The celebration is said to beckon Buddha’s blessing on the region with rain.
One of the oldest Buddhist festivals in Sri Lanka, and perhaps one of the largest in the world, Esala Perahera is an annual event with a sacred tooth at its center, the tooth of Buddha to be exact. In a ten-day celebration, the relic is paraded through the streets of Kandy in an exuberant procession with dancers, musicians, acrobats, and highly decorated elephants and other animals. The celebration is said to beckon Buddha’s blessing on the region with rain.