human baby, turned tail and ran away.

The media, including the U.K. Daily Mail & BBC claim that this happened at a Hindu festival. NOT SO. Hindu temple, BUT a Buddhist festival! Yes, ONLY in Sri Lanka. This temple, in southern Sri Lanka, ‘Kataragama‘, one that I used to visit multiple times a year during my time there, is the 2nd most popular Buddhist pilgrimage site in Sri Lanka. I would reckon that Buddhists visiting this temple outweigh Hindus by a million-to-1! Yes, Hindu temple, Buddhist temple.

I am NOT happy with how elephants are getting treated in Sri Lanka — especially by the Buddhists, who should no better. They should not be used for PERFORMANCES — religious or not.

‘Windows 10’ Has Another Lock Screen Featuring ‘Sri Lanka’ — This Time ‘Mirissa’.

Leave a reply

by Anura Guruge
on September 1, 2022

Follow Anura Guruge on WordPress.com

Click to ENLARGE. Lock screen from August 21, 2022.
Click to ENLARGE. From ‘Google Maps’
Click to ENLARGE. The other Sri Lankan lock screen.

Unlike ‘Sigiriya‘, the other Windows 10 lock screen featuring ‘Sri Lanka‘, I cannot claim to have much, actually ‘any’, familiarity with ‘Mirissa’. It was not developed when I lived in Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka) between 1953 and 1969. Yes, I have been through it more times than I could even count, but it had to have been but an insignificant village in those days.

We as a family would visit the Hindu temple in ‘Kataragama‘ at least 6 times a year. To get there from Colombo we would take the southern coastal road. And that passes through Mirissa. But, I am sure we never stopped there — for anything. Yes, we would stop at ‘Galle’ & ‘Matara‘ — but now in-between. That is why I am sure that I have never visited Mirissa per se. In those days much of the southern coast in that area was not that developed. Fishing, farming & the production of lime.

But, it was cool to see this image appear on my PC.