The CIB Pooja Ribbon Mal is a flower made from ribbon rather than petals, sold by CIB among its pooja bhanda, the range of items Sri Lankan Buddhists use for offerings. Mal is the Sinhala word for flowers, and pooja means an offering, so the name describes exactly what it is: an offering flower.
The flower in the photograph is pink. It is built up from many small pointed petals of glossy ribbon, each folded and set in overlapping rings that grow smaller towards the centre, so that the whole piece reads as a full, flat, many-petalled bloom. At its heart sits a small silver-toned ornament shaped like a rose.
Flowers are the most important and most popular of the offerings made by Buddhists in Sri Lanka, set on the altar in front of a statue of the Buddha, before a dagaba or at any other place of religious significance. This ribbon flower is made for that same setting, and it is sold as a single piece in the pink shown.
