Wonder and awe of the Vesak Pandal
Vesak is one of the brighest
seasons in Sri Lanka illuminating the city and other towns with a
brilliant and glimmering lights all around. Along the streets, you can
find typical Vesak pandals set up during the Vesak festival depicting
episodes of the life of Gautama Buddha. Pandals are also set up during
the Gammaduwa (village rebirth) festivals, honouring the goddess Pattini.
The Vesak Pandal illustrates various Jathaka stories with paintings
where Buddhists commemorate important events that took place in the life
of Lord Buddha on Vesak full moon Poya day. First comes the birth of
Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini, Nepal which took place under the arbour
of Sat trees where queen Mahamaya gave birth to him. The second event is
Siddharta Gautam’s supreme attainment as the Buddha, the Enlightened
One. The third event is Lord Buddha’s Parinibbana over 2500 years ago at
Kusinagar. Millions of tiny light bulbs flicker and light up the mundane
roads with pandols glory during this season.
 During this severe monsoon time, people have become more creative
protecting their pandols with polythene and water-proof light bulbs.
Hence, making a pandol with tireless effort and sheer creativity is a
mighty feat. A pandal, or a thorana is indeed a work of art with many
artistes toiling day and night for months to create the ultimate pandol
perfection. It takes a team of about fifty (maybe even more) from
artists to painters and electricians to skilled labourer to fashion the
creation we see on Vesak.
A good thorana is based on it structure, story, colour, lighting
techniques and paintings together with how it can withstand weather. A
dedicated team of artistes and united effort in making it a success can
also be seen in a successful thorana.
Various sponsors are sought well in advance and many of them are
attracted by the sheer creativity of a pandol and then make a money
allocation. If a thorana can’t be made, then it is distributed among the
needy. The story, structure and lighting techniques of this thorana
change every year, with every pandal being unique and original as the
artists do not repeat the story.
A thorana is a symbol of unity and hard work. From the time the
sponsor agrees on a sketch, many people are consulted on the best way to
get about to create it. Once the sketch is chosen and finalised, the
artiste prepares it on a hard board and sends the parts that should
contain lights to the electrician. Next, the rough body of the thorana
is constructed. It is only after that all the pieces are assembled
together and fixed on the thorana that the final pandol is created.
A pandal costs about 10 lakhs and attention to fine detail has to be
taken into consideration. Some pandals have about 10, 000 lightbulbs
while other have more than 100, 000 tiny light flickering with the light
of Buddha’s life. Making a pandal more attractive with more lights is
what artistes aim for but they have to keep it economical and creative
within the budget.
A thorana depicts the Lord Buddha’s life, or his past lives as it
appears in the Pansiya Panas Jathakaya, through graphical
interpretation. The bulbs symbolise the light that Buddha sheds on our
lives along meaning, the Enlightened One.
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