{"id":118838,"date":"2021-10-03T17:18:57","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T00:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118838"},"modified":"2021-10-03T17:18:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T00:18:57","slug":"the-elephant-in-sri-lanka-part-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/10\/03\/the-elephant-in-sri-lanka-part-7\/","title":{"rendered":"THE ELEPHANT IN SRI LANKA Part 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The elephants in the Esala Perahera got star\nbilling in an entertaining piece published by two animal rights NGOs in August\n2016.  The essay is full of howlers and\nis probably the silliest piece ever written on the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you planning to go and see the Kandy Esala\nperahera, the NGOs wrote, if so, think of the poor elephants in it. They\nusually reside in the jungles and only come to Kandy once a year, to take part\nin the Esala perahera. They have to walk miles to get to Kandy on searing tar\nroads in the blazing heat, with crazed motorists coming at them all the time.\nComing straight from the jungle, it was very unpleasant to be dressed up in\nrobes and battery powered lights, for the perahera, especially with the ears\ncovered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Taking\npart in the perahera year after year is an absolute night mare. The noise is\nawful with drums, whips, trumpets, loud speakers and ice cream vendors.  The mahouts either climb on and sit on the\nneck and spine (sic) poking and prodding or walk by the side jabbing away with\ntheir ankus. Sometimes three people get on an elephant\u2019s back for a ride. \u2018Even\na horse only carries one.\u2019 It is difficult for an elephant to like the crowds\non the pavements because  they are the\nsame ones who cultivate chenas in the jungles, chasing  elephants away from their homeland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tradition of\nincluding elephants in processions needs to be rethought, continued  the NGOs. Elephants must be wild and free (sic) not sent\non parades to please watching crowds. Sri Lankans living in other countries\nhave begun to celebrate such traditions using artificially constructed,\nbeautifully decorated elephants on wheels. That is much better than real\nelephants. The NGO ended their song with a plea. When you go to the Perahera,\nplease,  If you observe any cruel\ntreatment of the elephants before, during, or after the Kandy Esala\nPerahera,  take photos and report such\ninstances to  the Department of Wildlife\nConservation and also tell us, \nConcerned Citizens of Sri Lanka\u201d \nand the Sentinels Against Wildlife Crime\u201d (Island 8.8.16)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of\nsending  photos of cruelly treated\nelephants in the Esala perahera, as the NGOs hoped, readers offered to send\nphotos of the slaughter of the pigs, cows and chickens. Why  are these animal rights\npeople  not concerned about the daily\nslaughter of lambs, cattle, pigs, goats, chickens for food, they asked. This\nwas said by every person who responded to this essay . They\nparticularly noted that pig rearing for pork in Sri Lanka was not mentioned by\nthese two NGOs. They    also drew attention to horse racing,\ngreyhound racing, bull fighting, bear baiting, cockfighting,   fox hunting, deer hunting, and camel rides.\nThey pointed out that in horse racing, \nhorses are made to run with a human rider three\nquarter its weight. The horses are whipped to make them run faster and  put down when they are  of no further use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rohana Wasala, Cecil Dharmasena and Palitha\nKohona  responded to this NGO\nstatement.  The elephants used in\nthe perahera are not wild animals, they pointed out. They are tame elephants. Not every domesticated elephant can be used in\na perahera either. They are trained for the task. The elephants are familiar with the\nperahera drill and they only need a few verbal commands. The mahout is rarely called on to use the\nankus. The elephants are\nconditioned to flashing lights,\ndeafening sounds, crowds and copra torches. \nAn elephant can march with two, three or more on his back very easily.\nElephants walk over 20 to 30 km per day in the wild.  In a \nperahera elephants only walk about 2 kilometers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephants\nused in the perahera are looked after very well by their owners and keepers,\nthey said. Perahera elephants are fed with fruits and sweets, offered by\nspectators,  even while they are\nmarching. They are washed daily. The inconveniences caused to these animals\nbefore, during, and after perahera are minimized as far as possible. They are\nrewarded 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\nbe the same,   and  a decorated \nelephant looking truck carrying the relic is absurd, they   said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The difference\nbetween the \u2018wild\u2019 elephant and the  tame\none,  were outlined by these\nwriters,   so that these elephant loving\nNGOS could get it  right in their next\nessay. They pointed out that \u2018wild\u2019 elephants are \u2018wana ali\u2019 not \u2018wal ali\u2019. One\n\u2018wild\u2019 elephant , after being rescued from a water hole, turned toward the\npeople who saved her, curled her trunk in salute, before leaving. Wild elephants find it difficult to find\nfood in the jungle. The dry and hard jungle surfaces are worse than the tarred\nroads. \u2018Idealists who think jungle life is romantic should try it for\nthemselves\u2019,  said Kohona. The three hour\nslow walk in the cool climate of  Kandy\nat  night is a cakewalk in comparison.\nAnd there are delicious eats at the end of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domestic  elephants are\nprized possessions of their owners and are cared for meticulously, continued\nKohona. Today domesticated elephants are kept more for prestige than for any\nuseful work. The domestic elephants rarely do\nheavy work. Once tamed an elephant is as affectionate as a large dog.   Those who are familiar with elephants know\nhow affectionate they can be.  They are\nwell looked after. An elephant in captivity gets more opportunity to walk than\na dog in a backyard.  They do not remain\ntied to trees all the time. They walk\nreasonable distance each day for the bath, and to collect half a ton of edible\nleaves for its food. They enjoy the bath and being scrubbed by the mahout.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We who grew up among these animals know that animal abuse is kept\nto a minimum, said Rohana Wasala.  The\nelephant goad(ankus)   is used by the mahout to apply\nstrong, clear pressure to  particular\ncontrol points to make the elephant respond \nto commands, stop, turn left, turn right, kneel, stand still,  and so on. An ankus jab causes little or no actual pain. Elephants are\nhuge pachyderms. In some places their skin is about 4 centimeters thick. They\nhardly feel a mild ankus jab from a tiny human. Causing pain can be lethal for the mahout. Elephant minders know\nthis and rarely treat their charges unkindly. \nMaintaining full control over elephants is a key part of the\nmahout\u2019s job. Full control ensures the safety of the mahout, the safety of\nother humans nearby, and even the safety of the elephant itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campaign against perahera elephants was\nnot confined to mere utterances. There was action too. There were\nseveral 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\nperahera. Therefore this was most unusual. Rajakarunanayake said  that the elephant  at   \nSaman Devale perahera  ran amok\nbecause the drunken  mahout had hit the\nelephant with the goad. What we saw the elephant happily doing on TV to another\nelephant does not support this. Perhaps something had been given to the\nelephant instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\nanti-perahera   NGO  said \nin August 2016 that the Diyawadana \nNilame, had  forcibly removed two  elephant calves from the Pinnawela elephant orphanage. They were\nstill on their mother’s milk, and were removed  despite protest from the officials and\nveterinarians at  Pinnawela. This\nwas a very wrong move,  said the NGO, the babies were\ntoo young to be separated from the mother. Mother was also grieving and put\nthrough an enormous amount of stress.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018As reasonable\nSri Lankans\u2019 we did what we could, said the NGO. We e-mailed the authorities,\nand we called people all over the island in hopes of putting an end to this\ncruelty and release the two calves. There is even a Supreme Court case filed by\nan organization in Sri Lanka called ‘Friends of Animals. \u2018If you are visiting\nSri Lanka,\u2019  the NGO advised, \u2018there is a\nlot more to do than the Kandy Perahera. It would grossly irresponsible of us to\npatronize that event\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sagarika\nRajakarunanayake, President of \u2018Sathva mithra\u2019 wants mahouts to be tested for\nliquor. Most mahouts are drunk during perahera seasons, she said. Festival\norganizers gave them liquor since intoxicated mahouts \u2018gave the best\nperformances.\u2019 This is unlikely.\nPeraheras, such as those in Kandy and Ratnapura are ritual events. It is\nunlikely that liquor will be consumed at the start. One Diyawadana Nilame in\nthe 1950s   had  got drunk even  before the perahera started, but this is\nprobably an exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another  question asked was  whether \na  perahera was a requirement of\nBuddhism. Abeyratne  said that he learnt\nthat Buddhist monks are requesting to allow domestication of more elephants in\norder to make Buddhist processions more attractive. Did the Buddha ask for\nthis, he inquired. It is only a custom which started in the 14th century.  Also   \ndo the monks know how to manage elephants. Don’t confuse\nBuddhism with the Perahera said a blogger. The Buddha never asked for\nperahera.  He never spoke of a Kandy\nPerahera, or [said to treat elephants cruelly] in his name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The obvious reply to these rather rhetorical\nquestions is that Buddhists   know the difference\nbetween the Dhamma and cultural practices like perahera. They do not confuse\nthe two. Further, elephants are  looked\nafter by the mahouts, not monks. Mahouts learnt their trade very young, as\napprentices. Mahouts develop\nvery strong bonds with their elephants, said Kohona and  elephants remain very attached to their\nmahouts. An  elephant from Ratnapura who\nsaw his old mahout at the Esala perahera, remained without moving until the\nmahout came and told him to move on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \ntraining and care of  elephants is\na specialized art. Even today, there is a lot of traditional lore regarding   veterinary treatment of elephants among\ndescendant of families who have been looking after and working with elephants\nfor many generations observed Rohana Wasala. \nElephant training\nand elephant management were   respected\nprofessions in traditional times. Manuscripts such as Gajashastra and\nNilashastra contain information on training elephants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018 too,\nforeign journalists, continue to be concerned about the sufferings of the\nperahera elephant.  Kelsey Ables,\nrecently graduated from Colombia University, USA, is in Sri Lanka as a\nreporter. There is work to be done in Sri Lanka, she\ntweeted.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That work\nincluded observing the perahera elephant. Kelsey went to\nKandy in 2018 , to report on the Esala perahera. \u2019Spending the weekend in Kandy\nreporting on the elephants of the Perahera festival,\u2019 she tweeted.  \u2018Can\u2019t exactly get a quote from the\nelephants, so I\u2019m keeping an eye out for elephant distress signals and chatting\nwith the mahouts\u2019.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelsey\ncommented on the awful conditions perahera elephants face at the Esala Perahera\nin Kandy. To start with they were chained. She heard the loud, rhythmic sound\nof chains clashing together as the elephants joined the procession. The\nperahera is a nightmare for elephants, she said. They are tied up for 10 days\nwith limited exercise and ridden by humans in a way that can cause irreparable\ndamage to the spine. Also, the elephants \u2018stopped sleeping\u2019 for the full\nduration of the perahera. They usually sleep in water.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many elephant\nexperts agree that for cultural reasons, it would be impossible to remove the\nelephants from festivals, she conceded. Instead, they argue, we should focus on\nimproving conditions of elephants which participate in pageants. There should\nbe daily health monitoring of the perahera elephant. Also the costume must be\naltered, so that the ears are free and \u2018thereby enable the elephants to better\nregulate their temperature.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephants recognize their owners and trainers, admitted Kelsey. At\nthe Esala Perahera, one elephant seeing his owner, had stepped out of\nline.    The owner, standing by the side\nof the temple, reached out and touched his trunk in a fond greeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But elephants\nlive in constant fear of mahouts,who scare them into obedience. There are\nvideos of mahouts hitting elephants, footage of elephants storming the streets,\nimages of elephants with wounds from being poked with the ankus. All this gives\nmahouts a reputation of being irresponsible and uneducated, said Kelsey. Such reports\nhave led NGOs and animal rights groups to call for the removal of elephants\nfrom festivals. The cruelty, captivity, deprivation, restraint and\nregimentation suffered by these young animals cannot be justified in a Buddhist\ncontext.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wildlife and\nNature Protection Society of Sri Lanka \nissued a statement condemning the mahouts\u2019 treatment of elephants, said\nKelsey. The mahouts have moved away from traditional practices. The\ncenturies-old knowledge of caring for elephants has been largely lost.  Mahouts now base their methods of control on\nfear and cruelty towards their wards. Train the mahouts so that they are kinder\nto the elephants, you don\u2019t have to frighten the animal to make it listen to\nyou. If you are kind, it will respond to you kindly,\u201d said an elephant expert\nto Kelsey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018 too,\nthere were  several incidents of  perahera elephants running amok during the\nperahera. In July 2018 elephants had run amok at the Kahawatte Perahera,\nRatnapura, with32 injured one seriously. Ven Magalkande Sudantha said these\nelephants are not perahera trained elephants in temples or privately owned\nelephants. They are from Pinnawela and the government says they are Perahera\ntrained. They are sent with untrained mahouts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September\n2018, television news showed the tusker carrying the relic at Galewela Budugehinna\nraja maha vihara, running amok at the annual perahera. Television news\ncamera  showed, at some length, the\nelephant running down several streets. This was \nalso shown on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anti-Buddhist\nnature of this bogus concern for the perahera elephant is very clear. But the sangha are\ndetermined to continue with the peraheras. Temples which never held major\nperaheras are doing so now. The Esala perahera of the Walukarama temple on Duplication\nRoad, Colombo is relatively new and still fairly small. it probably started in\n2018.For the first time I saw a member of the Maha sangha go in the procession.\nThere were three, four or five elephants, ( the perahera had started before I\ngot there). They proceeded along Galle Road, Colombo and Duplication Road.  It is possible therefore, that one day we\nwill see a doctored perahera elephant, \nrunning amok  in  fashionable downtown Colombo. The story of\nthe perahera elephant is not over. ( CONTNUED)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}