THE MOST GLAMOROUS AND COLOURFUL PAGEANT THE " ESELA PERAHERA."... . . . . . . . .

Esala Perahera
(the procession of Esala) is the grand festival with elegant costumes held in July or August inKandy, Sri Lanka. It has become a unique symbol of Sri Lanka. It is a Buddhist festival consisting of dances and colourfully decorated elephants. There are fire-dances, whip-dances, Kandyan dances and various other cultural dances. The elephants are usually adorned with lavish garments. The festival ends with the traditional diya-kepeema ritual, a water cutting ceremony which is held at the Mahaweli River at Getambe, Kandy.

I got the opportunity see the 1st "Kumbal" perahera on the 31st July 2014 with my family and relations. First we managed to see the Majestic tusker "NEDUNGAMUWA ETHA" who was one of the two tuskers chosen to carry the casket carrying the most sacred tooth relics of the Lord Buddha in this year's perahera worshiping   with Lotus flowers in his trunk and then kneeling down  in front of the  Maligawa before climbing the steps and going inside to  get ready .

Dressing the tusker takes hours and hard work but he is  as patient as one can be... 

VISIT TO YALA IN JULY 2014

In the 4th week of July 2014 I got the chance to go to Yala again with my family and two other families closely related. Although we did not see any Leopards and the park was bone dry (Never seen this dry during this time of the year before ) , we managed to see more than a couple of Bears and captured some nice pictures.

FINALLY CONFRONTING THE MOST ILLUSIVE SRI LANKA SLOTH BEAR IN YALA. . . . . . . .

I was in Yala in the 4th week of May 2014  with a friend of mine camping at " Negeniyantota" camp site and after 21 years of visiting almost all the national parks in Sri Lanka on a regular basis , finally  was able to photograph the most illusive Sri Lanka Sloth Bear and I was thrilled to bits.

 This sighting was made at 5.45 in the morning. Luckily the sun rises early in the morning these days and thus I was able to photograph this early.

EVERYONE LOVES BATHING . . . . .. .

 ALL THESE BIRDS PHOTOGRAPHED ON A SUNDAY IN MAY 2014 HAD ONE THING IN COMMON I GUESS , THEY ALL LOVED BATHING . THE PHOTOS TELL THE STORY .