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...heard it in at least 27 years, not since I had traveled to the sacred Madhu Shrine in northern Sri Lanka in August 1982 when I was a child and on pilgrimage with my family: "Aandavane" ("Oh, Holy Lord" in Tamil), "Aandavane." The words spread through the church compound where half a million others had made the same journey to see Madhu Matha, the Mother of Madhu, in her sacred precincts...
...also passed through camps where some of the more than 280,000 people who were displaced by the last phase of the fighting now live. At the turnoff to the shrine, pilgrims were strictly warned not to stop on the side of the road till they reached the church compound. They were told that the jungles on the sides of the road were still littered with mines and other ordnance; red skull-and-crossbones signs drove the message home. Still, the pilgrims arrived in the tens of thousands, in vans, buses, trucks, public transport, an old British double-decker...
...civil war was particularly perilous for the shrine. The military had begun a multipronged advance into the Tiger-controlled area in late 2007, and Madhu was about six miles (10 km) north of the line. Earlier that year, 10,000 people were still taking refuge in the church compound, believing the Virgin would protect them. But by February 2008, recalls the Rev. S. Emilianuspillai, then caretaker of the shrine, it was clear that the shrine itself was in danger - and part of the war. On April 3, 2008, fighting had isolated 17 people at the shrine, including four priests...
...chief concern was the safety of the statue once the compound was being used to launch attacks on government forces. Later that same afternoon, the priests received orders from the bishop to remove the sacred relic and take it farther north, deeper into Tiger-held areas, rather than risk heading for the front. The journey that evening, to start at 6:30, was still fraught. Emilianuspillai recalls not just shelling but a heavy rain delaying departure and then, nearly a mile into the journey, a shell falling near the vehicle in front of the one bearing the statue...
Granted, there's no shortage of things to buy - but that's hardly the point. "We're not interested in making money," Salaveria says over a San Miguel cerveza negra as dusk settles over the compound and the shops around us begin to light up. "The important thing is independence." Find out more at www.cubao-x.com...