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The temple at Kataragama is dedicated to the hindu god Skanda. The worship of this deity by long usage has become a part of the lay buddhist religious practise. This Temple too has an annual pageant lasting a week in July/August. On the last day of the pageant there is fire-walking ceremony. In the early evening several wooden logs are burnt and the red hot embers are spread on a stretch of about 30 feet long and about 10 feet wide just outside the main gate of the temple. Devotees led by the chief priest walk barefeet on the full 30 feet of the embers. It is believed that the non-religious get burnt. I have seen this ceremony on several occasions but I have not seen anyone burnt after the walk. One of the first off-shoots of the Bodhi tree at Anuradhapura had been planted behind the Buddha shrine which adjoins this temple. A few days before the Kataragama pageant begins, a silvery off-shoot arises at the base of this tree and died off after the pageant is over. It appears on the Kiri Vehera side of the tree. I made an annual prilgrimage to Kataragama during the pageant since about 1972. I heard about this off-shoot in 1987. Thereafter I made it a point to have look at it and I have seen this off-shoot every year till I left the country in September 1990. 
It is believed that when Indian kings were going to invade Sri Lanka the then king Dutugemunu made a vow to build a Buddhist Dagoba at Kataragama if he win the war. He has built Kiri Vehera to honor this vow. It is beleived that Kesha Dathu (hair of lord Buddha) are enshrined in this Dagoba. 
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