Thursday 6th February 2014: GMT + 5.5hrs ­ Sri Lanka, Colombo: Buddhism Unravelled

The first part of my late afternoon tour required a coach to transport us out of the vast dock complex to the city centre and first to the Gangarmaya (Meaning beside the river) Buddhist Temple, one of two main temples in Colombo. This was my first visit to a Buddhist Temple but any concerns I may have harboured about Buddhism were quickly dispelled by our guide who described it as more of a philosophy than a religion. He explained that each temple contains a relic of Lord Buddha, in this case a lock of his hair. The importance of the relic gives rise to the status of each temple so, for example, the temple at Kandy, in northern Sri Lanka, has a tooth of Lord Buddha which is considered to be one of the most sacred Buddhist shrines and known as the Temple of the Tooth (Dalada Maligava).

So who was Buddha and what is Buddhism? A little bit of research revealed that it was founded by Siddartha Gautam (c563 – c 483 BC), who was born an Indian Prince in Nepal. He renounced wealth and family to become an ascetic (Even I had to look this up; it means ‘characterised by severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence – not likely to appeal to cruise passengers then!!!) and after achieving enlightenment taught all who came to learn from him.

Buddhism has no central god but focuses around the doctrine of ‘Karma’. The four noble truths of Buddhism (According to the Oxford English Dictionary) state that “all existence is suffering, that the cause of suffering is desire, that freedom from suffering is nirvana, and that this is attained through the ‘eightfold path’ of ethical conduct, wisdom and mental discipline.”

Central to every Buddhist Temple is a Ban Yan Tree (See photo) under which it is said Lord Buddha in mediation, received enlightenment.

The saffron robes worn by the monks are coloured using natural dyes from tree roots symbolising an affinity with the earth and nature.

Another surprising – well surprising to me - piece of knowledge that I gained from this short visit was that the ‘swastika’ - so defiled by Adolf Hitler - is in fact an ancient symbol deriving from the Sanskrit ‘svastika, from svasti ‘well-being’ and from su  ‘good’ + asti ‘being’. All this from a swastika medallion hanging from a miniature statue of Buddha held in the Temple’s treasury.

So an enlightening visit for me came to an end as we boarded the bus for a rendezvous with the Tuk-Tuks.  The last photo is of the impressive Town Hall modelled on the Whitehouse in Washington USA.