Jaffna & the North - Sri Lanka - page 628

draws relatively large crowds, of women especially, on Tuesdays and Fridays, when de-
votees pray for a good spouse. Puja is at 8am, 11am, noon and 4pm, and the priests are
welcoming. The temple also runs an orphanage for 150 kids.
East of here lies the vast Palali KKS Military Camp , one of Sri Lanka's largest and
perhaps most controversial High Security Zones. This zone is also the site of Jaffna's Palali
Airport. Between 1983 and 1993, the entire population (more than 25,000 families) was
evicted from 58.5 sq km of prime agricultural land. Everything within the zone was either
destroyed or converted for military use. Since the war, the SLA has been returning small
tracts of lands back to their owners, though some local families have been reluctant to
move back.
There's no access to KKS and the Keerimalai spring via the main highway, so you'll
have to loop around via some country lanes to the west and then back east again. The route
is well signposted. Located right at the main turnoff on the highway, Maviddapuram
Kanthaswamy Kovil ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ) survived bombings and looting in the war
and is now flourishing again. The priests here are very friendly and will probably do a
puja for you if you like (otherwise, it's at 11.30am).
Just before the spring is the 6th-century-BC Naguleswaram Shiva Kovil ( MAP
GOOGLE MAP ) , one of the pancha ishwaram, five temples dedicated to Lord Shiva in Sri
Lanka. Before the civil war, this was a thriving Hindu pilgrimage site with several temples
and six madham (rest homes for pilgrims) and samadhi shrines for holy men. Only traces
of the original buildings survived, and the temple was bombed by the army in 1990.
But since 2011 there's been a lot of reconstruction with support from the All Ceylon
Hindu Congress, and the Naguleswaram temple has reopened, along with a new madham
for pilgrims. Work is ongoing to revive the complex further, and ensure Naguleswaram
and its sacred spring is once again a place of pilgrimage and prayer.
Legend has it that the sacred Keerimalai spring ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ) became famous
after the 7th-century visit by a Chola princess: not only was her digestive disorder in-
stantly healed when she bathed in the waters and prayed to Murugan, but so was her facial
deformity, which, according to one source, had the 'likeness of a horse's head'. Even if
your face doesn't look like a horse, the spring is a beautiful little spot: the men's side has a
picturesque stepped pool of bright aquamarine water set against the sea, while the women
have a smaller pool nearby surrounded by tall walls (for the best, really). The waters are
supposed to be healing, and there are changing rooms on-site; women should bathe in