Ranil visits Guruvayur Temple in India

18 April 2015 04:57 pm

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe visited the Guruvayur Sreekrishna Temple in India on Saturday.

His wife Maitree Wickremesinghe and Sri Lankan Minister for Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Religious Affairs D. M. Swaminathan accompanied him.

The Prime Minister and his team arrived at the Sreevalsam Guest House of the Guruvayur Devaswom around 11-15 a.m. He changed into a traditional ‘Veshti’ and ‘Mundu’, and proceeded to the temple.

Guruvayur Devaswom chairman T. V. Chandramohan welcomed him with a bouquet at the East Nada.

He visited the sanctum sanctorum (which houses the main shrine or Moolavigrama, a Swarna Thidambu or idol made of gold and Panchaloha Thidambu or idol made of Panchaloha), and subsidiary shrines dedicated to Lord Ayyappa and Goddess Bhagavathy.

He offered ‘thulabharam’ (a ceremony in which an offering worth one’s weight is submitted to the deity) with sandalwood Melshanti (chief priest) Moorkkannur Sreehari Namboodiri offered ‘prasadam’ to Mr. Wickramasinghe and his wife.

Later, Mr. Chandramohan presented a mural painting and a figurine of Lord Krishna to the Sri Lankan Prime Minister. The Prime Minister also visited the Mammiyur temple in Guruvayur.

He told reporters he was neither pro-India nor pro-China and that his primary commitment was to protecting the interests of Sri Lanka. He said that a team of experts from Sri Lanka would soon visit Punnathurkotta, the Guruvayur Devaswom’s elephant sanctuary. He called for better ties between India and Sri Lanka.

The Prime Minister left the temple town around 12.30 p.m. Security in and around the temple was tightened in connection with his visit. Around 1,000 police personnel were deployed in the temple town.



The Premier and the delegation returned to Sri Lanka in the evening.