11 January 2024 , 16:42
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There is always certain royal protocol local officials must follow when they get a visit from an HRH - but it was the turn of one of the Royal Family to follow a bit of local protocol while on a visit to Sri Lanka.
A helicopter carrying the Princess Royal was forced to follow local custom when it was ferrying her to an engagement at a Buddhist temple and was ordered to avoid landing on a cricket wicket. Princess Anne is currently on a three-day visit to cricket-mad Sri Lanka with her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence and the two were on their way to the ancient place of worship in the central city of Kandy in the aircraft.
The helicopter, laid on by the Sri Lankan government, swooped down to land at the Asgiriya Police cricket pitch, near to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, Sri Lanka’s most significant Buddhist Temple. The aircraft was guided to a large H for helipad sign on the ground by an aircraft marshaller but was careful to avoid disturbing the surface of the police cricket team’s wicket.
The official car sent to collect the Princess Royal also kept off the wicket and whisked her a short distance to the temple which is home to a tooth Buddhists believe is from their deity. The tooth, which is believed to be the Buddha’s left canine and is kept within seven caskets at the holy site and paraded through the streets of Kandy every five years during a 10-day religious festival.
The Princess Royal (second left) during a visit the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy (PA)The princess was given a plate of jasmine flowers by a Buddhist cleric and wore white as a mark of respect - removing her shoes, like all visitors to the shrine, before she was ushered into an inner sanctum. As an important guest to the temple Princess Anne was allowed access to the private area where she could make her offering to the relic undisturbed.
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The temple attracts visitors from across the globe and before the pandemic, 100,000 people regularly flocked to the site over a weekend with numbers returning to these levels.