The Gangarama Temple offer is the Lankan equivalent of the visit to the Egyptian perfume factory. The person on the street is headed there because of a special event at the temple which will only be going on for the next day or the next few days. You are offered the chance to join him on the visit. The temple visit is followed by the visit to the gem export centre.
I fell for it and I am glad I did. The Gangarama Temple was not on my list of things to see. I did not need any gem stones for myself or as gifts but learned a little about what stones are common in Sri Lanka. I would not have made it to the temple had it not been for one of the gem touts.
The Gangarama Temple visit netted a large number of photographs. There is an a tree raised from a sapling of the Sri Maha Bodhiya in Anuradhapura, a set of small stupas of the design found at Borobudur, and even a baby (4 year old) elephant. Well worth a visit for tourists or for pilgrims.
The pictures tell the story.
Miniatures of the Candi Borobudur stupas. (Borobudur is the temple near Magelang in central Java.)
Bodhi tree grown from a sapling of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi at Anuradhapura.
