Concept

Kataragama

Résumé

Kataragama (කතරගම , கதிர்காமம்) is a pilgrimage town sacred to Hindu, Buddhist and indigenous Vedda people of Sri Lanka. People from South India also go there to worship. The town has the Kataragama temple, a shrine dedicated to Skanda Kumara also known as Kataragama deviyo. Kataragama is located in the Monaragala District of Uva province, Sri Lanka. It is southeast of Colombo. Although Kataragama was a small village in medieval times, today it is a fast-developing township surrounded by jungle in the southeastern region of Sri Lanka. The ancient Kiri Vehera Buddhist stupa, which is believed to be built by the regional king Mahasena in the 3rd century BCE is also a major attraction in Kataragama area. The town has a venerable history dating back to the last centuries BCE. It was the seat of government of many Sinhalese kings during the days of Rohana kingdom. Since the 1950s the town has undergone many improvements with successive governments investing in public transportation, medical facilities, and business development and hotel services. It adjoins the popular Yala National Park. The first reference to this village by this name is in the 6th century AD Pali chronicle Mahavamsa, referring to the place as Kājaragāma. It is mentioned in Mahavamsa that the nobles of Kajaragama were among those took part in the festival of the Bodhi Tree when it was brought over by Sangamitta Theri. Some scholars derive Kataragama from Karthikeya Grama, literally meaning Village of Kartikeya, which was shortened in Pali as Kājaragāma and later evolved to Kataragama. However, not all scholars accept this explanation. The literal Sinhalese meaning of Kataragama is the "village in the desert", due to its location in a dry area, stemmed from the words Katara meaning Desert and gama meaning village. According to a folk etymology, the Tamil name Kathirkāmam is said to be evolved from the combination of two words Kathir (meaning glory of light) and kāmam is driver from kamam (farming).

Source officielle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kataragama

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