BY G. H. G. BURROUGHS

To think so many would come                        To-day the Perahera also commemo-
so far to the shrine of a sacred                         rates the birth of the God Vishnu, who
tooth! And then, not having seen                     first saw light on the day of the new moon
the tooth, go back quite satisfied!                    in Esala (July-August).
To Kandy, the ancient hill capital of                 Another version of the origin of
Ceylon, thousands of devout pilgrims of           processions concerns the activities of a
high and low degree journey annually in           certain King Gajabahu, who is credited
midsummer. The pilgrimage is inspired             with having liberated 12,000 of his own
not so much by the hope of catching sight        people from foreign rule in India; then
of the supposed two-and-a-half -inch right      returned with them to his own domain,
eyetooth of Buddha as by the wish to see         bringing in addition 12,000 captives and a
the dramatic spectacle of the Perahera. at         number of sacred objects of which his
once fantastic and splendid.                             kingdom had been despoiled 300 years pre-
The sacred relic is enshrined within the             viously. The celebration of this victory
richly jeweled vault of the Dalada Mali-            took the form of a great parade, which has
gawa, Temple of the Tooth.                             been observed annually up to the present
"Well, here we are! We have come all              time.
the way from Kashmir to see this show
and we won't be disappointed." Such was          TEN NIGHTS OF CELEBRATION`
the greeting from one of my two Ameri-           The processions take place nightly over
can friends on the balcony of the Queen's          a period of  10 days, beginning with the
Hotel at Kandy. It was a beautiful, clear           first evening of the waxing moon in Esala.
night and there was a strange undercur-            Each one has a special religious signifi-
rent of tense excitement about the place.           cance, but for the first five days the gen-
Elephants went swinging up the roads,              eral public takes no active part. From the
their bells tinkling, and the multicolored             sixth evening on, everybody in town par-
crowds in the town were visibly swelling           ticipates, even if only to carry a lamp or
from the endless stream of holiday-bent            urge the dancers to further effort.
villagers.                                                          The wild and eerie effect depends
"I am'sure you will find the Perahera a               largely upon the glowing torches and sil-
wonderful and thrilling sight," 1 told my             very light of a brilliant moon, for upon
friends, for as an alien long resident in               the "day" Perahera (only one procession
Ceylon I felt that I spoke with the voice of        takes place in daylight hours) the sunshine
authority. Indeed, through my acquaint-            gives a garish touch to the glistening cos-
ance with some of the Kandyan chiefs, I           tumes. Perhaps the actors themselves feel
had learned many of the legends associated      the lack of spotlights and footlights which
with the festival.                                               the stage of an eastern evening so amply
                                                                        provides.
ANNUAL CELEBRATION FOR SIXTEEN              My veranda overlooked the main street
                         CENTURIES                                   and provided an excellent point of vantage
There is a tradition that the Perahera                from which to see and to photograph the
processions have been held annually since         beginning of the day procession
the time when Buddha's Tooth was brought     On the morning of the daylight proces-
to Ceylon, hidden within the coils of the           sion my friends and I went first to the
hair of a Kalinga princess, some eight hun-       Temple of the Tooth, a small two-story
dred years after the death of the Hindu             structure, crumbling and ancient.
sage, about 483 B. C.                                      In a cool, dark room, upon a table
Despite the later wanderings and at times          of solid silver, is the golden, bell-shaped
violent history of the Tooth-it was carried         shrine, studded with jewels. Protected
off to Goa, on the Indian mainland, in1560       from all eyes except the sons of king and
by the Portuguese, who maintain that the          other high personages to whom occasion-
present relic is only a reproduction-the             ally it is unveiled, the Tooth rests on a
sacred festival has changed but little in              gold lotus-leaf mount. A wall of glass
barbaric splendor through the centuries.            reaching from the ceiling to the floor

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29 augustus 1998