Jaffna’s countless other Hindu temples , easily identified by their red-and-white-striped walls, range from tiny shrines to sprawling complexes featuring mandapaya (raised platforms with decorated pillars), ornate ponds and towering gopuram . Miralliamman Kovil , near Nallur, is particularly dazzling.
The city’s abundance of churches isn’t a reflection of its legions of Christian parishioners, now reduced from their 12% of the prewar population. Touring the many fine Catholic and Protestant structures is nevertheless an interesting excuse for discovering leafy backstreets. The grandest church is St James’ , a classical Italianate edifice. From Hospital Rd, Our Lady of Refuge Church looks like a whitewashed version of a Gloucestershire village church. Built along classical lines,St Mary’s Cathedral is astonishingly large and airy, with, curiously, corrugated-iron roofing held up by a masterpiece of wooden vaulting.
For Buddhists there’s the solitary Sri Nagavihara International Buddhist Centre , quickly rebuilt after government forces retook Jaffna in 1995. The Jummah Mosque is quirkily colourful.
