A short way south of India lies Elephant Island: Sri Lanka has the most dense
elephant population in the world. When it comes to getting heavy work done in remote areas
of the country, no machine beats a well-trained working elephant. These friendly giants
are strong, intelligent, and very skillful. Consequently, several hundred of them are
still being used, most of them in the tropical rain forests. To see massive elephants work
together with, comparatively, tiny men is a marvellous sight.
So important are elephants to the Sri Lankians, that they founded the world´s only
Elephant Orphanage. It is based on the work of American scientists who have found that
Elephants are more vulnerable than it seems - especially their psyche. Without the company
of friends and relatives, they fall ill, and lose the ability to breed offspring.
For a long time, wild elephants that got separated from their herd were condemned to die -
until scientists founded the orphanage in Pinnawela and the wildlife orphanage further
south. There, ailing single elephants are grouped together in new herds, and miraculously
cure themselves: When watching the peaceful Pinnawela herd taking their daily bath in the
river, it is hard to imagine the troubled past of some of their members, such as Sanka:
abused by her master, she escaped and killed 13 people in the woods for panic fear of
renewed captivity, before she was caught again.
Yet the Sri Lankians do not only take care of their elephants in an extraordinary way -
they also worship them: Once a year, in the full moon week of August, the old royal town
of Kandy comes to glory again. At this time, the people of Sri Lanka celebrate their
biggest, oldest, and most colourful buddhist ceremony: The Kandy Perahera is a spectacular
temple procession that has been celebrated for almost two thousand years. In several
nights, the most magnificent elephants of the country emerge from the dark of the jungle
into the mysterious light of the torches. Splendidly decorated, they parade majestically
among a multitude of dancers, to the ceaselessly pulsating beat of the temple drums.
Length: 1 X 30 mins. or longer formats (3 X 30 mins. possible).
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