Temple festival – Sri Lanka

When I was in Colombo I had a change to visit a buddhist temple festival with the locals on the outskirts of the city. It was such an amazing experience to get to know the culture better and it happened to be one of the biggest festivals for this temple.  And it turned out that me and two other girls where the only foreigners around.

Local families were gathering around to see the parade that was about to start so we joined them to see whats going on. On the temple yards we found elephants, local musicians and dancers getting ready for the performance and the atmosphere was absolutely great. We greeted local monks inside the temple also.

Once the parade started I was almost not able to believe my eyes.

If you have a change to visit temples with locals in Sri Lanka I recommend you to since they will tell you so many things about the culture and rituals. Big part of Sri Lankans are buddhist and you will find so many temples in country. I am very happy I had a change to share this experience with the locals on my trip.

Traditions

The one above is the main elephant for the parade all ready in the traditional deocration and lightning. Below you can find pictures of the dancers in their costumes. It is great to see that the community comes together and the old traditions are still respected and kept alive.