Poya Again

Yesterday I told Manurie that I was going to go to a temple for Poya day to take photos. Actually I asked if it would be offensive if I took photos at a temple on Poya. The reply was no. Then she mentioned that her husband was going to come up for Poya and we could all go to this ancient temple just outside of Colombo. This sounded good to me, so I agreed.

Now spending an entire day with Manurie can be exhausting as she likes to complain a lot (not about what we are doing, but about work and living apart from her husband, etc.) and this can really drain you. But I figured it would be good to go with a local person who could translate for me and make sure people were o.k. with my taking pictures.

So three buses later we were at Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara. This is the most important Buddhist center in the Colombo area according to Lonely Planet. It was destroyed by Indian invaders and rebuild, then destroyed by the Portuguese and rebuild. Thus, the structure we saw dates from the 18th and 19th centuries. There are pretty incredible mosaics inside and a reclining Buddha. Apparently the stupa is hollow, which is unusual.

I was a little timid taking photos at first, being a religious holiday and all, but after a bit ladies started asking me to take their picture. Old women especially seem to be fond of this and I'm more than happy to oblige as I think they have more interesting faces.

So I personally think I got a lot of nice shots. This has made me happy as I was really starting to worry I was loosing my eyesight or something. Clearly I just had a few bad photo days in a row.

Tomorrow is World Tourism Day and Sri Lanka is the host. We cajoled ourselves into an event, so that is where I'll be all day.