Buddhist Ceremonies and Rituals of Sri Lanka

Introduction
Sri Lanka is generally regarded as the home of the pure Theravada form of Buddhism,
which is based on the Pali Canon. This school of Buddhism emphasizes the Four Noble
Truths as the framework of Buddhist doctrine and the Noble Eightfold Path as the direct
route to Nibbána, the final goal of the Teaching. However, side by side with this austere,
intellectually sophisticated Buddhism of the texts, we find in Sri Lanka a warm current
of devotional Buddhism practised by the general Buddhist populace, who may have
only a hazy idea of the Buddhist doctrine. Thus in practical life the gap between the
“great tradition” of canonical Buddhism and the average person’s world of everyday
experience is bridged by a complex round of ceremonies, rituals, and devotional
practices that are hardly visible within the canonical texts themselves.
While the specific forms of ritual and ceremony in Sri Lankan popular Buddhism
doubtlessly evolved over the centuries, it seems likely that this devotional approach to
the Dhamma has its roots in lay Buddhist practice even during the time of the Buddha
himself. Devotion being the intimate inner side of religious worship, it must have had a
place in early Buddhism. For Buddhism, devotion does not mean submitting oneself to
the will of a God or taking refuge in an external Saviour, but an ardent feeling of love
and affection (pema) directed towards the Teacher who shows the way to freedom from
suffering. Such an attitude inspires the devotee to follow the Master’s teaching faithfully
and earnestly through all the hurdles that lie along the way to Nibbána.
The Buddha often stressed the importance of saddhá, faith or confidence in him as the
Perfect Teacher and in his Teaching as the vehicle to liberation from the cycle of rebirth.
Unshakeable confidence (aveccapasáda) in the Triple Gem—the Buddha, the Dhamma,
and the Sangha—is a mark of the noble disciple, while the Buddha once stated that those
who have sufficient confidence in him, sufficient affection for him (saddhámatta,
pemamatta) are bound for heaven. Many verses of the Theragáthá and Therìgáthá, poems of
the ancient monks and nuns, convey feelings of deep devotion and a high level of
emotional elation.
Although the canonical texts do not indicate that this devotional sensibility had yet
come to expression in fully formed rituals, it seems plausible that simple ritualistic
observances giving vent to feelings of devotion had already begun to take shape even
during the Buddha’s lifetime. Certainly they would have done so shortly after the
Parinibbána, as is amply demonstrated by the funeral rites themselves, according to the
testimony of the Maháparinibbána Sutta. The Buddha also encouraged a devotional
attitude when he recommended pilgrimages to the four places that can inspire a faithful
devotee: the places where he was born, attained Enlightenment, preached the first
sermon, and attained Parinibbána (D II 140).
The Buddha did discourage the wrong kind of emotional attachment to himself, as
evidenced by the case of Vakkali Thera, who was reprimanded for his obsession with
the beauty of the Buddha’s physical presence: his was a case of misplaced devotion (S III
119). Ritualistic observances also pose a danger that they might be misapprehended as
ends in themselves instead of being employed as means for channelling the devotional
emotions into the correct path. It is when they are wrongly practised that they become
impediments rather than aids to the spiritual life. It is to warn against this that the
Buddha has categorized them, under the term sìlabbata-parámása, as one of the ten fetters
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