No. 29. — 1884.] BUDDHISTICAL CEREMONIES. 



207 



public performances. If a man goes on a pilgrimage by 

 himself or with one or two others, people will say " He is 

 going a pilgrimage " ; but if a number of people join together 

 and go in a procession with flags and music, &c., it is said 

 " They go for a pinkama" 



The religious act in both cases is the same, but pinkama 

 has come popularly to mean a religious procession rather 

 than the religious act of which the procession is only an 

 outward sign. 



The ordinary pinkam are those performed (1) at the 

 commencement of was, (2) before death, (3) after a death, 

 (4) when making offerings at a shrine or to the priesthood. 



L — The " Was" Pinkama. 



The was season, or, as some erroneously call it, Buddhist 

 Lent, commences on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, 

 i.e. on the full moon day in A'salhi-maso [June- July] . 



It is customary for the inhabitants of a village, or of two 

 or three adjoining villages, to agree to invite a certain priest 

 to reside in their village for the was season, and they 

 send a deputation of the principal villagers to present an 

 offering of betel leaves* and give the invitation. If it is 

 accepted, they prepare a lodging for the priest, with a 

 refectory, a chamber for the image of Buddha, the relic. 

 casket and the sacred books, and a preaching hall. On the 

 first day of the was season, the villagers turn out in holiday 

 attire and go with music, and dancers, and singers, and flags, 

 to the monastery where the priest resides, and they conduct 

 him thence, in procession, to the lodging prepared for him. 

 The flag-bearers head the procession, and are followed by 

 drummers and other musicians, with dancers and singers 

 Under a canopy is borne on a litter, or on an elephant, a relic- 

 casket or an image of Buddha ; next are borne in the same 

 way the sacred books which the priest requires, and then come 



* Betel leaves are the leaves of a vine which the Sinhalese chew with 

 lime and the nuts of the areca palm. An offering of forty betel leaves is 

 always made as a mark of respect on the occasion of a visit to a priest 

 or nobleman. 



