Dansals back in a big way
A community effort: The dansala at Jawatte, Colombo
Four years after the COVID pandemic and the economic crisis that followed kept people away, Lankans all across the island celebrated Vesak on a grand scale this year.
The roadside dansals were back in a big way as local firms, village associations and even groups of friends, came together to serve passersby with ice cream, rice, noodles, tea, coffee, soft drinks and biscuits as well as the less common offerings such as plant seeds, burgers and even sweets.
The “Kassapa Tharuna Kela” (the Youth of Kassapa Road) in Jawatte held their annual ‘bath’ dansala for the 40th consecutive time this year. Samantha Botejue who has been its president for nearly 20 years reflected on how it was a community effort. “Although our association is known as the Youth of Kassapa Road, all our fellow residents irrespective of their faiths, race or age joined us to organise this dansala.”
Nourishing soup for a rainy day
Lalin Wickremeratne and his wife who have been attending the dansala over the years, had been in line for nearly an hour when we met them. “We travel from Embuldeniya every year because of the hospitality of the organisers, and the food is really tasty,” Lalin said, smiling.
Ravin Marawila and a bunch of his friends from Rajagiriya had organised an ice cream dansala for the first time. The young group who seemed to be enjoying the dansala more than the ones receiving the cones were dancing to music, attracting more people despite the constant spells of rain.
“We’ve been distributing for more than six hours,” said Ravin. “We spent over 400,000 rupees and we had to go to the shop to buy more as people kept coming,” he added, speaking to us on Vesak Poya.
Nilmini Niroshani, President of the “Siriliya Kantha Samithiya” (Siriliya Women’s Society) organised a vegetable soup dansala at W. A. D. Ramanayake Mawathain Colombo 2. “Although this was a first for our society, we distributed soup to our neighbours and the policemen on duty during the pandemic as there were travel restrictions imposed,” she said. The dansala was special to the society as they were able to serve most devotees who came to the Gangaramaya Temple, she said.
Fruity and delicious: Many takers for the watermelon
Nisha Karunaratne, Chief Marketing Officer of Kotagal Kahata said that this tea and jaggery dansala took place at the “Buddha Rashmi Vesak Kalapaya” after two years since the pandemic and other issues prevented them from organising the dansala in the past few years. He said that the dansala was a good opportunity for the brand to carry out a CSR project as well. “Although the weather was unfavourable, we’re celebrating Vesak on such a grand scale after two years,” he said.
It was not just in Colombo that the dansals were aplenty. In Kalpitiya, three organisations had got together to give a roti, rice and ice cream dansala. Sudath Priyantha Hapuaarachchi representing the Sri Rahula Dhamma School said that over 300 kgs of flour were used and over 7,000 servings of rice distributed.
In the Nissanka town of Dambulla, the Dambulla Pahalawela Kantha Maranadara Samithiya” and the “Subasadana Samithiya” (welfare society) were holding a watermelon dansala. Chief organiser of the welfare society K. G. Wijeratne said that this was the first time watermelon was distributed. “We usually give ordinary things such as tea and juice, but for a change, we distributed a lorry-full of watermelon slices.”
Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara, Nilan Maligaspe,
Dilushi Wijesinghe and Kanchana Kumara
Served with a smile: People queuing up at the ice cream dansala in Rajagiriya
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