The story
Pada Yatra Kataragama Pilgrimage in Jaffna to Kataragama
The Pada Yatra is a roughly 400-kilometre foot pilgrimage tracing an ancient route from Jaffna in the north to the Kataragama shrine in the south, timed to arrive for Kataragama's own Esala festival each July or August. Pilgrims walk for more than 45 days, stopping at dozens of village temples along the way to receive traditional hospitality from local hosts.
Villagers along Sri Lanka's eastern coastline count the passing pilgrims each year as a kind of seasonal clock, watching for the Pada Yatra, the foot pilgrimage that traces a roughly 400-kilometre route from the Jaffna peninsula in the north to the Kataragama shrine in the deep south.