Live At The Perahera

Two nights ago my senses were overwhelmed in a way I’ve never experienced before. The Kandy Esala Perahera is not something that can be captured on video. I tried Youtube for a link, and rediscovered the truth that for somethings, you just had to be there.

And we were there along with many thousands. Walking to the Perahera was part of the experience, as on the way we saw big monitor lizards lurking and swimming very close by, while flying foxes hung and flew from the trees above us.

The bare essentials of the event itself involved a three hour long procession of dancing and drummers, music and elephants, fragrances, light, colour, fire, and acrobatics…all happening on a moonlit night by the banks of beautiful Lake Kandy.

That will give you a picture of course. But it feels VERY ineffectual.

Never the less, you may want to know about the origins of this thing that I can’t describe. Well, it has somehow evolved from rituals that began as long ago as the 3rd century BC. So quite old then. And those rituals and the modern day procession have got something to with a relic of the tooth of the Buddha.

Don’t ask an agnostic atheist for the full run down. But it was clear that this information, as with many religious beliefs, holds important meaning for the believers themselves.

Personally, I just want to pay homage to the exotic glory of Life, which gives birth to it all. There are undoubtedly some underlying and amazing truths out there, some that we know, some to be discovered. And we have always had a need to put our own meanings upon them.

But regardless of all of our weird and wonderful methods of interpreting life, and the various degrees of pleasure and pain we experience during our time here, what an opportunity it is to live, and how indulged that Life can occasionally make us feel.

Sri Lanka is having that effect on me.