Redbridge Buddhist Cultural Centre Katina Ceremony and Katina Cheevara Pandu Peweema 2019

Redbridge Buddhist Cultural Centre (Ilford) Katina Ceremony 2019 was held at Redbridge Institute of Adult Education on Sunday 18th November 2019. The Katina event commenced with a spectacular perahara (procession) that included traditional Sri Lankan drummers, dancers and for the first time a beautiful life-size hand crafted elephant. This was followed by the ceremony that was sponsored by eighteen families and organised by the Redbridge Vihara Committee with the support of devotees under the guidance of Ven. Pethigamuwe Hemaratana Thero, Head of the Vihara. Eighteen venerable monks from various temples in United Kingdom and large number of devotees also participated to make this meritorious event a very successful one.

Prior to the main Katina event, the 'Katina Cheevara Pandu Peweema' ceremony was also successfully held at Redbridge Buddhist Cultural Centre on Sunday 29th September 2019, 10:00am and witnessed by many devotees for the first time in the UK.

The unique, wooden hand-made පඬු ඔරුව (Pandu Oruwa) was especially created for this auspicious event by this year's Katina Group devotees.

A white robe made out of 1000 pieces සහස්කඩ සිවුර (sahaskada siwura) was brought to the UK from Sri Lanka and was dyed at an auspicious time on the vihara premises following the traditional process.

This Buddhist ritual has been handed down through the generations and marks the most sacred event that happens at the end of the rainy retreat (three months period) of the Buddhist monks.

Photography: Chanuka Samarasinghe, Pradeep Jayasinghage, Nalin Wijesingha, Dinesh Gomes and Dileepa Gamage