Page Four

Becky Reiler Finds Ceylon's Religions
Complex, Almost lhcomprehensiblc

by Rebeccn Reiter

Throughout. these past months.
i have become incredsingly awore
at the prominent place religion
ha in the East, The dominant re-
i u in Ceylon is Buddhtsm. But
this Buddhism isiniiltratcd with
Hinduism and a kind oi paganism
until it appears so vast and come
plex as to be incomprehensible
to the Western mind.

Recently i went on a trip to the
ancient cities of Ceylon, Betcre
we entered the general area of
these ruins. the driver of our car,
a Buddhist, stopped by a shrine
at the side of the road. The shrine
ivas a pititul structure; tiny, dir-,
ty and neglected. The driver got
out of the car and searched the
bushes along the road—side. Fii‘ide
ing the right bush, he picked a‘
branch and hung it on a wooden
rack next to the shrine. He then
bought a coconut from a nearby
stand,

He placed the coconut on a
tiat stone in lront of the shrine
and lifted his hands in prayer.
He then picked up the coconut
and hurled it on the stone, breaks
ing it open. He brought a piece
of coconut to each occupant of
the car. We all silently ate our
piece. although none of us had
any idea of thc significance of
this ceremony. When we left the
ancient cities this same ritual
was periormed.

Our driver later explained to l
us that when we entered the
cities we had, as he put it,
“ieit my own country." To pro. .
tect himself and everyone with
him, he had to perform this .
ritual on leaving and entering .
the “foreign territory."

i asked a Buddhist friend oi
mine about this and he explained
that many people believe Ceylon
is divided into different regiunsu
each having its own special godj
or gods. When a man leaves his,
own region, he must pay tribute
to the god of the territory he is
entering or harm will beiali him,‘

There is a popular religious
ceremony periormed in Ceylon
called a perahera. As definitely
as i can describe it, it is a re—l
ligious parade which takes place
on a full moon night and involv s
carrying the relic of any partic
lar temple through the streets.
The full moon day and night at
every month is a special time oi
worship for Buddhists and is
called Poya .

Near every Buddhist temple .
is a structure shaped like a l
bell and handle. This is called
a dagoba, and it houses relics, .
usually that of Buddha himself. ‘
These structures are usually
rather large. There is no open- i
ing into the interior. inside the
temple is a small replica ot' the
dagoba containing mart: relics.
This is what is carried through
the streets in the pcrahera.

Not long ago, i had the oppon
tunity oi witnessing a pcrahera
This perahera took place at Kel»
aniya, a village not iar from

The night was clear and the full
moon shone brightly. People
were walking back and forth and
talking excitedly.

:Heimdn Discusse

Hours passed '

and nothing happened. Al. inide ,

night there was still no sign ot
the .perahera. 1 learned that the
procession

slowly because at thc dancers in-

‘volved.

Finally at 2 am,
hear the drums, We jumped out

of the car and rushed to the road- L

side. in my desire to see clearly,
I climbed a stone wall already
over-crowded with people and at
ter tottering back and iorth, tirst
clasping the person in front or
me and then behind me, 1 finally
gained my balance, dug in my
toes and waited.

The first people in the proces—
sion were rope crackers, These
men carried short, stout ropes
that they tivirled around their
heads and then swunk back and
forth, making the ropes pop and
crack. Next were dancers (all
men) wearing wide white trou—
sers and breasteplates covered

movcs cvcecdingly ,

we could

by Bill

Constant arguments (”th con-
cerning plans submitted by col—
lege oiticiais over the incieiises
in tccs net itaicd b ‘
costs, but there still eh. '
area of college hie whici

Henna i1

been equally plagued by risingj
not yet,

CO§l§ and which has
benefited from additional charg-

‘ cs.

The area Concerned is that
Covcrcd by our activities ICC,
i. o. the $30 Der year or 85 cents

.. per week which is to provide zllr

most all of Our
social events,

aclivitlcs and

Because the majority of stu-

f dcnts at Grinnell are not sate

isiicd with the present program,

; both as to quality and quanti-

with jewels, Some carried drums '

and the dancers moved slowly
back and forth changing direction
on each down beat or the drum.
Along with the dancers were
men playing long horns that
squealed out in the typical, high,
nasal tone.

After the dancers, came mcn
carrying long poles with flaming
pots on either end. These they
whirled around and around. Next
came an elephant brilliantly

decked out with jewels and colorsl

ed electric lights.
The procession kept repent-

‘ ing itseli with more dancers,

elephants, and torch-bearers,
the center of the procession
was the elephant carrying the
relic from the temple. This cle-
phant was loaded with white
electric lights, tapestries and
jewels. Two smaller elephants
walked on either side of the
main elephant and two men,
seated on each elephant ooii-
stantly tossed flowers on the
rch'e.

Also in the parade were the
chief priests of the temple and
the head laymen. Boys tollowed
these important personages and
held large fans over their heads,
At one point, the dancers in the
process performed in earnest,
They danced faster and faster.
iumping and twirling, and flips
ping over in midrair.

After the cliina,
pliant carrying the relic, the
dancers were younger and less
expericnccd and the elephants
smaller and less decorated.

The most iainous Pei-aircra in
Ceylon takes place in Kandy
Kandy is seventy-two miles from
Colombo and is the home of the
celebrated Temple of the Tooth.
The temple gets its name from
the fact that it houses the tooth
of Buddha The Kandyan Pei'ar
hera takes place in August, and
i missed it, uniortunately, But i

l
of [he Cic-

ls Cowles Theme

Cowlos men build a decor.-

tion for their house party
l which is scheduled for this
Saturday night,

(l Tire party, with a French
, Night Club theme will be giv—
‘ en at the Community Center.

,New AWS Board
iUnderl‘akes Du’ries
lSunday Al’rernoon l

The current. AWS Board met,
,for the last lime ollicially tliis‘
lweelc. The new
ll'lal‘idlc all AWS Board bus ness,‘
after their formal installi’ttion‘
Sunday afternoon.

l The traditional
ceremony will be held immeds
iatcly after Sunday dinner in
Main lounge At that time the
new AWS Board will assume
their responsibilities.

Karen Halvorscn, outgoing
‘AWS Board president. encour-
aged all women to attend. She
pointed out that this is one
Iof the few times a year when
‘a large number of women sills
dents have the opportunity to
{view seriously the work and
responsibilities of the AWS
:Board,

Other business at the joint
AWS Board meeting included a
discussion of the mechanics of

Colombo, the home of a [limits assured that the perahera at “00’“ (11"“Ving- Rules {0“ ““5

men: and ancient temple.

The nigiit beiore the pcrahera,
i visited the Kelaniya teinpic, As
we approached the temple we
could hear the drums beating. Wei
climbed the hill to the temple,‘
took off our shoes and entered.‘
At the end of a long hall I could
see a seated Buddha, A painting;
or the Himalayas sci-vcd as aback‘
ground, As we walked toward thel
Buddha, the drums continued tol
beat and the high, nasal wailing:
of a horn began. Before’Wc enter!
ed the alcove containing the scatsl
ed Buddha, I noticed a small. low
doorway to the right. The doore
way was completely filled with,
a huge, yellow face lying in a
horizontal position, The face he
longed to a iargc reclining Budd-l
ha in the next room. i

We were iniorincd by tiic ‘
priests of the temple that the
pe there would start train the
Kenn-a temple about 9 pm
A peroiicra continues through-
out tiie night and stops at dawn
oi the next day.

The next night we started tor
Kclaniya. The roads to thc tern-i
pie were blocked so we picked a‘
spot along the road and waited.

ample.

igelawa was a my worthy ex. procedure have been posted in

‘all the halls.

 

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, need iDI‘

Ly, the time has come to remedy
the problem.

An increase in the activities .

fee by 510 could and would
provide us wilh the type of
program We desire and de-
serve.

The most obvious area for im-
provement is in our concert pro»
gram. with the present budget
it is possible to provide only
three or tour concerts per year.
Owing to the cultural vacuum
which exists due to physical
location, no one can argue the
improvement. With
the increase our concert series
would be expanded at least eight
per year or one per month.

Movies would be more fre-
quent and of better quality and
variety with the addition of
American shows. Funds would
exist for additional bowling,
skating and sports night partie.

Live Combos would ll'oquenl

an all—campus carnival is in the

imaking. Another possibility isl

a banquet
dances.

preceding formal

Those are just at few all the

could become :I reality if we,
the students, so desire.
Special Emphasis will be plac-

so far out-numbered by date

Friday, April 2i. l96l

Aciiviiicsfei

S

iuiictioi, as shown by the fol
l the tiguics- date iiinction
, o3, iiontlaicrzﬂ A detailed dc

'lplion or the proposed progran
‘will be presented in the Scarlc
and Black.

in the mean time it is liopct
hat all studen it Grinnell wii
jcunsidcr the or it inadeouati
prog am and discuss the rice
llor a bigger and better tiiture

Science Academy
iHosis Grinnellians

‘ Several Grinnell faculty mom
.bers and students took part ii
,the 73rd annual meeting of th-
,icwa Academy of Science hel
at Simpson College, last we
end,

i
William C. Oelke tcheniisti
who was Academy president i
1959-60, attended the board o

directors session, chaired
‘nominatlng committee and wa
a member of the committee 0
AAAS research grants, He als
gave a paper on modification o
a Bristol potentiometer record
er tor use in polarography.
Two papers concerned with
research on cracking catalysts
l were presented. They had
been prepared by two senior
ciiemistrv majors, Frank Scott
and Mariel Mecnts, and
Joseph D. Danforth (chemi-
istry).
; Two juniors, Stephen school
man and- David McBlain author-
ed a paper on measurement o
temperature change in an adia
batic expansion for the physic
,section. A tornier biology fac
uity member, Norman H. Rus

i

the Union, A travel adventureisellt "°“’ °f Tampa Am“ 531’
lseries might be established andlm”ted '3 Paper concerl‘Ed “’10

‘llis research on violets.

Other Grinnell faculty mem
liners attending were Grant 0
‘Gale (physics), Benjamin

,Grahain, Guillermo Mendez

Board will up“, and expanded “8an my land Waldo S. Walker (biology)

William A. chill (Chemistry)
land Lyle E. Fursell (mall-i2
‘matics). Many students were ii

installation ed on non-date affairs winch are attendance in addition 1.0 [has

pr enting papers.

 

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