Flooding at Tissamaharama

Talk about history repeating itself. In 2004 I arrived in Sri Lanka worried about terrorism, but instead was threatened by a tsunami. Again, in 2006 I came concerned about my families reaction to the civil war, but instead got trapped by flood waters! It's almost like the country is asserting itself to remind me what the greater danger is.

In any case, our travel around the island was rudely compromised by the gradual introduction of rain. We thought nothing of it until we arrived in Nuwara Eliya, the town with the highest elevation in Sri Lanka. Nuwara Eliya is known for its beautiful tea plantations and its lousy weather. In our case, we got the lousy weather, but no landscape. It was freezing cold - something I had not even considered in Sri Lanka which seems to have perpetually balmy weather - and was raining endlessly. We should have guessed something was amiss when we observed the landslides partly obstructing the road leading to Nuwara Eliya. However, in true Sri Lankan style our driver 'Longtooth' (on account of his implausibly long canine) evaded the slides with great skill, and so we thought nothing of it.

Oh, and for future referance if anyone visits Nuwara Eliya, they should most definately not stay at the 'Hellenic Inn' which can only be described as a flea pit, with no amneties and the most incompetant Faulty-Towers-esque staff ever conceived. The Lonely Planet, inexplicably, describes it as "comfortable" and "modern". It is, however, true that it has an "excellent view:, although in our case we only 'viewed' a thick mist sitting a foot away from the window. The blankets were ancient things, the covers dusty and allergy-inducing and the mattress' not dissimilar to sleeping on the street. The showers must have been water-blaster rejects since the pressure was so high one could not stand there for anymore than a few minutes- and it was icy cold. Finally, the food they served was poisonous - who puts chilli in vegetable soup?

In any cae we fled Nuwara Eliya and eventually found ourselves in Tissamaharama in the low lands. We thought (wrongly) that the rain was peculiar to the high country. Instead, we discovered that - in our eagerness to break out of Nuwara Eliya - we had nearly got ourselves trapped by flood waters.

Despite this, we booked ourselves into our hotel in Tissa. Unfortunately, our trip to Katuragamma (a Sri Lankan pilgrimage site) seemed to be ruined because the river waters had flooded the only bridge into the town. We weren't the only people delayed by this development. As we prepared to investigate the bridge, a convoy of vehicles screamed into the hotel courtyard and armed men burst out of them, AK-47's at the ready, forming a security barrier. Out stepped a Sri Lankan MP who calmy booked himself into the hotel. So not only were we threatened by rising flood waters, we were also housed right next to a prospective terrorist target!

A bus negotiates the flood-waters:


A three-wheel tries its luck:

Our turn:

Flood waters threaten Kataragama:


Returning to Tissa from Kataragama:

The fact that the bridge was out of order certainly did not deter the locals. In true Sri Lankan style they were fording the waters anyway: three-wheelers, buses and cars were all making their way slowly across the bridge, in many cases only barely. We even saw an old man carefully making his way across: a cane and a scrawny child his only means of support. So, rather than give up - as would be the normal, rational procedure - we adopted the local custom. We donned our already soaked 'waterproof' clothing (bought hurriedly from a dirty little shop in Badulla). Then 'Longtooth' called a mysterious friend who arrived with an all-terrain-vehicle (meant, I think, for safari's at Yala) and helpfully drove us through the rising waters.

The Katuragama temple was loud (Hindu's often worship through sound), but probably wasn't as interesting or as fun as how we got there. In the driving rain we completed the Hindu ritual by hurling a burning cocout into a cage thereby conferring bad luck (mine didn't break - I take it this implies indifference on the part of the deity). We got a fright when there was a brief power cut leaving us in pitch blackness in a near emergency zone. In any case, we must have done something right because Katargama (the god the town is named after and also the guardian of the region) allowed us to leave safetly, and the next day we made it past the flooded waters along the only road that was open, all the way back past the road that took us to Nuwara Eliya.

It seems like natural disasters follow me wherever I go! At least this one was less dangerous and tragic than the tsunami (although at times I wondered what the state of the Sri Lankan rescue service was like. Ultimately, it was somewhat more exciting too and even though we didn't get to visit Yala National Park, or Horton's Plains we made up for it with a rather peculiar aquatic adventure.

Buddhism and Violence

Within all religious traditions, there is always an inconsistency between the ethical demands of the teaching and the practical implementation of those teachings. This is is most obvious in theistic traditions, but is also clear even in Buddhism. The failure even of Buddhists to follow their own moral parameters has occasionally been highlighted to me since I arrived in Sri Lanka. One prime example of this was when we visited the famous Tissamaharama Stupa - perhaps the oldest stupa in Sri Lanka (so old, the clay is bound together with honey).

A common sight in Sri Lanka - as with most developing countries in Asia - is the presence of a huge number of malnourished, scrawny and mangy dogs. These flea-bags roam the streets of Colombo day and night looking for trash (provided in plentiful supply) to nibble on. They often move in packs and universally look depressed and dying. They are, of course, a pest and cause all sorts of problems for locals. Consequently they are often shooed away whenever they happen to wander onto private property. However, at the Tissamaharama Stupa, we found one particular stupa- attendent savagely whacking a dog with a piece of wood busy driving it from the vicinity. This seems odd, since ostensibly a religious site is meant to be a place of peace and harmony. In Buddhism, it is a venue that is intended to be peaceful and an ideal of serenity and non-suffering. So it seems quite inconsistent to be beating animals in a pansala (temple) and especially at the venerable Tissa Stupa.

One poor creature near the Tissa stupa:



Ronnie rescuing a dying pup:

Dying pup eating buffalo curd:

Assaulting helpless animals might not stir one's moral convictions of course, so let us instead consider the practice of alms giving. Within the ordinary, modern Buddhist schema, one should treat monks with the utmost veneration. They are the symbol of learning and represent a striving towards moral perfection. They should, it will be argued, be respected on account that they have given up their life of comfort for a simpler - in fact, ascetic - existence that is highly rigorous and difficult. If any of these qualities were true, then I would agree that monks should be respected and highly regarded. However, like any other monastic tradition these qualities are often - perhaps usually - not demonstrated. One should not assume - as many Buddhists do - that monks should be prima facie respected since they do not know if they are really any good at being monks. This notion is cognitively non-sensical to most Buddhists, but I happen to believe that any layperson who takes Buddhism seriously should be very careful about what monk he or she respects and venerates. This is because failure to do so is precisely un-Buddhist. Doctrinely, the Buddha claims that monks who fail to follow the Viniya (monastic code) in a strict way should be rejected from the Sangha (monk body). Furthermore, he suggests that a person - in general - should be rated only on their moral worth, not on birth and not on social status. The monk is meant to be respected because he is moral. So surely, if he fails to be moral then he is not really a monk and therefore should not be venerated. Philosophically, this is conducive with the empirical nature of Buddhism, i.e. that one should only believe what is justified through the senses. So if one cannot be certain of a monks rectitude, one should not worship or venerate him. This, it woudl seem is entirely Buddhist.

A fine example of this is a case I encountered when I was providing a course on Buddhist philosophy at the University of Auckland last year. Two Taiwainese nuns attended initially with great interest. It soon became clear, however, that they were the worst students in the class. First, they only showed up for two classes and second, they talked throughout. Clearly, based upon their conduct they could not be venerated nor regarded as virtuous Buddhists.

One other obvious un-Buddhist practice in Sri Lanka are the numerous politically active monks who promote violence against Tamils and often participate directly in violence against Tamils, NGO's and other parties. Consider this article from the "Colombo Pages"

Jan 12, Colombo: ZOA Refugee Care, a Dutch Christian aid group said that their office was stormed today by hardliner Buddhist monks belonged to the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party. The NGO is under suspicion by Sri Lanka military for providing assistance to the Tamil rebels in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.
They say that the monks reportedly threatened them to leave the island. Around 8-10 Buddhist monks from JHU with 70-80 supporters rushed into the premises, took the attendance registers and some keys and photographed everybody, said a ZOA official.(www.colombopage.com/archive_07/January12140400SL.html)

(NB - note that the manner that this article is written is not necesarilly objective since all media is essentially government operated or monitored. For example, the aid group might be regarded as "pro-Tamil" in the sense that they are aware that a huge number of refugees are Tamil, but not "pro-LTTE". Helping Tamils and helping the LTTE are purposefully conflated in this sense. There is nothing new in this kind of state-run reporting of course. Also consider early CNN and Fox coverage of the current Gulf conflict).

Obviously these activities are thoroughly un-Buddhist, and monk political parties have had a history of promoting violence against Tamils and seem to have a great deal to do with domestic policy in Sri Lanka specifically around the so-called "problem up north". One would assume that if monks and Buddhists were to promote anything it would be Ghandian non-violence and not nationalistic, racist propaganda. In this sense, the first thing they would do would be to want peace and harmony. They should do their utmost to discourage violence and, in fact, condemn it since it results in the greatest sin in Buddhism: the generation of suffering. In this sense, these monks - again - can only be regarded as non-monks and as particularly sinful Buddhists.

Perehera at Keleniya

On New Years day we went to a rather large and important Buddhist temple called the Keliniya Mahavihara (Great Temple of Keliniya). According to the Singhalese account of Buddhism, the Buddha visited this area - as well as two or three other places in Sri Lanka (depending on who is telling the story). We were rather lucky on that particular day because we were able to see a perehera or religious parade. A perehera is meant to celebrate both the religious aspect of Singhalese society as well as its historical successes. The perehera consists of many people - including quite a few young children - dressed in very rich costume that represents different components of Singhala identity. They dance, play music (mainly percussion) and perform various acts as literally thousands of local Sri Lankans watch on earnestly.

This is the lead elephant of the perehera. It would probably be a very old and venerable creature that has been designated the task of being the perehera elephant for many years. In this particular perehera, the elephant does not carry a dhatu or religious artifact, but in the esala perehera which happens in may, the elephant carries the holy tooth relic mentioned below. This particular elephant went for a huge crap and wee (it looked like someone was hosing down the path, but you wouldn't want to step in it). He also inhaled a 'snack' of an entire hand of bananas as we might eat a single lolly.

The procession was a distinctively Singhala affair - since it is primarilly Buddhist - and only provided images and costumes associated with Singhala legend. Consequently, there were several groups of flag bearers that bore the image of the Sri Lankan flag. The Singhalese are quite natioanlistic, so this is not particularly odd. See previoius posts for an analysis of the meaning behind the flag.

According to Sri lankan legend, the Singhala people were a product of the copulation between a god and a lion. The lion (singhaya) is therefore an important animal in within the Singhala psychological scehma. As far as I know, however, lions are not native to Sri Lanka and I don't believe that any actually live there, so the origins of the myth remain a mystery to me. In any case, a lot of Sri Lankan art involves images and designs of lions and they are common guardian figures at important Buddhist sites.

Perhaps the most popular god worshipped by the Singhalese is Katuragama (a town is also named after him. Katuragama is the Hindu war god Skandha and he has risen in importance over the last fifty years to replace the official guardian of Sri Lanka, Vishnu. Katuragama's vehicle is always the peacock - another important Sri Lankan animal (it features on 1000 rupee notes) along with the snake. These dancers above are therefore implying Katuragama, although having an image of Katuragama in a Buddhist parade might be religiously confusing for the onlookers.

Another important god in Sri Lankan lengend is Hanuman, the monkey god. He is generally regarded as mischievious individual and his moral worth in the eyes of Sri Lankans is unclear to me (for example, Katuragama is regarded as morally impure, but he is nonetheless highly respected). The story is that Hanuman fled India with a kidnapped bride and escaped to Sri Lanka. He managed this by jumping across the strait with his powerful legs arriving in what is now known as Bandarawella. There he kept the bride imprisoned for many years causing grief to the ruler in India. The story is told the same way in India.

These people are all stilt-walkers. As far as I can tell, there are no distinctive cultural implications involved with this - its just a bit of fun. However, it looked rather uncomfortable even though the people were having a lot of fun!