'Plaa' to drink toddy and wooden 'clogs' with nails. Photos sent by Dr.Susiri Weerasekara.

The traditional way of drinking 'toddy' - the fermented sap from the Palmyra tree - in Jaffna, was in a container made from dried  Palmyra leaves. This was called a 'Plaa'. This was usually done under palmyra trees where freshly harvested toddy could be enjoyed. This picture shows a customer enjoying his drink of the day.

In the 1940s to 1960s 'clogs' - wooden shoes - most probably introduced by the Dutch were in common use throughout Ceylon. I recall using these to go to the toilets in the school hostels in the 1940s. The ones I used had a leather strap in front in place of the wooden peg seen in the picture. Self immolation - to burn away past sins - was part of Saiva beleif in the Indian sub-continent. Thus piercing of the skin of the back of the chest with hooks and carrying a 'Kaavady'' - 'kaavu thady' - was and is a part of the religious tradition in Jaffna .  In another act of self-immolation, nails were inserted as seen in the picture on the wooden clogs, and the penitent would walk on these clogs from one temple to another a few Kilometers away. This was part of 'fulfilling a vow' made to Lord Murugan or Goddess Paththini. The vow was taken to ward off a predicted future disaster in ones life, or having minimized the effects of a past 'bad-time' or 'apala'.