Elephants invade Colombo city

During the full moon (which is a holy day for Buddhists) each February, the big temple in the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka (the Gangaramaya Temple) hosts a big pageant (perehera), where gaily-decorated, tame elephants parade the streets. This is similar to the world-famous Kandy Perarhera, but somewhat smaller in magnitude.

So from a few days before the day of the pageant, Colombo is “invaded” by tame elephants. They are tethered at the Vihara Mahadevi Park (the equivalent to Central Park in New York City) and it is indeed quite a spectacular and unique sight to see so many elephants who have come from far and a wide for the pageant.