Sri Lanka & The Kandy Esala Perahera Festival

Widely considered to be one of Asia’s most vibrant, colourful and lavish religious pageants; the Kandy Esala Perahera festival is marked with a magnificent display of caparisoned elephants, fire-eaters, drummers, and dancers. This private tour combines the opportunity to see this magical spectacle and experience the carnivalesque atmosphere that pervades throughout Kandy at this time. Celebrated annually over a period of ten days, the Kandy Esala Perahera festival is Sri Lanka’s oldest as well as its most important festival. The festival combines the Dalada Perahera, which marks the arrival of the Buddha’s sacred tooth relic in Sri Lanka; with the Esala Perahera, where Buddhist deities are beseeched to bless the farmers with a rich harvest. The Kandy Esala Perahera festival begins with the cutting of a ceremonial jack tree followed by a lively procession through the streets of Kandy. These processions become grander each night, with the festivities reaching a crescendo on the last night, when a replica of the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha is carried in a golden casket on the back of a massive ‘Tusker’ and accompanied by traditional dancers, torch bearers, fire jugglers, musicians and nearly a hundred elephants decorated in colourful silk costumes. The Kandy Esala Perahera festival concludes on the morning of the 10th day with the ‘water-cutting’ ceremony, where priests “cut” circles in the water with a sword and fill four clay bowls with water from within the circle. This water is then kept in the pitchers until the following year’s festival. Combined with the dazzling processions of the Kandy Esala Perahera on this tour are visits to ancient cities of Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle; picturesque Minneriya National Park where wild elephant sightings are virtually guaranteed; and three nights by the shimmering blue waters of Pasikudah on Sri Lanka’s East Coast. (Kandy Esala Perahera is held annually in late July / mid-August).