Explore Hiriketiya

Hiriketiya translated to Bunch of Sea Spray (Hiri-Spary of water, ketiya – bunch) was not famous for surfing before 2010. Nevertheless, it was famous and frequently visited by village folks. The main purpose was to use the nearby lagoon to ferment coconut husks. After about three months of submerging raw green coconut husks in lagoon water, the husks turn brownish/blackish and allows coconut coir be extracted from the husk.

This process of extracting coconut coir is still tedious. Mothers and daughters get together to take the fermented husks out of the water. The lagoon water is dark and murky. The husks have become soft, but it still has thick residue surrounding coir. The ladies sit down in front of a rock, put a husk on the rock and beat it with a wooden rod till all the residue is beaten away. The remaining coir is spread in the sunshine to dry. The dried coir is bundled in jute sacks, and brought home on their heads.

At night the ladies roll out coir into a bundle, put a rock on one side of the bundle, and sit on a jute sack about three feet away from the coir bundle. They pull a coir yarn of about three feet, begin to weave a rope by hand. There is rhythm to the weaving, which we still hear in a distant melancholy dream.

Some ladies use a crude machine to weave coir ropes. The machine is a two-unit ensemble, both are made with bicycle rims attached to handles. When handles are turned, rims turn, and a rubber cable going around the rim connects two timber spindles attached with iron hooks. Two ladies carry small bundle of coir each, and draw a yarn out of it by attaching one end of the bundle to one of the iron hooks. Another lady or a child spins the bicycle rim –

Hiriketiya translated to Bunch of Sea Spray (Hiri-Spary of water, ketiya – bunch) was not famous for surfing before 2010. Nevertheless, it was famous and frequently visited by village folks. The main purpose was to use the nearby lagoon to ferment coconut husks. After about three months of submerging raw green coconut husks in lagoon water, the husks turn brownish/blackish and allows coconut coir be extracted from the husk.

This process of extracting coconut coir is still tedious. Mothers and daughters get together to take the fermented husks out of the water. The lagoon water is dark and murky. The husks have become soft, but it still has thick residue surrounding coir. The ladies sit down in front of a rock, put a husk on the rock and beat it with a wooden rod till all the residue is beaten away. The remaining coir is spread in the sunshine to dry. The dried coir is bundled in jute sacks, and brought home on their heads.

At night the ladies roll out coir into a bundle, put a rock on one side of the bundle, and sit on a jute sack about three feet away from the coir bundle. They pull a coir yarn of about three feet, begin to weave a rope by hand. There is rhythm to the weaving, which we still hear in a distant melancholy dream.

Some ladies use a crude machine to weave coir ropes. The machine is a two-unit ensemble, both are made with bicycle rims attached to handles. When handles are turned, rims turn, and a rubber cable going around the rim connects two timber spindles attached with iron hooks. Two ladies carry small bundle of coir each, and draw a yarn out of it by attaching one end of the bundle to one of the iron hooks. Another lady or a child spins the bicycle rim using the handle which spins coir into two threads of yarn. The ladies walk backwards toward the second piece of machine kept about fifty feet away.

The Buddhist name for the Month June is ‘Poson’. In the year 250 BCE, on the Full Moon Day of Poson, Buddhism was brought to Sri Lanka from India. The Emperor Ashoka (273-232 BCE, 218 years after Buddha) sent his son, Mahinda or Mihindu, who had become a monk (or a disciple of Buddhism), with five other accompanying monks, (Itthiya, Uttiya, Sambala and Bhaddasaala, Saamanera Sumana), and one lay deciple, Bhanduka, with the message of Buddhism. At that time King Devanampiya Tissa was ruling Sri Lanka.

Mahinda Thera (or Monk Mahinda), came to Mihintale, a large rock near Anuradhapura, and waited under a mango tree for the rendezvous with King Devanampiya Tissa.

King Devanampiya Tissa was on a hunting expedition, and was running after a deer, when he heard his name being called ‘Tissa, Tissa…’

No one in Sri Lanka would dare call the King by his name, so the King was astonished to see a group of monks in yellow robes calling him.

After the initial exchanges of introductions, Mahinda Thera tested the level of intelligence of the King asking the following set of questions.