In the midst of the Adi Vel festival
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All photos by Iromi Perera
9.30am Saturday morning. I was walking on the pavement in Bambalapitiya when I found myself in the midst of the Adi Vel festival. I had passed it earlier near the Kovil in Kirullapone and had found myself feeling slightly unsettled after seeing men being hung on hooks and suspended from trucks in order to ask for help from a higher God. But I was there and seeing the hundreds of people involved in the Vel festival in different ways just made me stop and watch. I wished I knew more about the festival to have appreciated it fully. I also wished I had my camera with me but at that moment, my mobile had to suffice.
The decorated coaches pulled by men and women, people getting their children and themselves blessed by the priests, devotees with their offerings, the breaking of the coconuts, people fulfilling vows by rolling on the ground (the entire distance of the walk I believe), putting skewers through their faces, being suspended by hooks and hanging from trucks – I was simply awestruck and didn’t realize that I had been standing there for more than one hour. I couldn’t get my head around the people who had put hooks through their body though, it seemed incredible that one would do all this do fulfill a vow or to ask for help and that more pain, more God-earned merit.
According to an article in the Sunday Observer in July 2010, “The Colombo Vel Festival, dedicated to Kataragama Deviyo, originally came into being because of a cholera outbreak in 1874. The Kataragama Deity is a very popular God amongst most Sri Lankan Hindus and Buddhists. For this Adi Vel Festival, pilgrims from all parts of the island were in the habit of going on a ‘Pada Yatra’ (pilgrimage by foot) which took several days, consisting of several days to Kataragama. In 1874, there was a cholera outbreak and the colonial government then in power forbade people in Colombo to go on the Yatra. Unable to go to Kataragama, they made do with the local Murugan temples and thus was born the Colombo Vel Festival.”
In addition to the hundreds partaking in the Vel festival, there were dozens of curious bystanders like me taking pictures and just observing the festival. It was slightly drizzling and the skies were gloomy and many of us had other places to be at that time. I would’ve imagined it to have been even slightly chaotic with all the people, but that was the last thing it was. It was truly a festival worth experiencing and I was glad to have been in the midst of it, even by accident.
I thought Tamils were supposed to be persecuted in Sri Lanka? Could we please scream and make a fuss about this Hindu festival being held in Colombo just how there were screams and fussing about a Vesak festival being held in Jaffna?
If you have a sizeable local population a festival will only look natural, otherwise sinister with suspicious motives. Would you agree?
Velu Balendran
You must have forgotten that Sinahaleses used to live in Jaffna mny deacdes back. Thanks to our blood sucking sun goat all of them were perished from there. Looks like you have a very short memory and there is always oneway when we talk about our thamil rights.
Can the Tamils conduct a festival like this in Anuradhapura, the sacred Buddhist city? Anuradhpauram is the cultural capital of the Sinhala Buddhists; similarly Jaffna is the cultural capital of the Eelam Tamils. There is no Tamil influx in Anuradhapura like the Sinhalese in Jaffna. The Sinhalese dismantled and destroyed Anuradhapuram Kathiresan Temple, once venerated by Swamy Vivekananada himself, for being situated near the Buddhist places of worship. Then why should the Tamils allow the Sinhala Buddhist Temples and Sinhalese in Jaffna, the cultural capital of Tamils. The Tamils in Colombo were not settled by the government or with the help of Sinhala army and they have been living there even before the arrival of colonialists.
The capital is full of ethnic minorities in every country in the world but it is not an excuse to colonize the historic, ethnic regions with the majority community to marginalize the minorities in their own homes and villages. That is called ethnic cleansing, if that is wrong in Yugoslavia and Kashmir, it is wrong in Jaffna too.
Thivya
Nice try for your own interpretation. Twist whenever you want,
By the way Sri Lanak used to have several capital cities right around the country. It appears that you ned some help and therefore please go and read the history of Sri Lanka to learn about all capitals.
Ramanathan,
Your name alone will not make you a Tamil. I think you are going back centuries to justify the state sponsored colonization/ Ethnic cleansing happening in the North East now.
If you want to argue about history, we Tamils can slap you with your own Mahavamsa. The Mahvansa says Anuradhpauram was ruled by the Tamils and Duttu Gemunu had to defeat not one but more than 36 Tamil Chieftains to reach the Anurdhapuram principality alone. So it is obvious a large number of inhabitants of Anurdahpura were once Tamils. Does it mean the Tamils can demand to be settled back in Anuradhpura now?
The Tamil Cholas moved the Capital to Pollanaruwai. The capital Pollanaruwai was founded by Tamils in the name of SanaNatha Mangalam. The Dravidian style buildings in Polanaruwai are still testament to how the Tamil Buddhism and Tamil Saivaism co existed in the capital of SanaNatha Mangalam. If we go by your argument, the Tamils should claim the ownership of Pollanruwai and demand to be settled back there.
The Capital of Kandy was under the sway of Tamil blooded kings and the Tamils were living in the capital of Kandy. The Kandy lake and the paththiripu of the Dalada Maligawa was built by the Tamil blooded, Tamil speaking king, can we Tamils demand the ownership or resettlement and make a land claim in Kandy now?
Let’s talk about the current reality, we Eelam Tamils consider the North East as our homeland and we lost our sovereignty to the Portuguese in battle, not by any treaty. So we did not give up easily. We consider Jaffna as the cultural capital of Eelam Tamils, and any intrusion and ethnic cleansing by the Sinhalese or state sponsored colonization in the name of development will have a negative effect and stroke the separatist sentiments again.
Dear Thivya;
Going by your arguments Britishers can should claim the ownership for the whole country as they ruled this country for about 150 years, than any other invaders. If your argument is true, Britishers can claim more than the half of the whole world, on the basis of their colonial ownership. European colonials divided almost the whole world among themselves during the past centuries.
No invaders has a right to claim for a country. All the Cholas you refer are nothing but invaders.
Thanks!
yapa,
I think you are repeating the propaganda nonsense of the Sinhala chauvinists. According to your own Mahavamsa the Tamils have been part of Sri Lanka from the beginning of history. If the Tamils are invaders, the Sinhalese are the descendants of an Indian Kallathoni who landed on the Sri Lankan shore in a dingy boat.
We Eelam Tamils don’t need the Mahavamsa or any nonsense like that to prove that the North East of the island of Ilankai is our homeland. We Tamils have been living there for thousands of years, our forefathers died to defend that land, the temples of our gods and the remains of our forefathers are still there, that is the basis of our homeland claim.
Let’s forget about the Mahavamsa, Chola rule, Tamil blooded King Parakramabahu’s Tamil inscription of oorkavaththurai, Raja Raja Chola’s inscriptions, archaeological findings of Thiruketheesewaram and Koneswaram temples, existence of Jaffna kingdom etc. Let’s argue on the basis of current international events alone. The Albanian Muslims started to settle in the Serbian province of Kosovo in the latter part of the Ottoman Empire. Less than 300 years after, the world accepted their claim of Homeland in Kosovo and recognized the independence of Kosovo.
We Tamils are living in the North- East from time immemorial. No matter how the Sinhala racists twist the history, we have lived in the North- East of Sri Lanka for much longer than the Albanian Muslims in Kosovo. So, regardless of what the Sinhalese blabber here, we Tamils have a homeland claim in Sri Lanka.
What is sauce for the Albanian goose must be sauce for the Tamil gander as well, right?
))
Dear Thivya;
Your time immemorial = 300 years?
Just as goose is tasty in sauce, Tamil gander also find its best sauce. It will finish its journey in sauce as well.
Thanks!
yapa,
It seems like you got mixed up with the simple example I gave you to prove that in the 21st century even 300 years is enough to claim not just a homeland, but an independent country.
The Tamils have tried to free their homeland from Sinhala occupation for less than 30 years. But from the Naga Prince Dutu Gemunu to the current prince Namal Rajpaksa, the Sinhalese have been trying to grab the land of Tamils- which is described in the Mahvamsa, as “the other side of the Mahaveli River”- for more than 2000 years. They still haven’t fully succeeded but this guy is talking about the Tamil’s journey ending up in sauce.:)
Trust me even a child will tell you that more than 2000 years is definitely considered ‘time immemorial’. It’s about time the Sinhalese like yapa realize the Eelam Tamils will never give up on their homeland in the North East of the island of Ilankai.
1. High time all religions evolved past rituals to innovative ideas of dealing with environmental problems.
2.Colombo is a capital city and to all capital cities in the world people flock from the regions to get a pie of the overflow of commerce and jobs of all sorts.
Racial riots and Sinhalese colonisation schemes of the last 5/6 decades have been complicating and creating problems.
When the Tigers unreasonably expelled the Muslims, it’s difficult to understand why the government that has been controlling Jaffna for so long didn’t bother to help them re-settle.
There have been periodic news in the media of foreign political visitors being taken to Puttalam and shown the displaced Muslims over the last 15 or so years. Muslims (and Tamils) trying to move now have to evict the army first from their houses.
I do not pretend to be a historian.
However, what I understand about our history is that it has been taught to the Sinhalese in a distorted version since probably late 19th century. Up to that time the Sinhalese were not taught or interested in history. With the ‘discovery’ and translations of Pali Chornicles by Europeans, nationalists of those days lead by ‘Anagarika’ interpreted them according to their predujices against the other races especialy the Tamils. Blindly as the children who followed the ‘piper’ Sinhalese continued to repeat the same distorted notions about our history again and again.
If we believe Mahavamsa the Sinhalese were no less invaders than Cholas. They led by prince Viyaja invaded this island which was inhabited by the Yaksha.
As Thivya correctly said in the 2nd century BC there were many tamils in the North/central part of the country when Dutugemunu defeated them.
Therefore, the claim that whole of SL belongs to Sinhalese and sinhalese alone is no longer tenable.
At the same time claiming North and East belong to Tamils and only to Tamils is also not tenable.
While the North and East is homeland to Sri Lankan tamils they are homelands for the Sinhalese and Muslims who live there for generations.
I know that there is a question of sinhala colonisation which altered the ethnic proportions of these regions after independence. But if we talk about the history the sinhalese abondened Anuradhapura and Pollonnaruwa in the first place due to various reasons including south indian invasions, malaria, drought etc.
The point is that Sinhalese and Tamils both should understand the interpretation of history can go both ways according to the interpretors racial affiliations. Therefore, it far more wise to solve this problem based on the current situation rather than on the history.