Page Four Becky Reiler Finds Ceylon's Religions Complex, Almost lhcomprehensiblc by Rebeccn Reiter Throughout. these past months. i have become incredsingly awore at the prominent place religion ha in the East, The dominant re- i u in Ceylon is Buddhtsm. But this Buddhism isiniiltratcd with Hinduism and a kind oi paganism until it appears so vast and come plex as to be incomprehensible to the Western mind. Recently i went on a trip to the ancient cities of Ceylon, Betcre we entered the general area of these ruins. the driver of our car, a Buddhist, stopped by a shrine at the side of the road. The shrine ivas a pititul structure; tiny, dir-, ty and neglected. The driver got out of the car and searched the bushes along the road—side. Fii‘ide ing the right bush, he picked a‘ branch and hung it on a wooden rack next to the shrine. He then bought a coconut from a nearby stand, He placed the coconut on a tiat stone in lront of the shrine and lifted his hands in prayer. He then picked up the coconut and hurled it on the stone, breaks ing it open. He brought a piece of coconut to each occupant of the car. We all silently ate our piece. although none of us had any idea of thc significance of this ceremony. When we left the ancient cities this same ritual was periormed. Our driver later explained to l us that when we entered the cities we had, as he put it, “ieit my own country." To pro. . tect himself and everyone with him, he had to perform this . ritual on leaving and entering . the “foreign territory." i asked a Buddhist friend oi mine about this and he explained that many people believe Ceylon is divided into different regiunsu each having its own special godj or gods. When a man leaves his, own region, he must pay tribute to the god of the territory he is entering or harm will beiali him,‘ There is a popular religious ceremony periormed in Ceylon called a perahera. As definitely as i can describe it, it is a re—l ligious parade which takes place on a full moon night and involv s carrying the relic of any partic lar temple through the streets. The full moon day and night at every month is a special time oi worship for Buddhists and is called Poya . Near every Buddhist temple . is a structure shaped like a l bell and handle. This is called a dagoba, and it houses relics, . usually that of Buddha himself. ‘ These structures are usually rather large. There is no open- i ing into the interior. inside the temple is a small replica ot' the dagoba containing mart: relics. This is what is carried through the streets in the pcrahera. Not long ago, i had the oppon tunity oi witnessing a pcrahera This perahera took place at Kel» aniya, a village not iar from The night was clear and the full moon shone brightly. People were walking back and forth and talking excitedly. :Heimdn Discusse Hours passed ' and nothing happened. Al. inide , night there was still no sign ot the .perahera. 1 learned that the procession slowly because at thc dancers in- ‘volved. Finally at 2 am, hear the drums, We jumped out of the car and rushed to the road- L side. in my desire to see clearly, I climbed a stone wall already over-crowded with people and at ter tottering back and iorth, tirst clasping the person in front or me and then behind me, 1 finally gained my balance, dug in my toes and waited. The first people in the proces— sion were rope crackers, These men carried short, stout ropes that they tivirled around their heads and then swunk back and forth, making the ropes pop and crack. Next were dancers (all men) wearing wide white trou— sers and breasteplates covered movcs cvcecdingly , we could by Bill Constant arguments (”th con- cerning plans submitted by col— lege oiticiais over the incieiises in tccs net itaicd b ‘ costs, but there still eh. ' area of college hie whici Henna i1 been equally plagued by risingj not yet, CO§l§ and which has benefited from additional charg- ‘ cs. The area Concerned is that Covcrcd by our activities ICC, i. o. the $30 Der year or 85 cents .. per week which is to provide zllr most all of Our social events, aclivitlcs and Because the majority of stu- f dcnts at Grinnell are not sate isiicd with the present program, ; both as to quality and quanti- with jewels, Some carried drums ' and the dancers moved slowly back and forth changing direction on each down beat or the drum. Along with the dancers were men playing long horns that squealed out in the typical, high, nasal tone. After the dancers, came mcn carrying long poles with flaming pots on either end. These they whirled around and around. Next came an elephant brilliantly decked out with jewels and colorsl ed electric lights. The procession kept repent- ‘ ing itseli with more dancers, elephants, and torch-bearers, the center of the procession was the elephant carrying the relic from the temple. This cle- phant was loaded with white electric lights, tapestries and jewels. Two smaller elephants walked on either side of the main elephant and two men, seated on each elephant ooii- stantly tossed flowers on the rch'e. Also in the parade were the chief priests of the temple and the head laymen. Boys tollowed these important personages and held large fans over their heads, At one point, the dancers in the process performed in earnest, They danced faster and faster. iumping and twirling, and flips ping over in midrair. After the cliina, pliant carrying the relic, the dancers were younger and less expericnccd and the elephants smaller and less decorated. The most iainous Pei-aircra in Ceylon takes place in Kandy Kandy is seventy-two miles from Colombo and is the home of the celebrated Temple of the Tooth. The temple gets its name from the fact that it houses the tooth of Buddha The Kandyan Pei'ar hera takes place in August, and i missed it, uniortunately, But i l of [he Cic- ls Cowles Theme Cowlos men build a decor.- tion for their house party l which is scheduled for this Saturday night, (l Tire party, with a French , Night Club theme will be giv— ‘ en at the Community Center. ,New AWS Board iUnderl‘akes Du’ries lSunday Al’rernoon l The current. AWS Board met, ,for the last lime ollicially tliis‘ lweelc. The new ll'lal‘idlc all AWS Board bus ness,‘ after their formal installi’ttion‘ Sunday afternoon. l The traditional ceremony will be held immeds iatcly after Sunday dinner in Main lounge At that time the new AWS Board will assume their responsibilities. Karen Halvorscn, outgoing ‘AWS Board president. encour- aged all women to attend. She pointed out that this is one Iof the few times a year when ‘a large number of women sills dents have the opportunity to {view seriously the work and responsibilities of the AWS :Board, Other business at the joint AWS Board meeting included a discussion of the mechanics of Colombo, the home of a [limits assured that the perahera at “00’“ (11"“Ving- Rules {0“ ““5 men: and ancient temple. The nigiit beiore the pcrahera, i visited the Kelaniya teinpic, As we approached the temple we could hear the drums beating. Wei climbed the hill to the temple,‘ took off our shoes and entered.‘ At the end of a long hall I could see a seated Buddha, A painting; or the Himalayas sci-vcd as aback‘ ground, As we walked toward thel Buddha, the drums continued tol beat and the high, nasal wailing: of a horn began. Before’Wc enter! ed the alcove containing the scatsl ed Buddha, I noticed a small. low doorway to the right. The doore way was completely filled with, a huge, yellow face lying in a horizontal position, The face he longed to a iargc reclining Budd-l ha in the next room. i We were iniorincd by tiic ‘ priests of the temple that the pe there would start train the Kenn-a temple about 9 pm A peroiicra continues through- out tiie night and stops at dawn oi the next day. The next night we started tor Kclaniya. The roads to thc tern-i pie were blocked so we picked a‘ spot along the road and waited. ample. igelawa was a my worthy ex. procedure have been posted in ‘all the halls. Lei Iowa Low cost. Every garment to be c ed free. Every garment sfored Bring your garments Campus Agency. All garments returned Agency. You pay nex IOWA C Sfbre Your Win‘ler Garments Now! Cleaners leaned will be morhproof- in morhproof bags. In your North or South next fall elf ynur Campus l' fall. LEANERS , need iDI‘ Ly, the time has come to remedy the problem. An increase in the activities . fee by 510 could and would provide us wilh the type of program We desire and de- serve. The most obvious area for im- provement is in our concert pro» gram. with the present budget it is possible to provide only three or tour concerts per year. Owing to the cultural vacuum which exists due to physical location, no one can argue the improvement. With the increase our concert series would be expanded at least eight per year or one per month. Movies would be more fre- quent and of better quality and variety with the addition of American shows. Funds would exist for additional bowling, skating and sports night partie. Live Combos would ll'oquenl an all—campus carnival is in the imaking. Another possibility isl a banquet dances. preceding formal Those are just at few all the could become :I reality if we, the students, so desire. Special Emphasis will be plac- so far out-numbered by date Friday, April 2i. l96l Aciiviiicsfei S iuiictioi, as shown by the fol l the tiguics- date iiinction , o3, iiontlaicrzfl A detailed dc 'lplion or the proposed progran ‘will be presented in the Scarlc and Black. in the mean time it is liopct hat all studen it Grinnell wii jcunsidcr the or it inadeouati prog am and discuss the rice llor a bigger and better tiiture Science Academy iHosis Grinnellians ‘ Several Grinnell faculty mom .bers and students took part ii ,the 73rd annual meeting of th- ,icwa Academy of Science hel at Simpson College, last we end, i William C. Oelke tcheniisti who was Academy president i 1959-60, attended the board o directors session, chaired ‘nominatlng committee and wa a member of the committee 0 AAAS research grants, He als gave a paper on modification o a Bristol potentiometer record er tor use in polarography. Two papers concerned with research on cracking catalysts l were presented. They had been prepared by two senior ciiemistrv majors, Frank Scott and Mariel Mecnts, and Joseph D. Danforth (chemi- istry). ; Two juniors, Stephen school man and- David McBlain author- ed a paper on measurement o temperature change in an adia batic expansion for the physic ,section. A tornier biology fac uity member, Norman H. Rus i the Union, A travel adventureisellt "°“’ °f Tampa Am“ 531’ lseries might be established andlm”ted '3 Paper concerl‘Ed “’10 ‘llis research on violets. Other Grinnell faculty mem liners attending were Grant 0 ‘Gale (physics), Benjamin ,Grahain, Guillermo Mendez Board will up“, and expanded “8an my land Waldo S. Walker (biology) William A. chill (Chemistry) land Lyle E. Fursell (mall-i2 ‘matics). Many students were ii installation ed on non-date affairs winch are attendance in addition 1.0 [has pr enting papers. LANZ POYN 4TH AVE. "Somelhing N ' TRUNK SHOWING, SATURDAY APRIL 10 AM. +0 5 PM. 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