The Esela Perehera of yore

By Rajitha Ratwatte

I am told the Dalada Perehera is on in my hometown. I have some incredible memories and despite all the cruelty to elephants’ rhetoric that is dished out, mostly by people who are either paid to do so, or do not understand the relationship that can be built up by humans and elephants, I have included an extract from my book. The names of the elephants are those that I grew up with. These are memories from the early 1970’s and I hope you can leave your inhibitions behind and simply enjoy them for what they are; happy memories from another era.

It was not such a pious era (be the piety real or otherwise) and it was before the long arm of the law ensured that all Liquor shops were closed for the entire duration of the Perehera.

First, we used to go to the respective temples that we were working for and in the courtyards of these temples begin dressing the elephants. The elephant’s dress consisted of a large drape to cover most of the back and legs, a front piece with eye holes covering the head and trunk and two coverings for the ears. The cloth of these dresses where ancient tapestries and they were very carefully stored over the years and taken out only for the festival. The first time we put Tikiri into a dress she proceeded to rip off the head covering and the ear coverings and tore them to shreds before we could stop her. This resulted in a terrible black mark and we were given another dress only after we used extreme pressure and lots of influence!

The lesser elephants wore only the dress and it got more and more elaborate as the animal’s role in the pageant gained more significance. For instance, the elephant who led the procession and carried the king’s official who was in charge of deciding on the route (the route got longer each day until on the last night it covered almost all the streets of Kandy) was always a male and preferably a tusker. His robes were of silk with gold brocade and he often had a car battery (now replaced by LED lights and a much lighter power source due to a suggestion from yours truly – duly implemented by the late Mohan Panabokke the Basnayake Nilame of the Maha Vishnu temple) tied on his shoulders with a series of light bulbs (somewhat like Christmas tree lights) fitted to the front piece. Since all the street lights where always switched off and the procession was lit by flares carried by bearers it took on a truly magnificent air. As for the tusker who carried the actual tooth relic, two other tuskers always flanked him, and his robes defied description!

The temple courtyards were often over 500 years old and had large stone paving and were mysterious and mystical places. Once the dressing was completed, we had a little time before the first of the cannons from the main temple would boom out, informing us that we had to go out into the road and take up our pre-determined positions. This was not time wasted. Another favourite pastime of these “moral scum” that were elephant keepers (a popular opinion) was to keep the local taverns well patronised. This is where I (the owner’s son) and not very popular at most times because I may report any misdemeanour that went on, came into my own. One by one they would come up to me and say, “could you keep an eye on the elephant ” (Keepers rarely used the name given by the owner, instead they referred to the elephant by the owners’ last name) and off they would go to imbibe. Often, I would be left in the darkened temple courtyard, lit only by the flickering light of the “chulu” lanterns with eight huge elephants. The elephants were always excited and restless and the nervous energy emanating from them combined with the low light and the general mysticism associated with the temple courtyard made for a truly unique cocktail of emotions, the main one being just how insignificant we humans are in the greater scheme of things!

And so, the procession would start. Most keepers had to be dragged around the route by the chains of their elephants, they were so drunk. There is more than one story of elephants having to pick their mahouts up in their trunks and carry them home and deposit them outside their houses before quietly going into their stables and waiting for daybreak. Most elephants were so well trained that once they were guided into their position in the procession they would hold their station perfectly, there were many stops and starts, and find their way back to the respective temple courtyards at the end.

But not so Tikiri! Tikiri wanted to dance with the dancers who led the way, she wanted to overtake all the slowpokes and see what was happening up ahead, sometimes she wanted to go back, presumably to pay homage to the tooth relic that was carried at the rear end of the procession. Keeping Tikiri in station took 4four strong men. We had to hold her from either side and one hold her tail while the fourth had to walk in front to keep from overtaking the others. Tikiri was a relative baby under training and we were only allowed in because my uncle was the chief trustee of the temple and his nephew promised better results after each disaster. This actually got beyond a joke and we had to hire the services of Banda ……… more of that later.

Going to the procession was fairly uneventful. The streets of Kandy were thronged with people and the Police were out in force. They would direct traffic and take the occasional kick at a passing hooligan (their opinion) who couldn’t keep onto the jammed and overflowing pavements. Elephant keepers and the guardians of the law were never the best of friends, it was a fairly common sight to see a magnificently uniformed custodian of the law hastily abandoning his position in the middle of the road where he was imperiously directing traffic until a few moments previously as there was this elephant bearing straight down on him. This elephant that didn’t respond to his command to keep left and who’s keeper was playing a flute and flirting with a pretty girl he was giving a lift to instead of keeping his eyes on the road! The keeper always knew where his elephant was going. What the lawman didn’t know was that the keeper was directing his charge straight at the uniform with those silent commands that you can give with your foot while riding…………Profuse apologies, intermingled with female laughter would always follow but woe betide the unfortunate elephant keeper who got caught under the influence without his elephant by his side.

Coming back after a long night, was another matter entirely. We would all be very tired and except for a very very small percentage of us the rest would be paralytic, therefore it was mainly up to the elephants to find their way home. The people who had been to watch would also be very merry and full of “Dutch courage”. They who had shown a healthy respect for the size and strength of an elephant would now be overwhelmed by affection for these magnificent creatures. Farmer KiriBanda would stumble up to an Elephant with words of endearment and attempt to bestow a drunken kiss. Most elephants knew about this and would gently step out of the way and keep going but not Tikiri. Tikiri’s eyes would light up, here was sport. She would let him lean on her and then sidestep smartly resulting in a dull thud as the gentleman hit the tar macadam of the road. If she was in a bad mood Tikiri would take a swing at the revellers with her trunk and many a man has reached instant sobriety while sailing in a graceful arc across the crowded streets of Kandy in most cases in a state of semi nudity, because their sarongs would always detach themselves. Fortunately, we never had anything worse than a minor bruising, the gods must really have been watching over us.

Sometimes we had the odd visiting elephant who had become over excited to escort home. Some of the Elephants who came for the procession would come from very remote villages. They had never seen so many humans or been exposed to all this noise and excitement. They would panic and get hysterical and become uncontrollable. If it got really bad a vet would be called with a tranquilizer but those were the early days of tranquilizer and Mahouts were wary of them. One of the popular theories were that the tranquiliser robbed the elephants of their strength and a once tranquilised elephant would be useless for work thereafter. Anyway, the first step when an elephant got over excited was to secure it using chains to a nearby tree or lamppost. Once the procession was over and the streets were clear we would tie the troubled one onto two others (one on either side) and lead him down to our bathing spot near the river where he would be stabled for a few days with plenty of food and water and allowed to calm down. The big bulls would be used for escort duties and Rani who could hold her own with most bulls would be used on occasion. This was one task that I was never allowed to participate in because as the keepers said, ” this is not one of ours and it doesn’t know you”. I really think it was on the instructions of my father who allowed me a free rein but drew the line on some things.

We used to get paid for our services during the ten nights of the festival. Not exorbitant sums of money as in the present day but mostly with a sack of “paddy” from the temple fields. The final day procession however was done for us to obtain merit from the gods and no one accepted any payment for this. It was hard work because we had just finished the final night (the longest route which took until the early hours of the morning) and it would be hot and humid as the weather is at that time of the year and we would all be weary. We did it without a second thought though and when I think of it we must have been as strong as the elephants themselves.

The Queens hotel in Kandy was the place where all the VIP’s watched the pageant. One of my uncles used always reserve a suite and invite all his friends and business associates and have an endless party for 10 nights and a day. All of us were under instructions to put on our best show when we were passing the Queens and we did. I always had one eye cocked at the overhanging balconies where all the pretty girls used lean out of taking in the spectacle. I was considered a bit of a wild child, for I was associating with all those elephant keepers, this I must confess had a certain appeal to some extremely pretty cousins of mine and their friends. One year when I was passing the Queens I was walking behind Tikiri (on tail duty) but we had Banda then and we didn’t need to hang on to her tail. Therefore, I was checking out the balconies and sure enough there were the girls I was looking for and they were waving vigorously and calling out. I gave a nonchalant wave and prepared to look busy with this important task that I had in hand, but they continued waving and calling out and the calls were getting frantic. Fortunately, I diverted my gaze and looked directly above my head where Tikiri’s tail had been lifted and she was about the deposit her last meal on my head. This of course was what the girls were trying to convey to me and I thought I had a fan club!!!!!

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