Connect with us

Life style

How This Demon Dance Banishes Illnesses

Published

2 years ago

on

Drummers perform the kohomba yak kankariya, an ancient Sri Lankan dance said to banish the illness-causing spirit of a vengeful queen

in Sri Lanka’s Remote Jungles

by Zinara Ratnayake

The kankariya dance all started with a legendary demon queen named Kuweni. As dusk falls, the thumping sound of drums echoes through the jungles of central Sri Lanka. Elaborately dressed dancers spin and swirl as their ornate silver headpieces gleam and bright red ribbons trail behind them. Their chests rise and fall beneath silver-beaded breastplates and two large mango-shaped earrings adorn their ears. The dancers carry candle-lit, hollowed-out coconuts and chant verses inviting gods and demons to their ritual. Sweet-smelling smoke from jasmine incense fills the air, obscuring the view of a banana bark altar with pictures of various Buddhist deities. As hundreds gather, the dancers tell the sad tale of the mythic, magical queen Kuweni.

This is kohomba yak kankariya. Several times a year, often in April, Sri Lankans in the country’s mountainous, central region hold this ritual to cure illnesses, prevent diseases from spreading, and seek blessings from the supernatural world. While today the ceremony tells Kuweni’s story, whose name is sometimes spelled Kuveni or Sesapathi, in ancient times, the ritual was believed to have lifted the illness-causing curse Kuweni had placed on the province.

According to legend, Kuweni was born in the sixth century BC to a yakka king who ruled Sri Lanka. The Sinhala word yakka is derived from the Pali word yakkha (Pali is a liturgical language often used in Buddhist texts) and the Sanskrit term yaksha, which translates to “demon.” Dipavamsa, the oldest historical account of Sri Lanka, describes yakka as a disorderly tribe of demons who eat human flesh and fight with each other. Although her father was a demon, Kuweni may not have been one herself.

Then Prince Vijaya, a legendary Indian prince, and 700 of his followers invaded demon-controlled Sri Lanka. Kuweni appeared before the prince disguised as a hermit spinning cotton. Vijaya soon promised to marry Kuweni and make her his queen. Trusting him, she betrayed her father and demon brethren and helped the prince slaughter them. Only a few of the yakka escaped into the Sri Lankan jungles.

Queen Kuweni was said to stalk the nightmares of King Vijaya’s nephew, Panduwas, in the form of a powerful leopardess.

After Vijaya took power, he broke his promise to Kuweni and married a South Indian princess, establishing the Sinhalese people who today make up the majority of Sri Lanka’s population. Jilted and angry, Kuweni cursed Vijaya and his successors before the remaining yakka killed her out of revenge.

Later, when Vijaya’s nephew Panduwas arrived in Sri Lanka to take the throne as his uncle’s successor, Panduwas began to suffer from a mysterious illness. He couldn’t sleep. Night after night, Kuweni, in the form of a leopard, appeared in his dreams and tried to kill him. Sleep deprivation drove Panduwas insane. Kuweni finally had her revenge.

In his book Kohomba Kankariya: The Sociology of a Kandyan Ritual, social anthropologist Sarath Amunugama wrote that Kuweni’s leopard is “a symbolic representation of the fatal lie that was uttered by Vijaya to Kuweni to facilitate his conquest.” Panduwas suffered due to his uncle’s lie to the queen, wrote Amunugama.

When Lord Sakra, the ruler of heaven in Buddhist cosmology, sees Panduwas unjustly suffering for his uncle’s deceit, he tells an Indian king about a ritual that will cure the ailing Panduwas. The king performs the ritual, and Panduwas recovers. Later on, the king instructed a local prince named Kohomba to perform the ritual any time it was necessary to repel Kuweni’s illness-fueling ire. Since then, the ritual, called kohomba yak kankariya in honour of the prince, is performed any time a mysterious illness descends upon the community.

Today, folk priests—village priests who conduct ancient rites such as the kankariya—continue to perform the ritual dance whenever local communities are plagued with diseases, such as chickenpox. One such priest is 29-year-old Abheeth Shilpadhipathi, whose father and grandfather taught him the kankariya. Recently, when Shilpadhipathi drummed in a kankariya, it was to ward off the Covid-19 pandemic that plagued the country. Originally, the ceremony would’ve lasted for about seven days, but today it takes less than a day.

“Before [the kankariya] begins, the chief [folk] priest pledges to the gods their intention in conducting the ceremony,” Shilpadhipathi says. In the past, individual families performed a kankariya to cure diseases, but because it’s an elaborate, expensive event, families rarely host them anymore. Buddhist temples and large social groups now conduct them annually or seasonally both as a healing and fertility ritual and sometimes just to keep the tradition alive. “People do it to show their gratitude for a good harvest or good fortune,” says Shilpadhipathi.

A Hindu priest holds a lit coconut oil lamp in front of statues of Prince Vijaya (left) and Kuweni (right) at the Sri Subramaniam temple in the southern Sri Lankan town of Matara.

People also perform the kankariya ritual to bestow good health, wealth, and even good school grades, says Sanushki Athalage, choreographer at Thaala Asapuwa, a Sri Lankan Dance Academy in Victoria, Australia, where they teach the kankariya along with other traditional dances. “It is also about giving and being selfless in return for a prosperous life. It is a beautiful concept that brings larger communities together in a common goal,” Athalage says.

Buddhism in Sri Lanka is a complex system that incorporates “shrines, rituals, and priests” who negotiate with a vast pantheon of gods, deities, and demons, says Amunugama. Sri Lankan Buddhists believe that prayers and rituals, such as the kankariya, are a way to seek blessings and build good karma.

Religious ceremonies are also a way to prevent meddlesome demons from interfering in people’s lives. Kuweni isn’t the only entity that can cause illnesses. Local folklore is full of demons who hunt humans and make them ill. When someone becomes sick, local priests are called in to identify the specific demon causing the illness. Once identified, the priest summons and vanquishes the demon in a dance or ritual, similar to the kankariya.

One popular ritual performed in southern Sri Lanka is the Daha Ata Sanniya, which is sort of a catch-all ritual that can cure illnesses caused by 18 different demons.

Rituals like these are “performed to relieve anxieties around mysterious diseases,” says Athalage. “When families are anxious, they seek blessings and help from higher powers to cure something that they don’t understand.” For the villagers, this “excursion into the supernatural” will help them live a “relatively untroubled life,” wrote Amunugama in his book. These rituals are a way to understand the incomprehensible, like why a loved one falls ill.

Although Kuweni caused illnesses like other demons, Shashiprabha Thilakarathne, a folklore scholar at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka who researches Kuweni, explains that the demon queen might’ve been human. “It’s difficult to say who she is. Folk literature tells us that she has supernatural powers. Sometimes she could even take the form of different animals,” Thilakarathne says, explaining that her “magic” made “Vijaya’s weapons fall on demons’ bodies.”

But in the last few decades, Kuweni has appeared as a character in pop culture, from television dramas to songs and plays. Kuweni has become relatable—her motives clearer. Today Vijaya is often recast as the villain and Kuweni as the maligned anti-hero. She has shifted from a female demon spawn who cursed Sinhalese people to an embodiment of the modern woman, Thilakarathne explains. She is a wife, daughter, and mother. While Kuweni shares many traits with traditional yakka, she also stands out from them. She’s demon-like, but not a demon herself.

“Kuweni, as I understand, is a model we can apply to our modern society. At one point, she’s a daughter, then a lover and parent. She goes through many different challenges in life,” Thilakarathne says, “she represents us.”(BBC)


Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Life style

Celebration of taste, culture and elegance

Published

6 days ago

on

2025/12/7

By

Ambassador Damiano, Jagatheeswaran, Barbara Troila and Ambassador of Vietnam, Trinh Thi Tam

Italian Cuisine Week

This year’s edition of Italian Cuisine Week in Sri Lanka unfolded with unmistakable charm, elegance and flavour as the Italian Embassy introduced a theme that captured the very soul of Italian social life ‘Apertivo and’ Stuzzichini’ This year’s celebration brought together diplomats, food lovers, chefs and Colombo’s society crowd for an evening filled with authenticity, refinement and the unmistakable charm of Italian hospitality.

Hosted at the Italian ambassador’s Residence in Colombo, the evening brought Italy’s golden hour ritual to life, embracing the warmth of Mediterranean hospitality and sophistication of Colombo social scene.

The ambience at the residence of the Italian Ambassador, effortlessly refined, evoked the timeless elegance of Milanese evening culture where ‘Apertivo’ is not just a drink , but a moment of pause, connection and pleasure. Guests were greeted with the aromas of apertivo classics and artisanal stuzzichini,curated specially for this edition. From rustic regional flavours to contemporary interpretations the embassy ‘s tables paid homage to Italy’s diverse culinary landscape.

, Italy’s small bites meant to tempt the palate before meal. Visiting Italian chefs worked alongside Colombo’s leading culinary teams to curate a menu that showcased regional authenticity though elegant bite sized creations. The Italian Ambassador of Italy in Sri Damiano Francovigh welcomed guests with heartfelt remarks on the significant of the theme, highlighting how “Apertivo”embodies the essence of Italy’s culinary identity, simple, social and rooted in tradition.

Sri Lanka’s participation in Italian Cuisine Week for ten consecutive years stands as a testament to the friendship between the two countries. This year focus on ‘Apertivo’ and ‘Stuzzichini’ added a fresh, dimension to that relationship, one that emphasised not only flavours, but shaped cultural values of hospitality, family and warmth. This year’s ‘Apertivo’ and “Stuzzichini’ theme brought a refreshing twist to Italian Cuisine Week. It reminded Sri Lankan guests t hat sometimes the most memorable culinary experiences come not from elaborate feasts but from the simplicity of serving small plates with good company.

Italian Cuisine Week 2025 in Sri Lanka may have showcased flavours, but more importantly it showcased connection and in the warm glow of Colombo’s evening Apertivo came alive not just as an Italian tradition.

(Pix by Dharmasena Wellipitiya)

By Zanita Careem

The Week of Italian Cuisine in the World is one of the longest-running thematic reviews promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Founded in 2016 to carry forward the themes of Expo Milano 2015—quality, sustainability, food

safety, territory, biodiversity, identity, and education—the event annually showcases the excellence and global reach of Italy’s food and wine sector.

Since its inauguration, the Week has been celebrated with over 10,000 events in more than 100 countries, ranging from tastings, show cooking and masterclasses to seminars, conferences, exhibitions and business events, with a major inaugural event hosted annually in Rome at the Farnesina, the HQ of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

The 10th edition of the Italian Cuisine Week in the World.

In 2025, the Italian Cuisine Week in the World reaches its tenth edition.

The theme chosen for this anniversary is “Italian cuisine between culture, health and innovation.”

This edition highlights Italian cuisine as a mosaic of knowledge and values, where each tile reflects a story about the relationship with food.

The initiatives of the 10th Edition aim to:

promote understanding of Italian cuisine, also in the context of its candidacy for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage;

demonstrate how Italian cuisine represents a healthy, balanced, and sustainable food model, supporting the prevention of non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes;

emphasize the innovation and research that characterize every stage of the Italian food chain, from production to processing, packaging, distribution, consumption, reuse, and recycling

The following leading hotels in Colombo Amari Colombo, Cinnamon Life, ITC Ratnadipa and The Kingsbury join in the celebration by hosting Italian chefs throughout the Week.

Continue Reading

Life style

Ethical beauty takes centre stage

Published

6 days ago

on

2025/12/7

By

Body Shop team

The Body Shop marked a radiant new chapter in Sri Lanka with the opening of its boutique at One Galle Face Mall, an event that blended conscious beauty, festive sparkle and lifestyle elegance. British born and globally loved beauty brand celebrates ten successful years in Sri lanka with the launch of its new store at the One Galle Face Mall. The event carried an added touch of prestige as the British High Commissioner Andrew Patrick to Sri Lanka attended as the Guest of honour.

His participation elevated the event highlighting the brand’s global influence and underscored the strong UK- Sri Lanka connection behind the Body Shop’s global heritage and ethical values.

Chief guest British Ambassador Andrew Patrick at the Body Shop

Celebrating ten years of the Brand’s presence in the country, the launch became a true milestone in Colombo’s evolving beauty landscape.

Also present were the Body Shop Sri Lanka Director, Kosala Rohana Wickramasinghe, Shriti malhotra, Executive chairperson,Quest Retail.The Body shop South Asia and Vishal Chaturvedi , Chief Revenue Officer-The Body South Asia The boutique showcased the brand’s

complete range from refreshing Tea Tree skin care to the iconic body butters to hair care essentials each product enhancing the Body Shop’s values of cruelty ,fair trade formulation, fair trade ingredients and environmentally mindful packaging.

The store opening also unveiled the much anticipated festive season collection.

With its elegant atmosphere, engaging product experiences and the distinguished present of the British High Commissioner, it was an evening that blended glamour with conscience With its fresh inviting space at Colombo’ premier mall, the Body Shop begins a a new decade of inspiring Sri Lankan consumers to choose greener beauty.

 

Continue Reading

Life style

Ladies’ Night lights up Riyadh

Published

6 days ago

on

2025/12/7

By

Queens of grace

The Cultural Forum of Sri Lanka in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia brought back Ladies’ Night 2025 on November 7 at the Holiday Inn Al Qasr Hotel. After a hiatus of thirteen years, Riyadh shimmered once again as Ladies’ Night returned – an elegant celebration revived under the chairperson Manel Gamage and her team. The chief guest for the occasion was Azmiya Ameer Ajwad, spouse of the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to K. S. A. There were other dignitaries too.

The show stopper was Lisara Fernando finalist from the voice Sri Lankan Seasons, wowed the crowd with her stunning performances. The excitement continued with a lively beauty pageant, where Ilham Shamara Azhar was crowned the beauty queen of the night. Thanks to a thrilling raffle draw, many lucky guests walked away with fabulous prizes, courtesy of generous sponsors.

The evening unfolded with a sense of renewal, empowerment and refined glamour drawing together the women for a night that was both historic and beautifully intimate. From dazzling couture to modern abayas, from soft light installation to curated entertainment, the night carried the unmistakable energy.

Once a cherished annual tradition, Ladies’ Night had long held a special space in Riyadh’s cultural calendar. But due to Covid this event was not held until this year in November. This year it started with a bang. After years Ladies’ Night returned bringing with a burst of colour, confidence and long-awaited camaraderie.

It became a symbol of renewal. This year began with a vibrant surge of energy. The decor blended soft elegance with modern modernity cascading its warm ambient lighting and shimmering accents that turned the venue into a chic, feminine oasis, curated by Shamila Abusally, Praveen Jayasinghe and Hasani Weerarathne setting the perfect atmosphere while compères Rashmi Fernando and Gayan Wijeratne kept the energy high and kept the guests on their toes making the night feel intimate yet grand.

Conversations flowed as freely as laughter. Women from different backgrounds, nationalities and professions came together united by an unspoken bond of joy and renewal. Ladies’ Night reflected a broader narrative of change. Riyadh today is confidently evolving and culturally dynamic.

The event celebrated was honouring traditions while empowering international flair.

As the night drew to a close, there was a shared sense that this event was only the beginning. The applause, the smiles, the sparkles in the air, all hinted at an event that is set to redeem its annual place with renewed purpose in the future. Manel Gamage and her team’s Ladies’ Night in Riyadh became more than a social occasion. It became an emblem of elegance, and reflected a vibrant new chapter of Saudi Arabia’s capital.

Thanks to Nihal Gamage and Nirone Disanayake, too, Ladies’ night proved to be more than event,it was a triumphant celebration of community, culture and an unstoppable spirit of Sr Lankan women in Riyadh

In every smile shared every dance step taken and every moment owned unapologetically Sr Lankan women in Riyadh continue to show unstoppable. Ladies’ Night is simply the spotlight that will shine forever .This night proved to be more than an event, it was a triumphant celebration of community, culture and the unstoppable spirit of Sri Lankan women in Riyadh.

In every smile shared, every dance steps taken and every moment owned unapologetically Sri Lankan women in Riyadh continue to show that their spirit is unstoppable. Ladies’ Night was simply the spotlight and the night closed on a note of pride!

Continue Reading

Trending