Every country has their set of folklore derived from
ancient recordings and archaeological proof. The Sinhala greatly impacted by
Buddhism has much to offer in terms of legends and folklore.
The early Buddha text teaches that that reincarnation
occurs as it is said to be evolving consciousness. According to Buddhism there
is no permanent soul. That karma just passes on from one life to another.
Sinhalese folklore present real cases of children between the age of 2-4 yrs begin
to relate experiences and events of a past life.
One such case involved a girl named Gnanatilaka.
She was born on 14th February 1956 in Kotamale in Sri Lanke (Ceylon). The case
started in 1960 when she was 4 ½ years old and told her parents that she wishes
to meet her real parents. She claimed that she was actually a boy named
Tilakaratna and lived at a tea estate near Talawakele, about 30 miles from
where she lived. As professors from Ceylon University heard the story they
accompanied her to visit the other family. Gnanatilaka introduced the other two
parents by their names to the professors and also used the nicknames of each
family member in the house. In the present life the two families had never met
prior to this incident. The former life parents were interviewed;
they described the character and habits of their son who had passed away on 9th
November 1954. Gnanatilaka refuse to talk with her former younger brother. The
former parents explained that the two brothers is always fighting and quarrelling
with each other.
Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia, flew from
America to Ceylon to investigate the case. Stevenson is a researcher who
specifies in rebirth cases. was the former head of the Department of Psychiatry
at the University of Virginia who devoted many years to the scientific
documentation of past life memories of children from all over the world and has investigated 180 cases from Sri
Lanka. He termed Gnanatilaka’s case as important and the best by far in rebirth
cases as the evidence and factual presentation appear to be real and not falsified.
Another case followed up by Stevenson and Godwin (his
interpretor) was of Duminda Bandara Ratnayake. He was about three years old
when he started to speak about a life as a chief-monk at the Asgiriya monastery
in Kandy and often expressed his wish to visit that temple. The Asgiriya
monastery is one of the largest monasteries in Sri Lanka, and its monks share
with the Malvatta monastery the privilege of guarding the Temple of the Tooth, one
of the foremost places of pilgrimage in Theravada Buddhism. The statements
often heard by the boy were that he had been a senior monk, had owned a red
car, a radio, money bag and had an elephant. The boy would obeyed cleanliness
rules and objected to the touch of his mother’s hands as well as other girls.
They investigated the statements recorded by him and came as
far finding a match with Ven. Gunnepana Saranankara, who was chief monk of the
Asgiriya monastery from 1921 to 1929.
Other types of lore record the Sinhala ritual which delves
with demons and gods. The rituals were performed to rid evil and protect those
from its influence and to heal them. In the book titled ‘A Methodology for The
Collection of The Sinhala Ritual’, S.G. Samarasinghe mentioned three important
rituals:
“1.Rafa Yakuma (Ceremony of the Country Demons) which is
performed "For the purpose of ensuring safe delivery to pregnant women and
for protecting the child in the womb or for securing health to the infant
already born, or in order to make a barren woman conceive.
2.Gam Maduwa (Ceremony of the Village Hall) is a ritual
performed as "a manifestation of gratitude towards the deity and expresses
the people's happiness that the danger, has, at last, happily passed away. The
performance of this ceremony may, upon occasion, be extended up to seven days
and seven nights, and so actually becomes a village f e a ~ t " . ~It is
also very often performed to bring good luck and prosperity to the entire community
in the village.
3. Huniyam Kapima (Cutting the Huniyam Charm) is a magical rite
intended to remove the influence of the Demon called Huniyam who is supposed to
be inflicting people with grievous diseases.”
Similar to 'Gam Maduwa' rituals, Kohomba Kankariya(KK) ritual
is performed to ensure freedom from diseases, invoke blessings and for the
people to live in prosperity. The blessings are expected to manifest only in
the location that KK is enacted, so that if any others want such blessings,
they too are compelled to enact KK in their own areas.
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