Kandy concludes New Year with ‘rice ritual’

Paddy being pounded by male devotees at the Preaching Hall at Godamunne on the night before the offerings are made

Sinhala New Year didn’t end in the Kandyan territory as scheduled on April 14, but it continued till April 29 with a ritual at Sagama Raja Maha Viharaya. But due to the pandemic situation the carrying of the two bowls of rice, one containing thirty-five measures and the other with sixty measures of rice was curtailed. 
The cooked rice is taken in vans and then filled into the two bowls at the respective Viharages and the other at the Bo tree.

The photographs in the article show the age-old tradition of carrying the rice bowls by devotees for a distance of around four kilometres to the temple premises. They are carried in a trestle shaped contraception. However, the event was curtailed this year and participants carried only the cooked rice brought to the temple and the bowls were filled thereafter. 

"In the past years in keeping with tradition around sixty devotees would carry the rice for a distance of about four kilometres from the two points at Gadamunne and Happuliyadde Preaching Halls"

In the past years in keeping with tradition around sixty devotees would carry the rice for a distance of about four kilometres from the two points at Gadamunne and Happuliyadde Preaching Halls. To offer these bowls of rice, as viewed in the photograph, it takes at least sixty or more people to perform this function on the trestle-shaped contraption with the bowl resting on top. This Viharaya has a Bo tree; it was one of the plants brought from the Bo tree from Dabadiva during the period of King Devanampiyatissa. History reveals that 32 plants were brought and planted around the country; in places including Ruhuna, Magama Pattuwa and one at Sagama. The latter (place) was named by the King as a Raja Maha Viharaya.

For fourteen days after the Sinhala New Year there are pageants or processions named ‘Mal Peraheras’ or Flower Peraheras which travel from the villages of Patha Hewaheta, Godamunne, Nugaliyadde, Bootwatta, and Sagama to Sagama Raja Maha Viharaya. 

These pageants continue in the evenings for 14 days until the final ‘event’- scheduled in the morning- where two bowls of rice are carried on the shoulders of the devotees and taken from Godamunne Viharaya Ambalama and Butawatta Viharaya Ambalama or preaching Hall.

Another aspect to this ritual is that the paddy is pounded on the previous day by men and not by women.
The bowls, which contain fifty measures of rice, are taken in a trestle-shaped contraception to Sagama Raja Maha Viharaya and offered both to the Bo tree and to the Shrine; the oldest of the two Viharage’s at the premises.
This brings an end to the Sinhala New Year celebrations in the Kandyan territory. 

The picture shows the traditional method employed in past years to carry the rice bowls to Sagama Raja Maha Viharaya, but the tradition was broken this year due to the pandemic