Day Six: Water, temples and crab curry

Jan and I were rather circumspect with our perambulations this morning as we were off to an early start and we wanted to ensure we had enough time to cause chaos whilst ordering breakfast: but that's a long story!

With Ninthujan aboard we headed north through endless low waterways and swamplands. The tides must be very low as the roads were only a few feet higher than the water and could easily have been washed away in a high tide.

Lots of waterbirds kept us entertained including some migratory birds, egrets, cormorans, storks and ibis . The most spectacular were the Asian Openbill black and white birds the size of a pelican with a huge wingspan and a beak which appears to have a hole in it, but the hole is due to the top part of the beak not closing tightly with the bottom and so there is a gap. 

There were aerial water pipes as the water is very salty , but minimal vegetation or inhabitants to provide distraction from the endless flatness.

Udaya had his work cut out as some of the roads were very narrow and pot-holed and an oncoming vehicle meant a dance of vehicles to squeeze past each other, until we finally arrived at the pier. Then it was our turn to risk life and limb and walk to our boat waiting at the end of the pier. The trick was to get out of the way of the cars trucks and public buses (driven by maniacal drivers) without ending up in the water. Pedestrians are low in the traffic hierarchy and a couple of times I found myself teetering on the very edge of the road to avoid oncoming vehicles. This was exacerbated by the fact that there were considerable potholes to be avoided by those vehicles as well! 

Having survived the pier we jumped aboard our boat, donned our life jackets and enjoyed the 20 minute trip to Nagadeepa Island, so named because of the Buddhist temple erected here because Buddha was supposed to have visited the island.

The boat trip was entertaining as the young boatman played a range of contemporary Tamil music with a strong beat (probably with a nod to Bollywood as India was only a few kilometres over the ocean). I was intrigued to see the religions he had included sitting in front of him, presumably to cover all contingencies and ensure his safety on the sea. They included a picture of a Saint, some pictures of various Hindu gods and an evil black mask of a face which is an example of ancient animistic beliefs to ward off evil spirits. He was well-covered!

The Naga Hindu temple was the first stop with huge elephants painted on the side of the Gate and some very brightly-painted figures. There are no photos allowed inside the complex but the architecture and ornate decoration was typical of many temples. Inside there were many devotees of all ages participating in rituals involving their god of choice. Lots of incense, chanting, walking around the statue of your chosen god, led by one of the swamis.

Some of the displays were beautiful. I was particularly taken by a square platform containing a number of tiny black statues of gods only a couple of feet tall, each draped in silk and gold. You could walk slowly around all of them whilst they seemed to look at you.

This time there was a long queue of people carrying baskets of flowers and fruit to be blessed by the swamis in the inner sanctum. We were sad to see that a young swami was given every basket to inspect, then he threw out the flowers (often beautiful crocuses!!!) and then placed the basket in front of the inner sanctum. 

Just as we left we saw an extraordinary sight.A young pious devotee had threaded a fine short silver spear through the sides of his mouth (!). Apparently the spear represents a whale and at the front the head of a cobra stuck out. He was surrounded by a support team of family and looked to be in a trance as he sat on his knees praying towards the temple. Then he lay down and proceeded to roll along the gravel in front of the Temple steps with his arms outstretched. Ninthujan explained this as his suffering being a means through which he was showing his devotion to the gods and and they would help him. It was very unsettling!

Next we walked along the foreshore to the Nagadeepa Buddhist temple compound which was a strong contrast to the Naga temple. The architecture is much simpler and everything is white or muted colours. There was a simple large white stupa dedicated to Buddha's footprints and only decorated with some bo tree shaped leaves. We decided to take a photo of us standing in front of a large standing Buddha but Uduya quickly reminded us that you're not allowed to have your back side facing the Buddha so we rearranged the photo.

The heat was getting to us so we jumped into tuk tuks to get us back to the port and jumped back on our boat. After an uneventful trip we climbed into the van and Udaya skilfully drove us for a long time through small towns, over bumpy roads and all sorts of traffic to arrive back at Ninthujan family house for lunch again. This time it was to enjoy his mother's  crab curry  made with special (secret!) spice mixtures. It was delicious and very messy! Just the right amount of heat and very sweet crab flesh.

Some of us had checked out Ninthuja's new website (youtube : VANNI VLOG)and we gave her some feedback, including using English subtitles so no information about the recipes was lost.

Whilst the temples were fascinating Sid pointed out that a lot of wealth had been invested in them and yet the Island has no medical services and is really in need of welfare, education and health services. Clearly building impressive temples takes precedence!

Ninthujan mentioned that there are 700 Hindu temples in the Jaffna area. As the whole of Sri Lanka is the size of Tasmania, the Jaffna area is small. They range from tiny community simple dwellings to these enormous mega temples we have seen in the last few days. 

After some R&R time at the Hotel we did an informal 'Jaffna by Night' tour. In other words we went in search of a bottle of wine for dinner which involved a tour of potential sources all around Jaffna! There are so-called wine stores but they don't sell wine! The liquor stores have iron bars and tiny windows to ensure security. At the first one Jenny and Sid managed to acquire a bottle of red chilean wine and at another some white wine. No comment about the quality or taste!

Then we had dinner at a deserted but very nice restaurant called Moju where we were quickly allocated a separate room as they didn't have a licence for alcohol.  The food was great : Sri Lankan food has such variety and flavour. The garlic Naan were huge and a big hit!

Then back to the Hotel to ponder about the upsides and downsides of religion.

your thoughtful and confused correspondent

Dianne