Kotahena

Sri Lanka

Tea, Tea, Tea, that sums up what Sri Lanka is so proud of, the origin of Tea. Ceylon Black Tea. One of the most celebrated drinks in the world and since 1873, Ceylon Black Tea has been the lifeline of Sri Lankan exports and trade. Thanks to Sir Thomas Lipton and James Taylor.

HARI. HARI. With a little shake of the head mean we agree and everything is ok. The expression and head gesture is used by everyone and very often.

The blessing we learned was A-YU-BOWAN which means "may you be blessed with a long life".

Maybe the best part of the day was when we learned humming bee breathing (bhramri-pranayama) to relieve tension, anger, anxiety, hypertension, headaches, builds memory and confidence and even prepares the body for other medications. https://www.artofliving.org/lk-en/yoga/breathin…

We spent two days in Columbo, the largest city in Sri Lanka (beautiful island) with a population of 5.6 million of the 22 million in 25,300 square miles of the Country. Sri Lanka's flower is the blue water lily, their national sport is volleyball (although they love cricket too), they build furniture (and just about anything else) out of their iron wood trees (MesuaFerrea), their high quality cinnamon is considered "golden whiskers" here and they have 1000 types of rice. And we learned about the key Sri Lanka food, Sago Pudding. https://www.peckishme.com/beloved-sri-lankan-fo…

Theravada Buddhism is the official religion here (practice by more than 70%). The Five Buddhas are aspects of the "dharma-body", which embodies and the principle of enlightenment in Buddhism. There are many interpretations, but one focuses on avoiding greed, jealousy, selfishness, delusion and aggressive behaviors. All valuable lessons. The noble path to the end of suffering and move to liberation consists of 8 practices: Right understanding, Right thought, Right speech, Right actions, Right livelihoods, Right effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration!

As a financial center and the largest tourist destination on the west coast of India, it has a large harbor and has been in a strategic position along the East West trade routes for 2000 years. Like many places, the Portuguese, the Dutch and then the British had control over Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s history goes back to 200 BCE when Buddhism arrived here. The British control was from 1815-1948 when it was known as Ceylon and then as a dominion (self-governing body) of Britain until 1972. A 26 year civil war pursued from1983-2009 when almost 100,000 died. Economic and political unrest has plagued Sri Lanka in the past 4 years and finally with a new government in the last 6 months has the future looking bright. What we saw was a thriving wealthy economy with lots of growth and stores that had every modern convenience and services.

The first day we were there was Vesak Day, one of the biggest days of the year and is celebrated by Buddhists all over the world commemorates the birth and death of Gautama Buddha with parties in the streets and everyone giving out and sharing food. We saw all the beautiful 8 sided lanterns (see the noble path above) made to light up your mind. We walked around and decided to go to the deck party (see video) and celebrate the holiday in that way that night as it was impossible to get into town due to the festival.

The tour the second day was of the entire city and included the Kelaniya Buddhist Temple, the Clock tower, the Grand Oriental from 1837 (the oldest hotel in Asia), Independence square, National Museum, Hindu temple and the performing art center, national archives, and the lotus communications tower.

The Sri Lankan flag was very interesting: a golden lion holding a kastane sword in its right fore-paw in a maroon background with four gold bo leaves, one in each corner. This is bordered by gold, and to its left are two vertical stripes of equal size in teal and orange, with the orange stripe closest to the lion. The lion and the maroon background represent the Sinhalese, while the saffron border and four bo leaves represent concepts of mettā (loving kindness) karuṇā (compassion), muditā (joy) and upekshā (equanimity) respectively. The stripes represent the country's two largest minorities, with the orange representing the Tamils living in Sri Lanka – both the Sri Lankan Tamils and the Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka – and the green stripe representing the Sri Lankan Moors (Muslims of Sri Lanka). The golden yellow border represents the other minority communities of the country. Phew. And let's not forget the Buddhist flag which just as much meaning. Both flags are everywhere.


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