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Pada Yatra pilgrims' arrival at Kataragama

Thanks to the restoration of peaceful conditions islandwide, this year the traditional Kataragama Pada Yatra pilgrims have once again walked from their villages throughout the North and East, having gathered a Mullaitivu on Vesak Day and will arrive by foot in Kataragama on flag-hoisting day, which this year falls on July 10, states a release by the founder trustee Manik Sandrasagara.

In 1988 the Kataragama Devotees Trust (KDT) sponsored the revival of the ancient tradition of foot pilgrimage from Jaffna to Kataragama with the cooperation of the Sri Lanka National Security Council and the IPKF. The KDT has been sponsoring the revival of this ancient practice annually since 1988 after the tradition had fallen into abeyance in 1983 due to ethnic disturbances. As such, the KDT and the Kataragama Pada Yatra have been playing a significant role in Sri Lanka's process of peace and reconciliation since 1988.

To mark the occasion of the arrival of the first Pada Yatra foot pilgrims to reach Kataragama from the North since the 1980s, we are pleased to invite you to the sacred city of Kataragama on Wednesday July 10 to welcome the pilgrims and launch the festival. Your presence in the sacred precincts outside the Valli Amma Dewale at 5 p.m. to greet the pilgrims and thereafter at the flag hoisting ceremony at the mosque at 5.30 p.m. would herald the start of the Esala festival, an event that celebrates the spirit of unity underlying Kataragama and its traditions.

Already the Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando has agreed to participate, since the Foreign Ministry is facilitating this year's yatra as a part of a campaign to re-position Sri Lanka and present her in the light of her ancient glory as Dhamma Deepa.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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