 
Pada Yatra pilgrims promote Sri Lanka's peace process
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| The traditional karai yatra pilgrims follow the coast in their 45-day foot
journey from Mullaittivu to Kataragama.
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| Pada Yatra pilgrim (left) interviews Palchenai village elder Bairavamuttu Ponnamma
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| Palchenai villagers discuss National Vision survey as Pada Yatra pilgrims (foreground) enjoy annadanam.
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National Vision to lay roadmap to peace and prosperity
by Patrick Harrigan
(Batticaloa, July 8, 2003) With the annual Kataragama Esala festival
flag-hoisting fast approaching, the entire East Coast from Mullaittivu to
Kataragama has been resounding with spirited cries of ‘Haro Hara’ from hundreds
of traditional foot pilgrims. The number of foot pilgrims this year has doubled
from last year’s already large groups, observers say, because of confidence
among villagers that peaceful conditions will continue to prevail.
The Pada Yatra pilgrims walk from as far as Jaffna and
Mullaittivu districts, taking as long as two months to reach the sylvan shrine
from Jaffna. All along the way, villagers wait for their chance to offer annadanam
to the growing bands of swamis and swami ammas, who are mostly in their 50’s,
60’s and 70’s—some are even in their 90’s.
Many villagers make vows to join the Pada Yatra as it passes
through their district, so the parties of pilgrims tend to swell from day to
day. Already some parties had grown to over 300 pilgrims before even leaving
Batticaloa District, with weeks still remaining before the flag-hoisting
ceremony on 28 July.
According to Kataragama Devotees Trust spokesman Manik
Sandrasagra, traditional Pada Yatra is neither a protest nor a peace march, but
rather an exercise of the spirit. “Of course, the body also gets a good
workout,” adds the portly Sandrasagra, “but the point of the exercise is to cultivate
bhakti and to invite grace upon oneself, one’s friends and family, and upon the
whole planet.”
“Pada Yatra is certainly not about mental or political
agitation,” he says, adding: “The Kataragama God is hugely popular and
respected today precisely because He is above all politics and artificial
differences that divide peoples and nations. Indeed, He is not just above
sectarian politics—He is above sectarian religion itself for that matter.”
National Vision
Setting aside politics for the sake of island-wide peace,
justice and prosperity is exactly what the Pada Yatra swamis and swami ammas
have been doing this year. Some have been helping the Committee for a National
Vision, a joint Government and private sector body, to solicit the opinions and
suggestions of villagers all along the route of the Pada Yatra throughout the
remote North and East.
The National Vision aims to lay out a roadmap to a peaceful
and prosperous Sri Lanka that is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-faith,
and plural society, where cultural diversity is recognized as a source of
national wealth and strength.
This year traditional Kataragama Pada Yatra foot pilgrims on
their long march from Mullaittivu to Kataragama have been collecting villagers’
own appraisals of their village’s problems and ideal solutions. The project
aims to stimulate open discussions, collect villagers’ insights, and forward results
to the Committee for consideration and incorporation into a National Vision.
“The Pada Yatra swamis and swami ammas are doing yeoman service
to the nation by helping us to collect villagers’ perspectives, which differ
from village to village,” says National Vision Committee Chairman Dr. Devanesan
Nesiah.
“The pilgrim-interviewers include male pilgrims who interview
men, and women pilgrims who interview women villagers. The project has both
Tamil and Sinhala language volunteers. The project has been interviewing men
and women of the East Coast’s Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim
communities.”
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Bairavamuttu Ponnamma (75) of Palchenai, a coastal Vedda hamlet in Batticaloa District
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Coastal Veddas
Even Tamil-speaking east coastal Veddas are having their
views heard in Colombo for the first time ever. For instance, one coastal Vedda
matriarch, 75-year old Bairavamuttu Ponnamma, observed that her Vedda hamlet of
Palchenai hamlet near Kathiraveli does not receive nearly the same level of
Government attention and amenities that neighboring villages take for granted.
“In Palchenai there is no local employment except seasonal
field labour. There is a school but no qualified teacher. Local officials pay
visits but nothing ever gets done,” she says. These are grievances that deserve
to be rectified. Without justice and prosperity, the ‘peace’ can only be
temporary.
Most villages in the North and East are populated by Tamils.
The survey, however, also visits Sinhala enclaves like Seruvila, whose
inhabitants express optimism about the future, and only request that they be
provided with adequate agricultural support services in order to live
self-sufficiently in peace with neighboring Tamil and Muslim communities.
The pilot project, called ‘Let the Villagers be Heard’,
has already submitted field reports from Mullaittivu, Trincomalee and
Batticaloa districts, and is now commencing interviews in Ampara District.
Some 500 foot pilgrims—mostly village elders—crossed
Batticaloa District by the second week of July. Their numbers are expected to
grow dramatically as the parties approach Pottuvil where the pilgrims assemble
to purchase dry rations before beginning the week-long trek through Yala
National Park.
The Kataragama Pada Yatra went into abeyance with the onset
of ethnic conflict in 1983 until 1988 when the Kataragama Devotees Trust was
established to revive and support ancient traditions of Kataragama, such as the
Pada Yatra. This year is the sixteenth consecutive Pada Yatra sponsored by the
Kataragama Devotees Trust with the support of villagers and officials at the
national, district and local levels.
This article first appeared in The Sunday Island of 20 July 2003.
Patrick Harrigan (M.A., University of Michigan) has been the Kataragama Devotees Trust's Pada Yatra field representataive since 1988. The 2003 Pada Yatra was his 17th Kataragama Pada Yatra since 1972.
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