Esela Perahera

The city I live in is gearing up for a huge festival starting tomorrow. This annual festival called the Esela Perahera is held in July/ August and some refer to it as "the most colourful pageant of Asia". For 10 days, a huge procession of Kandyan dancers, drummers, jugglers, fire-breathers, whip-crackers, adorned elephants and more will parade through various narrow streets of Kandy town as a mark of respect to the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha. The relic is housed in the Temple of the Tooth (aka Sri Dalada Maligawa).

A short clip of the Esela Perahera

Hordes of devotees, tourists and locals will be pouring into Kandy in the next few days, making the town very congested! Thankfully, this time of the year also happens to be cool, windy and without much rain. Most locals who have lived their entire lives in this city still try to catch the spectacle at least on one of the days, knowing very well that it will involve brushing with hundreds of strangers on the streets, sometimes struggling to hold on to a few inches of ground to stand, because it is indeed an impressive sight.

Our family was invited by some friends to watch the procession from the comfort of one of their friends' shop balconies. We also talked about taking a load of snacks and drinks to share and kill time till the procession passes us. Our snack menu includes things like fried peanuts, biscuits, boiled chick peas, pickled fruit, fresh fruit, cake, etc. As a child I remember we (all the younger ones) try to count the number of elephants in the procession and compare notes later. My last count was forty-two although the procession is said to have up to a hundred elephants! I'm guessing many elephants got away while I reached out for snacks or got carried away eating.

I also remember a time when elephants that were brought to Kandy from various parts of Sri Lanka for the Esela Perahera would come to bathe in the river beside my house. We enjoyed watching them play and bathe in the river from a distance. It seems like they have found a different location for bathing in the recent years.

This time though, I have mixed feelings about participating as a spectator of this grand procession that has cultural, religious, traditional and nostalgic significance to me.

In the past, Asian elephants were used in warfare and labour that required strength. As these roles are now redundant, elephants (in captivity) in Sri Lanka have become a symbol of wealth and power. It is not uncommon for temples, powerful figures and some Buddhist monks to own at least one elephant. They are also used in numerous religious processions, celebratory events like weddings and animal shows for human entertainment.

Almost all elephants that seem tame to humans are captured in the wild. A more fitting word would be "snatched" from the herd. Most are caught very young as they need to be "tamed" from a young age. It is said that they undergo a training period consisting of torture, starvation, abuse and solitary confinement to "break their wild spirit" and fear a human keeper enough to obey their orders. Unlike their African counterparts, Asian elephants more suitable for training. They can't be domesticated (as in the case of selectively bred animals) so although "tame", captive elephants are pretty much the same as wild elephants. Therefore, they are kept chained and mahouts (elephant keepers) always carry a sharp hook to remind the elephants of obedience.

During the Esela Perahera, captive elephants are made to participate in a procession with thousands of bystanders, heat and noise. Some of the bigger elephants carry chieftans on their back. During the procession, they sometimes step on smoldering pieces of charcoal that fall off the torches and are regularly prodded by the mahouts with hooks. Sick elephants are probably not spared because participation means a day's wage for a mahout. One elephant on a rampage in a congested town could easily end up in a catastrophe. So underneath beautifully adorned garments, adult elephants walk in chains that are often too short for the animal to take a natural step. This is perhaps a fitting analogy for the Esela Perahera itself. Beneath all the extravagance, there lies commercialism (yes, even our family benefits from incoming tourists to Kandy) and worse, untold suffering for the hundred elephants.

A chained temple elephant in Sri Lanka. Source: The Dodo

While the elephant-mahout bond is said to be a a special one, usually for life, not every mahout is kind or an expert in the needs of elephants. Mahouts work hard to look after an elephant and depend solely on the elephant for their livelihood. So the only means he can feed his family and a 2-5 tonne animal (that eats about 150 kg of food a day) is to take his elephant to as many events, religious processions he can, or simply show them off to tourists in return for a fee. In a way, religious events like the Esela Perahera support the livelihood and sustenance of many mahouts and captive elephants respectively. However, it is a vicious cycle.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has categorised Elephas maximus as "endangered" and the population count is on a downward trend. In Sri Lanka, there are threats like elephant-human territorial conflicts, capture of juveniles in the wild and an ivory demand (which is smaller in extent compared to Africa).

A herd of wild (female) elephants and their offspring spotted at Minneriya National Park (Sri Lanka) during my last visit in July 2016. Scores of them gather annually in this very spot while on a migratory route. 

It is indeed a sad case that in the 21st century, with so much accumulated knowledge in Science and collective conscience, we continue to uphold and glorify traditions with a darker side. It is even sadder that we humans exploit animals in the name of religions that preach kindness and non-violence towards them.

Elephants are special. Like pandas, they elicit a feeling of fondness in many people (if you disagree, you haven't seen a baby elephant up close). They are the largest land animals on Earth. They are highly intelligent and social herbivores with complex emotions. They have the longest gestation period of 18-22 months for a mammal and elephant calves depend on the mother's milk for 3-4 years. Even if those facts don't impress anyone, few would argue that a hundred shackled elephants covered in magnificent costumes are better than a hundred elephants roaming free in the wild.