Invited by the Buddhist monks in the teaching staff, Hindu priest S. Chandrakumar Kannan supervised the preparation of the milk rice for the occasion.

The priest said he was happy to be given an opportunity to demonstrate reconciliation to children of a war-ravaged area.

A Tamil teacher, Surendran said he wanted to show the children what actually Thai Pongal was, and thereby teaching them a lesson of reconciliation, according to BBC Sinhala Service.