August 2005

Pink Elephants on Parade

Well, the month of August is come and gone and yours truly has turned a year older, now I have to remind myself that I have just turned 28 and not 29 since for the whole year so far I have been telling people I’m 28. And what clever thoughts has my 28 years afforded me…?

I really like elephants.

This month is the month of the Perahera, which simply means parade. And as everything in this country is focused around the circumnavigation of this Earth by our Moon, the Perahera falls around the August full moon. It is a festival that is centered around the hill country capital of Kandy, where tens of thousands of our islanders ascend to see the spectacle. Now, Buddhism is a rather sober religion and so those expecting a Carnival like craziness would most likely be a little disappointed.

But there are lots and lots of elephants involved.

The history of the parade is associated with the smuggling of one of Buddha’s teeth in the hair of an Orissan princess across the straits about 1600 years ago. Over the course of time it has been convoluted into a grand show for four Buddhist/Hindu deities (Vishnu, Pattini, Katharagama/Skanda and Natha) whose temples are dotted around Kandy.

And as with anything associated with our last Lankan royalty, elephants are employed.

Working elephants (they get health benefits and pensions) are decked out in full splendor with robes and lights and all kinds of trinkets and walk alongside hordes of similarly bedecked performers- drummers, acrobats, dancers, torchbearers etc. This year, over a hundred elephants were trucked or walked into Kandy for the parade, and up to 17 tuskers (only Asian elephant males have tusks) were dressed to the nines for ten days.

But I didn’t get any photos to show you all. Sorry. Maybe next year.
Some pretty views will have to suffice.