The Portuguese were the first colonisers of this country. A fleet of ships captained by Lorenzo de Almeida was blown off course by a gale and lay anchor on the seas off Galle. From there they set sail for Colombo as they wanted to meet the king.
Portuguese arrival in Colombo
The Portuguese fleet sailed to Colombo on a storm tossed sea. Local folk watched in amazement as the fleet headed towards the port of Colombo.
They wondered as to whom the fleet belonged to.
Some people got off the ships and came ashore They wore unusual clothes and helmets on their heads. The newcomers were eating what looked like stones and drinking a red liquid which looked like blood to the local folk.
And the Sinhalese described bread and wine as stones and blood to the king.
The two sets of people approached each other slowly. The Portuguese were speaking in their language and the local folk spoke in Sinhala.
Neither could understand each other. Finally, through sign language they communicated with each other. The Portuguese told the local folk that they would like to meet their king.
The local folk told the Portuguese that their king lived in Kotte and the visitors said they would be glad to pay their respects to the king.
The Sinhalese were not very happy about taking the Portuguese to meet their king. "What might they do to our king" they thought. But the Portuguese were insistent that they meet the king.
Trek to Kotte
Finally, the local people agreed to take the Portuguese to meet their king.
But they warned the strangers that the way to the Palace was long and difficult/
The locals decided to take the long and difficult route as they did not want the Portuguese to know that the Royal Palace was close to Colombo. The local folk and the Portuguese trekked for many days through bushes, rocks, slopes and ditches.
Finally, after several days they reached Kotte and the Royal Palace.
Portuguese fleet sirens
But what amazed the Portuguese was that they could clearly hear the sirens of their ships.
Then, they realised that the Portuguese had tricked them and taken them on a long and difficult route when really Kotte was quite close to Colombo. The Sinhalese people found who the Portuguese were and they called them Parangi,
It is also from this incident that the saying Parangiya Kotte giya wage came to be. This is used when someone takes a long and difficult route when there is a short and easy route.
Sources: Folklore/ how the Portuguese went to Kotte, Prof. J. B. Disanayaka