The start of the annual Esala Perahera festival and procession, Kandy, Sri Lanka, as seen from the Queen's Hotel balcony

---

Each July and August thousands of people arrive in Kandy to be part of the Esala Perahera festival which honours the city's Tooth Relic. It's a 10 day festival and every night a procession of elephants, dancers, and drummers process around the city. The procession gets larger every night; by the last night there are over 100 elephants and the procession lasts many hours.

---

Size: 5616px × 3744px
Location: Kandy, Sri Lanka
Photo credit: © Jim Grover / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: animals, asia, attraction, bright, buddhist, celebration, colourful, culture, dancers, dancing, dark, drummers, east, elephants, esala, festival, festivals, hinduism, illuminations, impressive, kandy, lanka, life, lightbulbs, lights, local, nighttime, noise, noisy, perahera, procession, relic, religion, sacred, south, spectacle, spectacular, sri, tooth, tourist, tradition, traditional, vibrant