Talk:Esala Mangallaya

Let's clarify: who celebrates this festival? People in Sri Lanka? Some people in Sri Lanka? Some Singhalese? RJFJR 00:56, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

Not a Festival
Basically as the title of the articles says "Esala Mangallaya" is not a Sinhalese festival, but a Buddhist holy event (it is misleading to translate into English as a festival!). It is a major event/Procession organised to pay Buddhist’s homage to the Buddha tooth relic. In Sri Lanka, the event is named as Esala Perahera. It would be better to re-write this article as The Esala Perahera. Esala Perahera is one of the most important events of the Sri Lankan calendar and it attracts a lot of visitors from all around the world. Just to clarify about the origins of the few Hindu aspects - Few Kings of Sri Lanka (during the last stages of the kingdom of Kandy) had south Indian blood lines. These kings are called Nayakkar-wanshika an evidence of their origins from the South Indian Nayakkar cast. The accomplices of them were originally Hindus and they planted some Hindu influences in the Kingdom. As one author is saying the Kovils near to the temple of the tooth relic as well as introducing few Hindu aspects to the Esala Perahera.

[Answer] --TCWales 04:12, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

verify
This article needs some sources and clarification. Kerowyn 07:25, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Sinhalese or buddhist or Hindu ??
is this festival celebrated by Sinhalese or buddhists?? is it really a Sinhalese or buddhist only festival??

don't Hindu precession take part in this??

are not all temples paticipating in this except the Dalada Maligawa are hindu??

It is celebrated by the Buddhists in Sri Lanka (mostly being sinhalese) [1]--TCWales 04:15, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Who celebrates Esala Mangallaya? An Answer.
By: Wisminda from Colombo

Basically this "Esala Mangallaya" is to pay Buddhist’s homage to the Buddha tooth relic. It is a major festival of Buddhists. It is not a festival solely belongs to Sinhalese. Buddhists can be Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, and other ethnic groups mainly living in Sri Lanka as “Sri Lankan”. Even non-Buddhist people in Sri Lanka(which are Hindu, Catholic, Christian, Islamic) seems to be interested on this event since it is a major cultural festival in the country. As I said, "It is a major festival of Buddhists", I had to use the word "major" since there are other sections of the festival, which we can consider as Hindu. If we analyze the history of this "Esala Mangallaya", due to rule of Indian origin Kings, [The last few kings of the Kandy kingdom] Buddhist’s "ways and practices" of worship has influenced by the Hindu religion and now this "Esala Mangallaya" is a festival which worship Sacred Tooth Relic of lord Buddha and the Hindu gods. This mixed nature of culture led Buddhists to worship Hindu gods while worship Lord Buddha in first place. So now, after the Maligawa Perahera, which carries Buddha Relics, there are Devala Peraheras which holds to as an honor to God Natha, God Vishnu, God Kataragama and God Pattini. Therefore, this "Esala Mangallaya" has become a festival of Hindu's since Buddhists have worshiped their great gods. In Dalada Maligawa, there are four Devalas [similar to Hindu Kovil] for God Natha, God Vishnu, God Kataragama and God Pattini. Even the Devalas are there the Buddhists as well as Hindus do not consider it as a place belongs to Hindu. According to my opinion, the complex nature of ethnic variation with the naming of those groups and again the variation of beliefs and religions of those ethnic groups was led to this ambiguousness, which rose above questions. Hope this answered above questions. And finally, in the sentence of “The focus of the crowd then moves towards the Diyawadana Nilarne” in the article, the correct word should be “Nilame” not “Nilarne”. And the Hindu precessions are taking part in Devala Peraheras.

Copyright problem removed
One or more portions of this article duplicated other source(s). Infringing material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.) For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. MLauba (talk) 13:45, 24 November 2009 (UTC)