Cheap alms bowls imports hit Sri Lanka makers, monks

The village of Panvila has long been associated with craftsmen who produce the humble "paathra", the special bowl that forms part of the eight essentials donated to monks and which is used to ask for food. Thenuwara Badalge Sarath, 65, says he is the only blacksmith left in a village that once supplied much of the country. "When I learnt the craft from my father, there were more than 10 families in the neighbourhood who made these bowls," Sarath told AFP, while hammering a piece of scrap metal into a holy utensil.