Colombo 2

Our first stop was the Gangaramaya Temple.  This temple serves as a place of worship as well as a museum..... Well had the feeling of an antique shop, full of trash and treasure that had been donated to them over the years.  One of the most interesting things was the tiniest gold Buddha ever...  in sits in a glass dome and to see the detail there is a magnifier in front.

The temple itself is amazing it holds a haven of golden Buddha statues and lavish murals within.  There is also a Banyan tree that is embellished with Buddhas where people go to pray and pour water around it roots as offerings to keep it alive... Huge...

We also walked up to another part of the temple where they were preparing for a wedding. We took our photo’s and then walked down stairs.  We walked into another part of the temple where we ran into a group of women that looked like they were on their version of a CWA outing.  They got most excited when Ros started snapping their photo’s and showing them the results.

Then suddenly we heard a familiar beat of a drum and tinkling of little bells...  “sounds like those dancers on the wharf”.  We rushed outside and the timing our visit couldn’t be better as it was time for the wedding.

The dancers lead the wedding party up into the temple where the wedding is to be held. They danced through the courtyard and up the steps being followed by the Groom and his Grooms men dressed in traditional garb, followed by his family. They walked up the steps and before they walked into the temple a young boy (around 4- 5) was called upon to wash the grooms feet (helped by grandpa I think ).  This didn’t go unrewarded as we then saw him showing off a gold ring he had on his finger.  The groom then took his position...

Where there is a groom, there must be a bride...  We asked our driver, but something was lost in translation as we thought the bride was already there.  But as we walked back down the stairs we saw the dancers reforming infront of the bride and her family.... Beautiful flowers girls followed by the bride on the arm of her father.  Face down showing no emotion (which I think is tradition ).   How lucky were we to there at that time.