Last week Colombo celebrated the Navam Maha Perahera. While not as well known as Kandy’s annual August Perahera, Colombo’s Perahera was still cool and interesting. I’ll probably cover it in several posts. Gangaramaya Temple, which I’ve written about here and here, organizes Colombo’s Perahera and they started preparing weeks in advance.
Chinese Lanterns
Buddhist Flag
Chinese Lantern, Buddhist Flag, Buddha
Adventures in Serendipity 
Very interesting to see Chinese lanterns mixed into the Poya. That is a new development for me, but then again, I lived there in the early 90s and lived in A’pura. No Chinese influence then, except maybe Malaysian/Chinese restaurant food.
Although really these lanterns were just about the only thing that was Chinese in Colombo’s Perahera. You’ll see in my follow-up posts that it’s still mostly Sri Lankan, which is fun. But to me, it is interesting that Sri Lanka in particular is such a mix of Buddhism and Hinduism and that the Buddhism is a mix of South Asian and East Asian. At least that’s what I’ve found. Thanks for reading!