Kataragama, Sri Lanka

Kataragama, the sacred city of both buddhists and hindus in Sri lanka is a small town with cultural and religious values. Kataragama located near my home town Monaragala and it also belongs to Monaragala district.

As a ritual people visit kataragama, specially on "perehera time" mostly at the end of june, to see the "perehara". It can be described as a long perade with elephants, dancers, drummers and different cultural events belong to different cultures.

People have different intentions on visiting kataragama like visiting "Sathara maha dewala" which is devoted for four gods and asking help and protection for their lives. Also there's a stupa called "kirivehera" a sacred place of buddhists.

Before worshipping any of the above people used to bath from the "Manik River" as a ritual. During the perehera season thousands of sri lankan and foriegn people visit Katatagama and some Hindus from North and eastern, walk on foot for 100 kilometres to reach Kataragama as a spritual journey.

We can buy different cultural foods at the near by local shops like, "Kalu Dodol" "Puhul dosi", "boondi" and etc. People do not forget to visit these shops to bring something for their homes.

There are some "Lotus flower" shops on the way to the Stupa " kirivehera" and we sri lankans buy them and devotes to the stupa.

Kataragama, Sri Lanka is the one of the most popular sacred city and as a person who is in love with rural areas, Kataragama, took my heart!