The birthday of the Founder of Buddhism is celebrated on the full-moon day of May (wesak). Streets are lined with bamboo arches, which are decorated with the young leaves of the cocoanut-palm; tall superstructures (toran) gaily adorned with ferns and young king cocoanuts bridge highways at intervals; lines of flags of various devices and shapes are drawn from tree to tree; booths are erected at every crossing where hospitality is freely dispensed to passers-by; and at every rich house the poor are fed and alms given to Buddhist priests. Processions wend their way from one temple to another with quaintly-shaped pennons and banners, and in the intervals of music cries of sâdhu, sâdhu, are raised by the pilgrims.
The Kandy Pẹrahẹra Mangalaya, begins at a lucky hour on the first day after the new moon. “A jack-tree, the stem of which is three spans in circumference, is selected beforehand for each of the four déwâla—the Kataragama, Nâtha, Saman, and Pattini; and the spot where it stands is decorated and perfumed with sandalwood, frankincense, and burnt resin, and a lighted lamp with nine wicks is placed at the foot of the tree. At the lucky hour a procession of elephants, tom-tom beaters and dancers proceed to the spot, the tree is cut down by one of the tenants (the waṭṭôrurâla) with an axe, and it is trimmed, and its end is pointed by another with an adze. It is then carried away in procession and placed in a small hole in a square of slab rock, buried in the ground or raised platform in the small room at the back of the déwâla. It is then covered with a white cloth. During the five following days the procession is augmented by as many elephants, attendants, dancers, tom-tom beaters and flags as possible; and it makes the circuit of the temples at stated periods. The processions of the several temples are then joined by one from the Daladâ, Mâligâva (the temple of the Sacred Tooth of Buddha), and together they march round the main streets of Kandy at fixed hours during the five days next ensuing. On the sixth day, and for five days more, four palanquins—one for each déwâla are added to the procession, containing the arms and dresses of the gods; and on the last day the bowl of water (presently to be explained) of the previous year, and the poles cut down on the first day of the ceremony. On the night of the fifteenth and last day, the Perahẹra is enlarged to the fullest limits which the means of the several temples will permit, and at a fixed hour, after its usual round, it starts for a ford in the river near Kandy, about three miles distant from the temple of the Sacred Tooth. The procession from the Mâligâva, however, stops at a place called the Adâhana Maluwa, and there awaits the return of the others. The ford is reached towards dawn, and here the procession waits until the lucky hour (generally about 5 A. M.) approaches. A few minutes before its arrival the chiefs of the four temples, accompanied by a band of attendants, walk down in Indian file under a canopy of linen and over cloth spread on the ground to the waterside. They enter a boat and are punted up the river close to the bank for some thirty yards. Then at a given signal (i. e., at the advent of the lucky hour) the four jack poles are thrown into the river by the men on shore, while each of the four chiefs, with an ornamental silver sword, cuts a circle in the water; at the same time one attendant takes up a bowl of water from the circle, and another throws away last year’s supply. The boat then returns to the shore, the procession goes back to Kandy, the bowls of water are placed reverently in the several déwâla, to remain there until the following year; and the Perahẹra is at an end.”[1]
During the time of the kings, it was on this occasion that the provincial governors gave an account of their stewardship to their over-lord and had their appointments renewed by him.
When the rainy months of August, September and October are over and the Buddhist monks return to their monasteries from their vas retreats, is held the Festival of Lights (Kârtika Mangalya). The Buddhist temples are illuminated on the full moon day of November by small oil-lamps placed in niches of the walls specially made for them; in the olden times all the buildings were bathed in a blaze of light, the Royal Palace the best of all, with the oil presented to the king by his subjects. This festival is now confined to Kandy.
The Alut Sâl Mangalya, the festival of New Rice, is now celebrated to any appreciable extent only in the Kandian Provinces, the last subdued districts of the island. In the villages the harvest is brought home by pingo-bearers on the full-moon day of January with rural jest and laughter, and portions of it are given to the Buddhist priest, the barber and the dhobi of the village; next the new paddy is husked, and kiribat dressed out of it.
In the capital, in the time of the kingdom, this festival lasted for four days; “on the first evening the officers of the royal stores and of the temples proceeded in state from the square before the palace to the crown villages from which the first paddy was to be brought. Here the ears of paddy and the new rice were packed up for the temples the palace and the royal stores by the Gabadânilamés and their officers. The ears of paddy carefully put into new earthenware pots and the grain into clean bags, were attached to pingos. Those for the Mâligâva (where the Sacred Tooth was kept) were conveyed on an elephant for the temples by men marching under canopies of white cloth; and those for the palace and royal stores by the people of the royal villages of respectable caste, well dressed; and with apiece of white muslin over their mouths to guard against impurity. This procession, starting on the evening of the next day (full-moon day) from the different farms under a salute of jingals and attended by flags, tom-tom beaters, etc., was met on the way by the 2nd Adigar and a large number of chiefs at some distance from the city. From thence all went to the great square to wait for the propitious hour, at the arrival of which, announced by a discharge of jingals, the procession entered the Mâligâva where the distribution for the different temples was made. At the same fortunate hour the chiefs and the people brought home their new rice. On the next morning the king or governor received his portion consisting of the new rice and a selection of all the various vegetable productions of the country, which were tasted at a lucky hour.”[2]
[1] J.R.A.S.(C. B.) 1881 Vol. VII p. 33. [↑]
[2] Illustrated Supplement to the Examiner (1875) Vol. I p. 8. [↑]