Sri Lanka unveiled a towering Christmas tree on Saturday, claiming to have surpassed the world record for an artificial Christmas tree despite constructions delays and a shorter-than-planned finished product.
The 73-meter (238-foot) tree, built in capital Colombo, is 18 meters taller than the current record holder, organizers said. The tree's steel-and-wire frame is covered with a plastic net decorated with more than 1 million natural pine cones painted red, gold, green and silver, 600,000 LED bulbs and topped by a 6-meter-tall (20-foot) shining star.
The tree has cost US $ 80,000. The Catholic Church criticized the tree as a "waste of money" and suggested that the funds better be spent on helping the poor.
Mangala Gunasekara, chief organizer of the project claims their tree has beat the existing Guinness record and he hopes it will be declared by the "World's tallest artificial Christmas Tree."
His claim is subject to confirmation from Guinness World Records, which said it has received an application from the organizers and that "it is currently pending evidence submission." Gunasekara said that evidence is being gathered and will be sent to Guinness shortly.
Currently, the record is held by a Chinese firm that put up a 55-meter (180-foot) tree-like tower of lights and synthetic foliage, ornaments and lamps in the city of Guangzhou last year.
Organizers said they wanted the tree to help promote ethnic and religious harmony in the Buddhist-majority South Asian island nation.
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