Sri Lanka’s most sacred elephant on Monday passed away at the age of 68, prompting an outpouring of grief and a presidential order for the huge cadaver to be stuffed and preserved for posterity.
Nadungamuwa Raja was the most important among 100 elephants used in an annual pageant involving fire-eaters and drummers, tasked with carrying a golden casket of Buddhist relics on its back.
On Monday a procession of mourners — including schoolchildren and priests in saffron robes — paid their respects to Raja, praying and touching its mighty tusks in reverence.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa decreed that the animal be declared a “national treasure” and ordered its remains be preserved “for future generations to witness,” his office said.
Raja was due to be handed over to taxidermists later on Monday for stuffing after Buddhist funeral rites had been performed, its owner said through a spokesperson.
Decked out in lights, Raja carried the casket of relics at the annual Esala Perahera pageant, a major tourist draw in the central city of Kandy — performing the role most years from 2006 to last year.
The elephant even had an armed escort of elite commandos after a 2015 incident when a motorcyclist almost rammed it while on an outing to attend a temple ceremony.
One of Raja’s predecessors, also known as Raja, carried the golden casket of 34 relics for exactly 34 years between 1953 and 1986.
When the older Raja died in 1988 at the age of 72 there was an enormous outpouring of grief and the government declared a national day of mourning.
The older Raja was also preserved and has its own museum within Kandy’s Temple of the Tooth compound, which contains a purported tooth of the Buddha.
Choosing a successor would be a lengthy process. The chosen elephant has to be from a particular caste with special physical characteristics to qualify. When the elephant stands, seven points — the four legs, its trunk, penis and tail — must all touch the ground.
The animal must also have a flat back, the tusks must be formed in the shape of a traditional winnow and it must be about 3.6m tall.
An exception was made with Raja, who was only 3.2m tall, because it was the tallest in the country at the time. Raja was born in India and had been gifted to Sri Lanka by an Indian prince.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS