Kandy Dalada Perahera

The Kandy annual Esala Perahera which started on 19th August will be peaked on 28th August with the final Randoli processions parading the streets. The Perahera tradition has been with Sri Lankan culture for eon.

It has been evolved with time since Anuradhapura era up to now. The Dalada Perahera got its current shape in the reign of Sri Wickrama Rajasingha, the last king of Sri Lankan. It is known fact that Sri Wickrama Rajasingha was a Hindu and he influenced the traditions of Dalada Tthevava and Perahera drastically. That is how the processions of four devala integrated into the Dalada Perahera.

Of course the traditions are conditioned by the prevailing politico-social context of the country and further evolve which is clearly reflected in of our Dalada history.

However, it is worth analyzing the current state of Kandy Dalada Perahera and see if the Perahera correctly reflect the aspirations of the common people of Sri Lanka. Time has passed since the last king of Sri Lanka ousted from the throne. Still have we ever been able to shred aside these ridiculously mismatching Hindu tails from the Dalada Perahera? Now it is called traditions and people are scared to change the traditions. But they have forgotten the very fact that these mismatching traditions were introduced by breaking existing Buddhist traditions!!

People still says that ‘Dalada Maligawa’ is a national asset and ‘Dalada Wahanse’ is the symbol of sovereignty and power of our mother land. If ‘Dalada Wahanse’ is considered as national symbol, the ‘Dalada Perahera’ must fully reflect our nation.

However, still only upcountry traditional dancing is allowed in the Dalada Perahera. It is time to seriously consider about this so called tradition. Does the ‘Dalada Wahanse’ an asset of up country people or are we matured enough to consider it as a great religious asset of all the Buddhists in the world and the greatest cultural and social asset of whole Sri Lankans?

Without any argument, traditional Kandian dancing is the most colorful and superior traditional dancing in Sri Lanka.

As a Sri Lankan, still it’s a great pain to see only up country dancing allowed in the ‘Dalada Perahera’ which is considered to be a national event. We can even see drummers and clergy from Japan marching in the procession, but not a single dancer of low country or Sabaragamuwa traditions. These Japanese traditions have been introduced to Dalada Perahera by breaking existing traditions. But so far this has never being the case for low country traditions.

Now it’s a time where the Maha Sangha is more and more uniting to promote Buddhism in the country. So it is the political and social leaders to act progressively to keep this great Sinhala tradition as a national event rather than a regional event to boost personal aspirations of few radala families.

The Kandy Perahera has become the symbol of backward minded traditional thinking of upcountry families. This hints why great monks and national leaders are no longer immerging from up country areas. The up country society has lost its national interests due to their traditional ‘up country’ arrogance. If one analyze the latest election results, it is clearly evident that, the people from Sinhala dominated up country areas have always either slow to response or completely blind to the national issues.