Sri Lanka : Kandy Perehera Festival July & August 2007

SRI LANKA is a land of pageants and processions, dating back over 2,500 years. Every year, in the lunar month of August, the scenic hill capital of Kandy comes alive with the grand spectacle of the "Kandy Perahera".

The Buddhist festival is famous throughout South Asia for its dancers and elephants adorned with embroidered cloths.

For 11 days each year the capital of Sri Lanka's hill country, Kandy, is transformed into a fantastic spectacle. The narrow streets hang with strips of coloured electric lights, chairs and benches are squeezed together on the pavements, and people hang out of balconies, roofs and windows to watch the grand festivities.

The Perehera celebrates the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha, said to have been brought to the island more than 2,000 years ago in the hair of a princess. It is now housed in the Temple of the Tooth - Kandy's most famous building. A replica of this tooth is carried in a golden casket at the head of each night's procession, on top of a large tusked elephant covered in bright cloths lined with tiny lights. The original tooth is considered too precious to be allowed to leave the temple precincts.

The Perehera in its present form has been going for more than 300 years, but this year is said to be the largest ever. As the August moon begins to wax, the misty hills of Kandy will give itself up to a new excitement in preparation for the spectacular festival of the "Kandy Perahera".

For ten nights, as the old cannon booms after dusk, the Perahera, the event for which Kandy lives each year, will take to the streets growing longer each night until on the final night of pageantry, the past shatters the present. The whips crack like pistol shots, the torches gild the pallid moonlight, the drums roll like thunder down the narrow streets, the oboes wail, the braying conchs re-echo from the hills, the pious cries of 'Sadhu-Sadhu' lift in thanksgiving to the sky, the dancers leap and whirl in flashing crimson, white and silver, the stately chiefs strut by, rank upon rank of elephants loom up and dwindle, and the glitter of the Sacred Casket fades as the mile long magnificence passes...

ew spectacles, if any, in the world could surpass the splendor of this annual feast of sight and sound, custom and ritual. We have heard of none- confirmed by the thousands of visitors from all parts of the world who come to Sri Lanka each year for this festival. The "Kandy Perahera" is a unique ritual, a grand pageant, a scintillating spectacle and a deeply felt religious festival. It is the public expression of the culture and ritual, life and faith of the Sinhala people. A living growth of this island nation's heart and history. Come and be transported by the sweet scent of jasmine, mingling with the heady aroma of burning incense and copra. Come for a memorable trip and an experience of a lifetime