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Overseas Realty (Ceylon) PLC, owner and manager of the World Trade Center is displaying a gigantic Vesak lantern at its entrance lobby for this year’s Vesak festival.
The spectacular ‘Shakya-Sinha’ Vesak lantern is 27 feet high with 54 accessory lanterns and can be viewed from three levels of the WTC building at different angles.
The main lantern and the 54 accessory lanterns are all decorated with intricate cut work around the structure with multiple color combinations and lit-up using the latest lighting technology.
The Vesak lantern is housed in an air-conditioned environment and uses VSD technology to control the speed of the drive unit along with LED lamps which helps reduce electricity consumption by over 50%.
The lantern is voluntarily built by dedicated employees attached to the Facilities Management team of the Company. The lantern is on display from 3 May (Vesak Poya Day) up to Poson Poya Day, 2 June and will be open to the general public.
Rainco and its creative partner Triad Ltd. once again unveiled an engaging vesak pandol at the Gangarama Vesak Kalapaya in Colombo.
The creative idea was derived from the story of Prince Nanda, (the son of Lord Buddha’s step mother) who was betrothed to Janapada Kalyani, a beauty queen. Under the guidance of Lord Buddha, Prince Nanda was ordained before marriage. Lord Buddha however identified the monk Nanda’s continued infatuation with Janapada Kalyani as an obstacle to his spirituality, and helped him understand the fleeting nature of beauty, thereby facilitating his journey towards Nirvana.
Rainco and Triad created the pandol by depicting the beautiful Janapada Kalyani with colourful umbrellas that illustrated the ‘beauty’ side of life. As onlookers admire the beauty before them,the the pandol was designed to rotate to show her pale, feeble body created by the ribs of the umbrellas.
The parallel message of the uncertainty of beauty and longevity of life were thus creatively depicted through the use of modern technology as a simple but effective means of delivery. This pandol attracted large crowds and received many comments of appreciation.