Kandy

Kandy, 7:40am

I'm sitting in a hindu restaurant waiting for my 'dosa' breakfast. Kandy has a big Tamil population (both muslims and hinduists) but is also particularly sacred for the buddhist as it's home of the Tooth Relic temple.

Today is 'Unduvap poya' -full-moon day- and many shops close. I was recommended not to visit the temple today as crowds congregate there to pray, so I went yesteraday. The temple looks nice from outside as it stands by Kandy lake -a human made reservoir for irrigation from ancient times- but it's still more impressive from the inside. After attrending a traditional dancing show I went to the temple for the evening ceremony. It consists of a sequence of drumming sessions and some flower offerings by the many devotees wearing white clothes (lucky me I was offered a 'sarong' to cover my knees so I could go inside). The temple and the poya ceremony was an impressive ans moving sight, I really want to do some more research about history in my upcoming days in Sigiriya.

In the late evening I went back to my hostel. I shared the room with Jalisco, a Philipino american who's lived in India for 10 years. We had a very interesting chat about politics and society. Around 10pm I fell deeply asleep.Read more