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Published: July 20th 2009
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Arriving at Mihintale (again)
Most people wore white clothes to celebrate Poson - the day when Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka This day was definitely the highlight of this trip. Never in my life had I done so much charity work in 1 day... Not only we did charity work at Mihintale, the holiest place in Sri Lanka, we also went to several refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka to give/offer/donate/distribute...
This day was also one of the holiest day in Sri Lanka, as it was Poson day - the day when Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka in 3rd century BC by Arahat Maha Mahinda (son of King Asoka of India), who appeared before the Sri Lankan King at Mihintale. Poson is also a full moon festival and is characterised by day-long processions and ceremonies at Mihintale and Anuradhapura. Being Buddhists, we were very honoured to celebrate this important day in Sri Lanka. More importantly, we made this day even more special and meaningful by doing charity work at the very place where Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka.
Arriving at our "base camp" at Mihintale at 8am, we started the day by packing breakfast for the thousands of pilgrims who stayed overnight in Mihintale after arriving on the previous day. After packing thousands of breakfast packets, we carried
the packets up the long flight of stairs to Mihintale's upper terrace, and distributed the breakfast packets to the pilgrims who "camped" there. We then returned to our base camp and started preparing distributing our vast amount of supplies. A group of us began to pack biscuits (the biscuits came in huge tins and we had to divide the biscuits into small packs), while another group began to prepare vegetarian burgers (one team to cut the vegetarian ham, one team to fry the ham, one team to cut the burger buns, one team to put the fried ham into the buns, and one team to put cucumbers and ketchup).
At lunchtime, we packed a thousand packets of lunch and we repeated the process of walking up the long flight of stairs and distributing the packets to the pilgrims who "camped" at the upper terrace since the previous day. Then we returned to our base camp, where we took turns to have lunch and to distribute freebies to the long queue of pilgrims. At 2pm, a team of Sri Lankan volunteers took over the distributing job. We (the Singaporeans) then made our way to our buses, as our Bhante (Buddhist
teacher, and leader of this trip) agreed to bring us to the war refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka. The war refugee camps are actually out of bounds to foreigners, but we could go there to do charity work because our Bhante had made special arrangements with the government.
Before we reached the war refugee camps, we had to pass through numerous security checkpoints. We even had to surrender all cameras and mobile phones, which were collected by our group leaders and placed beside the driver's seat. Unlike southern or central Sri Lanka where the landscape is either full of houses or full of trees, the landscape of northern Sri Lanka was barren. Trees and buildings were few and far apart, and along the roads there were numerous huts and mounts inhabited by soldiers and fitted with guns.
At the first war refugee camp, we were surrounded by a mob refugees like a Santa Claus surrounded by a mob of children. Only after a series of shouting, scolding, and pushing from the camp guards then the situation became more orderly. We gave away a huge amount of sweets, biscuits, stationery, clothes and household items to the enthusiastic crowd.
At the second war refugee camp, things were much more orderly. Children were ordered to sit in rows before we arrived and adult refugees were cordoned off, so our distribution job became much more easier. We continued our "Santa Claus" job at another war refugee camp, before the sun started to set and we decided to return to Mihintale.
Returning to our base camp at Mihintale, we continued to distribute freebies to the long queue of pilgrims and prepare vegetarian burgers. At around 10pm, my mum and I decided to take a break and walked up to the hilltop Mahaseya dagoba. We followed the huge crowd up the long flight of stairs to the upper terrace and up the stairs to the dagoba. At the hilltop, we could see the full moon in the sky and the huge crowd of people below. (It reminds me of the human jam at Hong Kong's Victoria Park during the Mid-autumn festival market.) After walking one round around the Mahaseya dagoba, we returned to the base camp. The queue outside the base camp were still very long, but our stock of supplies were dwindling. By 12 midnight, we decided to stop the distribution
and began to pack up everything. (Most of us were tired, after working for one whole day.) It was only after we started to pack up then the disappointed crowd outside the base camp began to disperse. Some people still lingered around the base camp, hoping to pick up anything that we left behind...
After having a brief supper and taking a rest, we began to clean up the place and clear the huge amount of rubbish. A few locals came and took the empty biscuit tins, plastic bags, plastic bottles, and anything that can be reused. Finally, at 1am, we returned to our buses and made our way back to our hotel, thus ending the long day of "Santa Claus-ing"...
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