Kandy, Sri Lanka

The next few days I won't be online too much... I've got Aikido Summer School in Birmingham, from 10am until 4pm until Wednesday. It's only five days in total this year so it's a bit easier than previously, but I'm probably still going to be stupidly tired by the end of it (I'm already tired.. need sleep... zzzzzz). I thought I'd try updating this blog at least today, though, to get my mind off aikido temporarily (I'm freaking out quite a bit as I'll be grading and I'm really nervous.. >_<).

So... from the rainy West Midlands we move to the sunny island of Sri Lanka. As I've mentioned before, I'm rather fascinated with this country as I used to have a penpal there and all the things she told me and the pictures she showed me... whoa! Dinushka (this ex-penpal) mentioned Kandy a few times as well as it was a very important place for here. She once sent me a postcard from there but here's another one I received recently.



The picture here is from Kandy Perehara. It is a famous annual event in which one of the inner caskets used for covering the tooth relic of Buddha is taken in a grand procession through the streets of the city. This casket is taken on a royal tusker. The procession includes traditional dancers and drummers, flag bearers of the provinces of the old Kandyan kingdom, the Nilames (lay custodians of temples ) wearing their traditional dresses, torch bearers and also the grandly attired elephant. This ceremony which is annually held in the months of July or August, attracts large crowds from all parts of the country and also many foreign tourists. Over a hundred elephants parade the streets during this event.

Thank you Ravindra for this beautiful postcard!



The stamp is from a set of 16 stamps issued in 2007, depicting Constellations. This one here is the Aquarius.