A gentle giant now no more

by Ridley Casie Chitty

March 7 was a day of great sadness to the Buddhists of Sri Lanka in particular and to the people of Sri Lanka in general, because it was the day the bearer of the main relic casket for 13 consecutive years at the Esala Perahara said to contain what the Buddhist believe to be the sacred Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha, fondly named as Nedungamuwe Raja passed away at the age of 69 years at Nedungamuwa, Weliveriya.

Nedungamuwe Raja though he was an elephant, had superhuman qualities. He performed the one and only important function assigned to him which was to carry the casket bearing the sacred Tooth Relic with dignity and decorum every year with extraordinary elan. He never craved popularity, prestigious treatment or recognition, nor blow his own trumpet. The government thought it proper for a security detail to escort him to Kandy for the perahera and back considering him a national treasure.

Each year he was seen to be walking on the road from where he lived to the venue of the Perahera with a dignified gait, being led along by his caregiver, the mahout Vincent Kodituwakku alias Kalu Mama with whom he had an extraordinary relationship. He obeyed the mahout’s commands, without demur. Kalu Mama says there he was always calm and never violent and the mahout and his charge lived in perfect harmony and understanding.

After performing his duty in Kandy he went obediently back to Neungamuwa and lived a life of contentment on his usual diet of coconut palm fronds and other vegetation Kalu Mama brought him.

Nedungamuwe Raja was born in Mysore India in 1953 and was gifted to Sri Lanka. There are a lot of lessons we humans could learn from this gentle giant and qualities that we could emulate which were visible in Raja. The two most outstanding qualities which were quite evident were humility and obedience.

He was dignified in the performance of his responsibility and did it to perfection. Once he had performed this onerous task he was content to go back to his everyday life in his accustomed surroundings obedient to the man who considered him more than a child. He made no demands and performed his allotted task each year walking to Kandy and back to do his duty. He died as her lived at peace with nature and humankind. Sri Lanka has indeed lost a noble and exemplary creature and we Lankan are all the poorer by his death.