Perahera
My Hometown Pageant

Essay Writing Competition 2024
Category: 12-15 years
- Commendation -

Senior category: Commendation

Perahera - My Hometown Pageant by Hiranga Bandara Suraweera

Perahera - My Hometown Pageant

I am writing this essay in the month of August because it is the most important time of the year for us residents of Kandy in Sri Lanka.

Kandy is known for one of the most colourful cultural festivals in the world called 'Perahera', a tradition that has been observed annually since the days of the kings, hundreds of years ago. It is a ten-day procession where the sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha, contained in one of the most revered places in the country called the 'Maligawa' or the 'Temple of the Tooth' is displayed atop an elephant along the streets of Kandy.

We know when the Perahera season is imminent because the streets are decorated with Buddhist flags, shopkeepers along the Perahera route start constructing wooden platforms for viewers to sit and watch the procession, pavements get a fresh coat of paint and most importantly, there is a sense of worship and devotion in the air in the heart of the city.

During the Perahera season, Kandy becomes a hot spot for tourists. When walking along the streets during this time, I can hear various languages been spoken especially, Mandarin, Hindi, German, French and Russian. There seems to be so many foreigners that I must constantly remind myself that I am in Sri Lanka, not in some place overseas!

Certain activities that these tourists decide to do amazes me. For instance, they seem to enjoy the street food off vendors whom we locals avoid, for fear of getting an upset stomach!

On top of tourists, the elephants also seem to outnumber the locals during the Perahera season. I was at the Uda Walawe National Park in the southern part of Sri Lanka a few days ago, observing wild elephants.

On my way home, near the outskirts of Kandy, I saw several elephants making their way to the Temple of the Tooth premises, where they will be prepared for the Perahera procession. The difference between these two cohorts of elephants was that, those who get involved in the Perahera are tamed, whereas the ones I saw in the National Park were wild.

If anyone wants to hear accounts of religious devotion, they should talk to the locals who are drawn to Kandy from all parts of the country during the Perahera season.

If you think that Sri Lanka is a small country and therefore, transport and travel from one place to another is no big deal, you could not be more wrong! Crowds from rural areas hundreds of kilometres away from Kandy, at great expense and difficulty, arrive early in the morning, sit along the roadside of the Perahera route, braving the sun and rain for hours until the procession commences late in the night.

I feel so mollycoddled when hearing the stories these locals share about the difficulties they had to face to come to Kandy. For some, their journey starts almost two days ahead of the day they intend to watch the Perahera, most of the time, taking a small raft to cross a river, walking for miles to reach a bus stop and then waiting for hours for the bus which takes them to the regional travel hub. When finally reaching there, the connecting long-distance bus takes at least five or six hours to reach Kandy, by which time they are hungry and parched after surviving on minimum rations.

They must quickly find a suitable spot along the streets of Kandy to lay their mat and sit down. Their arms and legs get numb after sitting cramped for hours. However, their spirits finally soar with hope and expectation when they hear the gunfire late in the night from the direction of the Temple of the Tooth, signaling that the Perahera has now departed from its premises.

All their aches and pains disappear when they catch a glimpse of the casket atop a majestic tusker, bearing the sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha, because this artifact symbolizes a noble human being who preached a philosophy and lifestyle to end all suffering.

In the Age category 12-15 years, Hiranga's fabulous essay is highly commended. Hiranga shared with us how he felt writing this essay:

"I was so in the mood when I wrote this essay! The Perahera festival in Kandy is something we are all proud of as Sri Lankans, because it is one of a kind. It is what makes our culture unique and enlarges our island nation to the size of a continent!"

We really can sense your excitement! Congratulations on your essay, Hiranga! We love reading your stories!

Hiranga Bandara attends Trinity College in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Home language is Sinhala, English is his second language.

Hiranga has participated in our competition before. Find his essays and his Sri Lanka insights here: