June is the beginning of whale-watching season in Trincomalee. At this time of year, you’ll have the best opportunity to catch a glimpse of dolphins, blue whales, and sperm whales just off on the island’s east coast. Not only that, by visiting the North and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka, you can take advantage of the dry and bright weather in a peaceful atmosphere while enjoying Tamil and Muslim food and culture.
Yala National Park, which is a designated wildlife sanctuary should be your next stop during your visit in June which is also situated in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka.
Yala National Park is famous for the world's biggest concentration of leopards, but it’s also home to 44 varieties of mammals and 215 bird species as well as elephants, crocodiles, wild boar, sloth bears, sambars, jackals, spotted dear, peacocks, and many different types of animals. The dry weather in June leads animals to congregate around watering holes, so there’s a good chance to become a witness of the most interesting types of wildlife in the park.
When talking about June and the East coast of Sri Lanka, you cannot forget Katharagama. It is a sacred pilgrimage town holy to Buddhists, Hindus, and Sri Lanka’s indigenous Vedda people. Hindus from South India also go there to worship Katharagama. The main point of the town is the Kataragama Temple complex, a shrine dedicated to Skanda Kumara also known as Kataragama deviyo and Murugan by the Tamil people. If you want to experience a multicultural society, Sri Lanka is the best place for that.
As you already know, Buddhists celebrate a Poya on the full moon day of every month, and June is no exception. June’s Poya day is called the Poson Poya which commemorates the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka by the Indian-born Buddhist monk known as Mahinda, the son King Dharmashoka.
King Dharmashoka was an ancient Indian Emperor who ruled the entire Indian Sub-continent from 268 BC to 232 BC. Monk Mihindu (Mahinda) travelled to Sri Lanka and went to Mihintale, a mountain peak near Anuradhapura.
At the top of the mountain, there Mahinda preached Sri Lanka’s first Buddhist sermon to King Dewanampiyathissa. Now, people believe Anuradhapura as a sacred city and thousands of white-robed pilgrims climb the summit of Mihitale to commemorate this momentous event and celebrations take place all around the country. And on Poson poya day, people colorfully decorate their homes, buildings with lights and lanterns illuminating in every corner.
On a normal Year, Month or Day, the whole of Sri Lanka celebrates the Poson Poya day very highly and one of the key highlights of this day is the Dansals which are scattered around the whole country. These are little food, beverage and dessert stalls that the locals prop up to hand out free food and drinks, everything from tea and soft drinks to a soups or a full rice and curry and even ice creams to every worshiper and observer.
Finally… if you want to be advised on the weather of Sri Lanka in June, you will experience the south western monsoon rain fall. This however is expected mainly in the western, southern and central provinces of Sri Lanka. This makes visiting and exploring another attractive area of the island such as the North and East that has a variety of cultural, tradition and food with a hospitality of its own kind.
While the world is dealing with the Covid 19 pandemic. We hope from the bottom of our hearts that this chaos will fade away from our mother Earth soon. Have hope and be safe till that day. We are happy to say that, as a small island we are taking this situation very serious and working towards ending this very soon.
