KAMALIKA PIERIS
The elephants in the Esala Perahera got star
billing in an entertaining piece published by two animal rights NGOs in August
2016. The essay is full of howlers and
is probably the silliest piece ever written on the subject.
Are you planning to go and see the Kandy Esala
perahera, the NGOs wrote, if so, think of the poor elephants in it. They
usually reside in the jungles and only come to Kandy once a year, to take part
in the Esala perahera. They have to walk miles to get to Kandy on searing tar
roads in the blazing heat, with crazed motorists coming at them all the time.
Coming straight from the jungle, it was very unpleasant to be dressed up in
robes and battery powered lights, for the perahera, especially with the ears
covered.
Taking
part in the perahera year after year is an absolute night mare. The noise is
awful with drums, whips, trumpets, loud speakers and ice cream vendors. The mahouts either climb on and sit on the
neck and spine (sic) poking and prodding or walk by the side jabbing away with
their ankus. Sometimes three people get on an elephant’s back for a ride. ‘Even
a horse only carries one.’ It is difficult for an elephant to like the crowds
on the pavements because they are the
same ones who cultivate chenas in the jungles, chasing elephants away from their homeland.
The tradition of
including elephants in processions needs to be rethought, continued the NGOs. Elephants must be wild and free (sic) not sent
on parades to please watching crowds. Sri Lankans living in other countries
have begun to celebrate such traditions using artificially constructed,
beautifully decorated elephants on wheels. That is much better than real
elephants. The NGO ended their song with a plea. When you go to the Perahera,
please, If you observe any cruel
treatment of the elephants before, during, or after the Kandy Esala
Perahera, take photos and report such
instances to the Department of Wildlife
Conservation and also tell us,
Concerned Citizens of Sri Lanka”
and the Sentinels Against Wildlife Crime” (Island 8.8.16)
Instead of
sending photos of cruelly treated
elephants in the Esala perahera, as the NGOs hoped, readers offered to send
photos of the slaughter of the pigs, cows and chickens. Why are these animal rights
people not concerned about the daily
slaughter of lambs, cattle, pigs, goats, chickens for food, they asked. This
was said by every person who responded to this essay . They
particularly noted that pig rearing for pork in Sri Lanka was not mentioned by
these two NGOs. They also drew attention to horse racing,
greyhound racing, bull fighting, bear baiting, cockfighting, fox hunting, deer hunting, and camel rides.
They pointed out that in horse racing,
horses are made to run with a human rider three
quarter its weight. The horses are whipped to make them run faster and put down when they are of no further use.
Rohana Wasala, Cecil Dharmasena and Palitha
Kohona responded to this NGO
statement. The elephants used in
the perahera are not wild animals, they pointed out. They are tame elephants. Not every domesticated elephant can be used in
a perahera either. They are trained for the task. The elephants are familiar with the
perahera drill and they only need a few verbal commands. The mahout is rarely called on to use the
ankus. The elephants are
conditioned to flashing lights,
deafening sounds, crowds and copra torches.
An elephant can march with two, three or more on his back very easily.
Elephants walk over 20 to 30 km per day in the wild. In a
perahera elephants only walk about 2 kilometers.
Elephants
used in the perahera are looked after very well by their owners and keepers,
they said. Perahera elephants are fed with fruits and sweets, offered by
spectators, even while they are
marching. They are washed daily. The inconveniences caused to these animals
before, during, and after perahera are minimized as far as possible. They are
rewarded with special treats at the end the event. The temple elephant enjoyed an elevated status in Sri Lanka. Without the elephants the perahera will not
be the same, and a decorated
elephant looking truck carrying the relic is absurd, they said.
The difference
between the ‘wild’ elephant and the tame
one, were outlined by these
writers, so that these elephant loving
NGOS could get it right in their next
essay. They pointed out that ‘wild’ elephants are ‘wana ali’ not ‘wal ali’. One
‘wild’ elephant , after being rescued from a water hole, turned toward the
people who saved her, curled her trunk in salute, before leaving. Wild elephants find it difficult to find
food in the jungle. The dry and hard jungle surfaces are worse than the tarred
roads. ‘Idealists who think jungle life is romantic should try it for
themselves’, said Kohona. The three hour
slow walk in the cool climate of Kandy
at night is a cakewalk in comparison.
And there are delicious eats at the end of it.
Domestic elephants are
prized possessions of their owners and are cared for meticulously, continued
Kohona. Today domesticated elephants are kept more for prestige than for any
useful work. The domestic elephants rarely do
heavy work. Once tamed an elephant is as affectionate as a large dog. Those who are familiar with elephants know
how affectionate they can be. They are
well looked after. An elephant in captivity gets more opportunity to walk than
a dog in a backyard. They do not remain
tied to trees all the time. They walk
reasonable distance each day for the bath, and to collect half a ton of edible
leaves for its food. They enjoy the bath and being scrubbed by the mahout..
We who grew up among these animals know that animal abuse is kept
to a minimum, said Rohana Wasala. The
elephant goad(ankus) is used by the mahout to apply
strong, clear pressure to particular
control points to make the elephant respond
to commands, stop, turn left, turn right, kneel, stand still, and so on. An ankus jab causes little or no actual pain. Elephants are
huge pachyderms. In some places their skin is about 4 centimeters thick. They
hardly feel a mild ankus jab from a tiny human. Causing pain can be lethal for the mahout. Elephant minders know
this and rarely treat their charges unkindly.
Maintaining full control over elephants is a key part of the
mahout’s job. Full control ensures the safety of the mahout, the safety of
other humans nearby, and even the safety of the elephant itself.
The campaign against perahera elephants was
not confined to mere utterances. There was action too. There were
several incidents of elephants running amok at peraheras in 2016. My recall of the last sixty years or so, is that elephants rarely ran amok at
perahera. Therefore this was most unusual. Rajakarunanayake said that the elephant at
Saman Devale perahera ran amok
because the drunken mahout had hit the
elephant with the goad. What we saw the elephant happily doing on TV to another
elephant does not support this. Perhaps something had been given to the
elephant instead.
Another
anti-perahera NGO said
in August 2016 that the Diyawadana
Nilame, had forcibly removed two elephant calves from the Pinnawela elephant orphanage. They were
still on their mother’s milk, and were removed despite protest from the officials and
veterinarians at Pinnawela. This
was a very wrong move, said the NGO, the babies were
too young to be separated from the mother. Mother was also grieving and put
through an enormous amount of stress.
‘As reasonable
Sri Lankans’ we did what we could, said the NGO. We e-mailed the authorities,
and we called people all over the island in hopes of putting an end to this
cruelty and release the two calves. There is even a Supreme Court case filed by
an organization in Sri Lanka called ‘Friends of Animals. ‘If you are visiting
Sri Lanka,’ the NGO advised, ‘there is a
lot more to do than the Kandy Perahera. It would grossly irresponsible of us to
patronize that event’.
Sagarika
Rajakarunanayake, President of ‘Sathva mithra’ wants mahouts to be tested for
liquor. Most mahouts are drunk during perahera seasons, she said. Festival
organizers gave them liquor since intoxicated mahouts ‘gave the best
performances.’ This is unlikely.
Peraheras, such as those in Kandy and Ratnapura are ritual events. It is
unlikely that liquor will be consumed at the start. One Diyawadana Nilame in
the 1950s had got drunk even before the perahera started, but this is
probably an exception.
Another question asked was whether
a perahera was a requirement of
Buddhism. Abeyratne said that he learnt
that Buddhist monks are requesting to allow domestication of more elephants in
order to make Buddhist processions more attractive. Did the Buddha ask for
this, he inquired. It is only a custom which started in the 14th century. Also
do the monks know how to manage elephants. Don’t confuse
Buddhism with the Perahera said a blogger. The Buddha never asked for
perahera. He never spoke of a Kandy
Perahera, or [said to treat elephants cruelly] in his name.
The obvious reply to these rather rhetorical
questions is that Buddhists know the difference
between the Dhamma and cultural practices like perahera. They do not confuse
the two. Further, elephants are looked
after by the mahouts, not monks. Mahouts learnt their trade very young, as
apprentices. Mahouts develop
very strong bonds with their elephants, said Kohona and elephants remain very attached to their
mahouts. An elephant from Ratnapura who
saw his old mahout at the Esala perahera, remained without moving until the
mahout came and told him to move on.
The
training and care of elephants is
a specialized art. Even today, there is a lot of traditional lore regarding veterinary treatment of elephants among
descendant of families who have been looking after and working with elephants
for many generations observed Rohana Wasala.
Elephant training
and elephant management were respected
professions in traditional times. Manuscripts such as Gajashastra and
Nilashastra contain information on training elephants.
In 2018 too,
foreign journalists, continue to be concerned about the sufferings of the
perahera elephant. Kelsey Ables,
recently graduated from Colombia University, USA, is in Sri Lanka as a
reporter. There is work to be done in Sri Lanka, she
tweeted.”
That work
included observing the perahera elephant. Kelsey went to
Kandy in 2018 , to report on the Esala perahera. ’Spending the weekend in Kandy
reporting on the elephants of the Perahera festival,’ she tweeted. ‘Can’t exactly get a quote from the
elephants, so I’m keeping an eye out for elephant distress signals and chatting
with the mahouts’.
Kelsey
commented on the awful conditions perahera elephants face at the Esala Perahera
in Kandy. To start with they were chained. She heard the loud, rhythmic sound
of chains clashing together as the elephants joined the procession. The
perahera is a nightmare for elephants, she said. They are tied up for 10 days
with limited exercise and ridden by humans in a way that can cause irreparable
damage to the spine. Also, the elephants ‘stopped sleeping’ for the full
duration of the perahera. They usually sleep in water.
Many elephant
experts agree that for cultural reasons, it would be impossible to remove the
elephants from festivals, she conceded. Instead, they argue, we should focus on
improving conditions of elephants which participate in pageants. There should
be daily health monitoring of the perahera elephant. Also the costume must be
altered, so that the ears are free and ‘thereby enable the elephants to better
regulate their temperature.’
Elephants recognize their owners and trainers, admitted Kelsey. At
the Esala Perahera, one elephant seeing his owner, had stepped out of
line. The owner, standing by the side
of the temple, reached out and touched his trunk in a fond greeting.
But elephants
live in constant fear of mahouts,who scare them into obedience. There are
videos of mahouts hitting elephants, footage of elephants storming the streets,
images of elephants with wounds from being poked with the ankus. All this gives
mahouts a reputation of being irresponsible and uneducated, said Kelsey. Such reports
have led NGOs and animal rights groups to call for the removal of elephants
from festivals. The cruelty, captivity, deprivation, restraint and
regimentation suffered by these young animals cannot be justified in a Buddhist
context.”
Wildlife and
Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka
issued a statement condemning the mahouts’ treatment of elephants, said
Kelsey. The mahouts have moved away from traditional practices. The
centuries-old knowledge of caring for elephants has been largely lost. Mahouts now base their methods of control on
fear and cruelty towards their wards. Train the mahouts so that they are kinder
to the elephants, you don’t have to frighten the animal to make it listen to
you. If you are kind, it will respond to you kindly,” said an elephant expert
to Kelsey.
In 2018 too,
there were several incidents of perahera elephants running amok during the
perahera. In July 2018 elephants had run amok at the Kahawatte Perahera,
Ratnapura, with32 injured one seriously. Ven Magalkande Sudantha said these
elephants are not perahera trained elephants in temples or privately owned
elephants. They are from Pinnawela and the government says they are Perahera
trained. They are sent with untrained mahouts.
In September
2018, television news showed the tusker carrying the relic at Galewela Budugehinna
raja maha vihara, running amok at the annual perahera. Television news
camera showed, at some length, the
elephant running down several streets. This was
also shown on social media.
The anti-Buddhist
nature of this bogus concern for the perahera elephant is very clear. But the sangha are
determined to continue with the peraheras. Temples which never held major
peraheras are doing so now. The Esala perahera of the Walukarama temple on Duplication
Road, Colombo is relatively new and still fairly small. it probably started in
2018.For the first time I saw a member of the Maha sangha go in the procession.
There were three, four or five elephants, ( the perahera had started before I
got there). They proceeded along Galle Road, Colombo and Duplication Road. It is possible therefore, that one day we
will see a doctored perahera elephant,
running amok in fashionable downtown Colombo. The story of
the perahera elephant is not over. ( CONTNUED)
