Kataragama

     One of a number of religious sites on the island, Kataragama is unusual in that it is sacred to four religious traditions in Sri Lanka [Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and the indigenous Vedda people.]  It has long been a centre for pilgrimage for all four religious grouping as well as forHindu Tamils from south India

     Originally a small village abot 220 km to the south east of the capital, Colombo, Kataragama is now a thriving town and multi-cultural religious centre, with a permanent population of over 2,000 [2010 figures]  most of whom are Sinhalese  [c94%], plus smaller minorities of Tamils and Muslims.

     As a multi-religious, sacred centre, it contains a large shrine devoted to the Kataragama God,Skanda [Murukan in the Hindu pantheorn] and his human lover, Valli Amma,  as well as a Muslim mosque and a tradition as a focus of veneration by the Vedda indigenous people.

The Pada Yatra Pilgrimage.

     Traditionally Kataragama has been the focus of an annual  pilgrimage taking place in the months of June, July and August, originally starting from the region of the far north around Jaffna and gathering further pilgrims as it proceeds on the long journey, traditionally by foot, down a route along the east coast, finally arriving at the Yala East National Park and thence to Kataragama.

     This multi religious pilgimage -  known as the Pada Yatra - grew in popularity following the country's independence in 1948 and continued to develop a reputation for tolerance, fellowship and goodwill among the various religious communities participating in the pilgimage - a reputation that also appeared to characterise the very different celebrations that took place in Kataragama itself at the termination of the journey.

     The spread of violence througout Sri Lanka -  especially in the Tamil regions of the north and eastern parts of the island following the 1983 riots and the pogroms largely aimed at Tamils - brought the annual pilgrimages to a halt until 1988. At this point they were revived by the Kataragama Devotees Trus [KDT]t, which has arranged the pilgrims route and reception from that point on. The first two pilgrimages in 1988 and 1989 started, as was customary,  from the far north of the island but when fighting broke out again in 1990, following the withdrawal of Indian peacekeeping forces, pilgrims from the Jaffna region had to turn back and abandon their journey. Therafter, until 2002, the pilgrimage started from Trincomalee on the east coast..

During the 1990s and early 2000s the treatment of the pilgrims by combatants varied but was generally sympathetic. Villagers traditionally offered hospitality, but  food, drink and shelter were also offered by the LTTE and government security forces. In 2002,  following the establishmernt of a cease fire,  some pilgrims coming from the orth were able to negotiate their passage across No Mans Land with both the government forces and local LTTE commanders, The number of pilgrims increased during the long drawn out ceasefire between 2002 and 2006, and in 2004 over 30,000 made the last stage of the pilgimage to Kataragama. With the military defeat of the LTTE in 2009, numbers increased still further, as did conerns about the commecialisation and "westernisation" of the tradition.

Kataragama as a Peace Zone.

Those involved in preserving the pilgrimage as a multi-reigious festival in honour of the God have always denied that the event was a "peace march" or intended to bring an end to inter-ethic violence on the island. The most they would claim was that the Pada Yatra pilgrimage symbolised the possibiities of peaceful coexistence and tolerance between the various religious faiths on the island.

The question of whether Kataragama itself could be considered a sacred zone of peace is a little more complex.  For one thing, the remote position of the site itself militated against it being directy touched  by the violence that affected other regions of Sri Lanka. Moreover, the multi-religious nature of both the site and the pilgrimage insulated both  from the violence to a considerable degree, unlike another religious sanctuary that was situated in the conflict zone of the country's north west , the Madhu Church.

Nonetheless, from its establishment in 1988, the  KDT has conducted a campaign to have the whole site declared as a zone of peace and an "Eco-Cultural sanctuary",  so that it becomes "... a sanctuary free from weapons, intimidation, terrorism, anger, coercion, bullying and abuse of all kinds..."

KTD has been in contact with the Zones of Peace Internatinal Foudation [ZOPIF]  to explore this possibiity but to date [2014] there has been no formal declaraion of the "Kataragama Zone of Peace".

Further Reading:

Frydenlund, Sarah Iselin "Kataragama in a Time of National Crisis: Diversity and Exclusion in a Sacred Place in Sri Lanka" Unpublished Master's thesis. University of Oslo 2003.

Pfaffenberger, Bryan  "The Kataragama Pilgrimage: Hindu-Buddhist Interaction and its Significance in Sri Lanka's Polyethnic Social System" Journal of Asian Studies  Feb 1979 38 (2).