Asala
Next full moon day is Asala. This is the anniversary
of the Buddhas preaching his first sermon, the turning of the wheel of the law.
Monks preach sermons recalling this event, which began the Buddha’s ministry
Asala is also the beginning of the rains retreat (In Sinhala Vas)
Processing of the month of Asala (July/August)
In the latter half of the month of Asala occurs the
“Asala Perahara” (Processing of the month of Asala), the most spectacular
ceremony in the Sri Lanka calendar. It is hard to know whether to call it religious:
Though it is certainly performed by Buddhists, It is rather religion national.
Monks take no part in it. Though they are allowed to watch. It consists of
conducting the Buddha’s tooth relic through the streets of Kandy. Kandy was the
capital of the Sinhalese kingdom of the sixteenth to the early nineteenth
century CE, and to be regarded as legitimate a Sinhalese king had to control
the tooth relic. The purpose of the processing was thus mainly to display the
king’s power legitimacy (Under a show of piety).
It is really an amalgamation of five processions, one
for each of the four guardian deities of Ceylon, Which proceed- and thus
conduct the tooth relic itself. Caparisoned elephants, in numerable dancers,
Drummers & Waving firebrands make this a world – famous tourist attraction,
& local people too flock to see it.
