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TRINCOMALEE, SRI LANKA, March 25, 2005: Several thousand devotees participated in the water-cutting festival of the historic Trincomalee Pathirakali Amman Temple held in the Back Bay Sea in the east port town Friday early morning. (The “water cutting” festival is a ritual in which water is offered to a river, lake or ocean, then a circle is drawn in the water with an ornate sword and fresh water taken for worship. It is practised by both Hindus and Buddhists in Sri Lanka. The ceremony is intended to pacify and control the element of water.)



Devotees — men, women and children irrespective of age — dipped in the sea and performed religious rites amid announcement by Meteorological Department that sea would become rough in the afternoon and the waves would reach the shore beyond one hundred meters, sources said. The festival coincided with the third month remembrance of the tsunami destruction, which falls on March 26, Saturday. The coastal areas of Trincomalee town were destroyed in the December tsunami. The Back Bay sea beach, which is called by Tamil fishermen as Uyanthapaddu Kadatkarai for several decades, is now occupied by an illegal Sinhala settlement called “Samudragama” which was also destroyed by tsunami on December 26. Hindu temples in Trincomalee for their water-cutting ceremony use Uyanthapaddu Kadatkarai. Once in twelve years “Mahamaham” festival is held and on that day deities of all Hindu temples in the east port town assemble in the Uyanthapaddu sea beach to perform religious rites, which is a must according to the Hindu calendar, sources said. Since the establishment of “Samudragama” for displaced Sinhala families in 1987 disturbances on the Uyanthapaddu Kadatkarai, Tamil fishermen are prevented from beaching their crafts and fishing in the Back Bay Sea. Hindu temples are also finding difficult to hold their water-cutting festivals without any hindrance, sources said.

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