A powerpoint on Sri Pada, a religious place where many people from many religions go pilgrimages. The specialty is that people from 5 major religions go on there: Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Jews and Muslims

2. What is Sri Pada ?

3. Geography of Sri Pada

4. How did Sri Pada become a place of pilgrimage ?
● At the top of the summit there is a sacred footprint.
● The footprint believed to be of:
○ Lord Shiva by the Hindus
○ Adam by the Muslims
○ Buddha by the Buddhists
○ St. Thomas by the Christians.
● The great desire of each pilgrim is to reach the top before sunrise and
witness the glorious spectacle of the sunrise and thereafter perform
their religious rites.

5. The Sacred Footprint
The footmark is a superficial flow 68 in.
long, and 31 in. and 29 in. wide at the
toes and the heel respectively. The
cavity bears some coarse
resemblance to a human foot, but the
size is gigantic, and seems partly
natural and partly artificial.
There are little raised partitions to
represent the interstices between
toes.

6. The Sacred Footprint : Hindus
The Hindus believe that while
dancing to create the world, the
god Shiva left his footprint; thus
for them, the mountain is
Sivanolipatha Malai (Lord
Shiva’s Footprint on the Mount).
Hindus climb Sri Pada believing
that they will be blessed,
forgiven for any sins and healed
of any diseases or injuries by
Lord Shiva for he had left his
footprint as a place of blessing.

7. The Sacred Footprint : Buddhism
Buddhists believe that the footmark on
the summit of Sri Pada is that of
Buddha, who, during his third visit to
Kelaniya, 2,580 year ago, kept the
imprint of his left foot thereon as a
relict worthy of veneration.
He did so at the kind request of god
Saman, the tutelary deity of the
mountain wilderness, whose divine
eye is supposed to cast upon
Deraniyagala, Boltumbe, Ellakkala,
Nivitigala and the mountain
Benasamanalagala.

8. The Sacred Footprint : Muslims
Muslims believe that the mountain is where Adam stood on one foot after
being cast out of the Garden of Eden.
According to the legend, Adam was hurled from Paradise for his disobedience
and stood in penance for a thousand years on one foot at the top of Adam's
Peak, after which he was reunited with Eve on Mt. Arafat overlooking
Mecca. By the ninth century, this footprint was consequently considered
one of the most sacred sites in the world.

9. They also say that when the Buddha visited Sri Lanka he found the people
poor and given to theft. So out of compassion and to turn them to virtue he
sprinkled the island with sweet dew which crystallized into gems thus
freeing the people from poverty by giving them a commodity to trade with.

10. The Sacred Footprint : Christians
When Portuguese Christians came
to the island in 16th century,
they claimed the footprint to be
of St. Thomas, who according to
the legend first brought
Christianity to Sri Lanka.
St. Thomas left his footprint to
symbolize that it was the closest
place to heaven.

11. History of Sri Pada
Sri Pada is first mentioned in the, the earliest Pali
chronicle, (4th century), and also in the 5th century
chronicle, where it is stated that the Buddha visited
the mountain peak.
The Arab traveler Ibn Batuta on arriving on the island in
1344 CE, and Marco Polo, have recorded their visits
to Sri Pada. John Davy (1817) was the first English
traveler to visit the peak, and recorded observing an
oversized footprint carved in stone and ornamented
with a single margin of brass and studded with
gems.
Symbolic reference to footprint made by the first
historians

12. Random Facts
There are 5,000 stairs in the shortest trail.
People from 6 months to 90 years old climb that mountain.
Although it is fifth highest peak in the land, its position retation to the
topography is so dominant it stands above all others.
It is said that thousands of butterflies go to that mountain to die in hope of
dying on that sacred mountain everyday.
THIS SACRED FOOTPRINT DRAWS FOUR MAJOR WORLD RELIGIONS

13. THANK YOU FOR
WATCHING