Kandy Esala Perahera

The Kandy Esala Perahera, known in Sinhala as the Mahanuwara Esala Perahera or Sri Dalada Perahera, is Sri Lanka's greatest annual pageant and one of South Asia's most celebrated religious processions. Each year in the lunar month of Esala (July–August), for about ten nights, the hill capital of Kandy honours the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha, enshrined in the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Sri Dalada Maligawa). Caparisoned elephants, torch-bearers, fire dancers, whip-crackers, drummers and Kandyan dancers move through the city in a procession that grows more splendid each night. The festival is devotional first and a spectacle second, which matters for how visitors approach it.

Origins and history

The perahera is a fusion of two older traditions. The Esala Perahera is thought to have begun as a ritual to invoke the gods for rain at the dry time of year, which is why the chief lay custodian of the Tooth Relic is called the Diyawadana Nilame (diya means water) and why the ceremony ends with a water-cutting rite. The Dalada Perahera, the procession of the Tooth Relic, is said to have begun after the relic was brought to Sri Lanka from India in the 4th century CE. The Chinese pilgrim Faxian, who visited Sri Lanka in the 5th century, left an early account of a Tooth Relic procession.

The present form of the Kandy perahera dates from the Kandyan kingdom and the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (reigned 1747–1782). The Siamese monk Upali Thera, who was invited to Kandy around 1753 to perform the higher ordination of monks, considered it inconsistent that processions of the gods should dominate a Buddhist festival. The king combined the processions, placing the Tooth Relic procession first and the four devale processions behind it, the order still followed today.

The shape of the festival

The festival opens with the Kap Situveema, the planting of a sacred pole cut from a jak tree in the grounds of each of the four devales (shrines to the gods Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama and the goddess Pattini) beside the Maligawa. For five nights each devale holds its own perahera within its grounds. The public processions then begin:

• Kumbal Perahera (five nights). The first five nights, smaller in scale, with fewer elephants and thinner crowds.
• Randoli Perahera (five nights). The next five nights, named for the palanquins of the devale queens that join this phase; the procession is larger each night and reaches its greatest scale on the final Randoli night.
• Diya Kepeema and the Day Perahera. In the small hours after the final night, the water-cutting ceremony is performed on the Mahaweli river at Getambe. A day procession follows later that day.

The order of the procession

Each night the Maligawa Perahera honouring the Tooth Relic leads. Whip-crackers (kasakaru) and fireball dancers clear the way, followed by flag bearers and the Peramune Rala, the front official mounted on an elephant, then drummers and dancers in the Kandyan styles. A Maligawa tusker carries a replica of the relic casket under a canopy, with the Diyawadana Nilame walking behind. The four devale peraheras follow, each under its own chief lay custodian (Basnayake Nilame), with their own elephants, dancers and drummers.

Dates

The Maligawa announces the exact dates and the auspicious start times (nekath) a few months ahead. In 2026 the procession runs from 18 to 28 August, ending with the water-cutting on the day after the Nikini full-moon poya. In 2027 the final Randoli night is expected on the Nikini poya, 16 August, with the water-cutting on 17 August.

Where and how to watch

The route is a circuit of roughly three kilometres through central Kandy, along streets that include Temple Street, Dalada Veediya, Colombo Street, D. S. Senanayake Veediya, Yatinuwara Veediya and Kotugodella Veediya, ending back at the temple; the exact circuit is set by the Maligawa each year and varies by night. Ticketed viewing places along the route are sold, while free standing room along the pavements fills hours before the start. The later Randoli nights are the grandest and the most crowded.

Dress modestly in light, respectful clothing, take off your shoes and hat when entering shrines, and do not stand in front of the elephants or step into the route as the procession passes.