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Sri Lanka is in mourning after the loss of life of the nation’s most sacred elephant, who’s to be given a state funeral and his stays to be preserved and stuffed “for future generations” on orders of the president.
Nadungamuwa Vijaya Raja, popularly referred to as Raja, was thought of to be the most important tamed elephant in Asia and as a younger calf he had been amongst these “chosen” because the elite elephants who carried sacred Buddhist relics throughout an annual parade in Sri Lanka.
After information of his loss of life aged 68, a whole bunch of mourners travelled to see his physique at his residence on the outskirts of Colombo, which was lined in a white shroud and adorned with flowers.
Born within the Indian metropolis of Mysore in 1953, in response to folklore, Raja was one among two elephant calves gifted by the king of Mysore to a Sri Lankan doctor monk to thank him for curing one among king’s family members of an sickness.
For over a decade, Raja’s sacred position had been to hold the casket containing the holy tooth relic of lord Buddha in the course of the annual procession of Esala, an essential spiritual pageant for the nation’s Buddhist majority which takes place in July in the course of the full moon within the metropolis of Kandy.
Based on custom, solely sure elephants with very particular bodily traits will be chosen for this holy position. They should be have a flat again, specifically curved tusks and after they stand all seven factors of the elephant– their 4 legs, trunk, penis and tail – should all contact the bottom.
Raja was thought of so essential that when he travelled he had his personal safety element, and a army unit was deployed when he made his annual 90km stroll from his residence to the town of Kandy, the place the Temple of the Sacred Tooth relic is positioned and the spiritual procession takes place.
President Gotabaya Rajapksa declared Raja to be a “nationwide treasure” and mentioned that after the Buddhist final rites had been carried out on the elephant, his cadaver can be handed over to taxidermists who would stuff it for posterity. He can be given full state honours for his funeral.
He wouldn’t be the primary sacred elephant to be given such remedy in loss of life. His predecessor, often known as Raja, was additionally stuffed and preserved after he died aged 75 and now sits inside his personal museum within the Temple of the Sacred Tooth relic in Sri Lanka.
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