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New Kathiresan Temple

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1 review of New Kathiresan Temple

New Hindu temple on Sea Street

The New Kathiresan Temple is a recently-built Hindu temple on Sea Street, a well-known street in the port-side Hindu district of Colombo. It was built as something of an expansion to the Old Kathiresan Temple which is located a few doors down and is dedicated to the Hindu god Murugan.

Sea Street itself is kind of a bracing introduction to Hinduism in Sri Lanka, and the New Kathiresan Temple is not a bad place to start to get an idea of what day-to-day religious life is like for Hindu Tamils in Colombo. As you make your way down the rather dirty and chaotic street lined with tailors and shops selling Hindu religious icons (not a bad souvenir and, as it's a residential area, at a great price too), you'll get wafts of incense, hear otherworldly chants flowing out of open doorways, and be lured in to look by the constant ringing of the "ghanta" bells.


The first thing that strikes you about the temple is the elaborate carvings above the doorway featuring dozens of Hindu figures and deities in allegoric poses. The interior of the temple is nothing special, architecturally-speaking. There are a few scattered shrines and it's usually filled with local devotees engaging in rituals which are first almost shocking for those not used to it. When we went, for example, there was a man splayed out on the floor, slowing crawling his way up to a statue while murmuring something. As always, make sure to leave a donation for the temple and keep it respectful as far as gawking and photography goes. It's not a tourist temple, so you need to keep that in mind if you decide to peek in.
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