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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to