The magnificent sacred Indian tusker, Nadungamuwa Raja, who was most revered in Sri Lanka passed away on Monday at the age of 69. A large number of mourners, including priests, school going children and elderly people, lined up to pray and pay their last respects to him.

The tusker decked in lights, carried the casket containing the ‘Sacred Tooth Relic’ at the ‘Perahera’ festival or the annual pageant in Kandy district which was a huge tourist draw. One of the most important among 100 elephants who walked in the annual pageant, surrounded by fire-eaters and drummers, Raja carried the casket nearly every year from 2006 to 2021.

The President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, declared Raja as a “national treasure” and instructed his staff to preserve him “for future generations to witness”. Following the Buddhist funeral rites, Raja was handed over to taxidermists for stuffing.

Born in 1954 in Mysuru, Raja belonged to Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar who gifted him to a Sri Lankan monk physician for treating an illness. According to a Daily News 2021 feature the monk could not maintain him, and sold him to a timber mill in Horana located in Colombo. Ayurveda physician, Dr. Harsha Dharmavijaya, whose family has been taking care of Raja from 1978, said his father, seeing the plight of the tusker in the mill, bought him.

The elephant’s mahout Wilson Koddithuwakku, talking to the media said Raja’s daily diet included coconut palm and an assorted fruit platter, though he loved a jaggery treat every now and then.

Following an incident in 2015, when a motorcyclist almost hit Raja when out on a temple ceremony, he was provided an armed escort of elite commandos.

Before Raja, one his predecessors, also called Raja, carried the golden casket of 34 relics from 1953 to 1986 — for exactly 34 years. He too is preserved and has his own museum within Kandy’s Temple of the Tooth compound – which is said to contains a purported tooth of the Buddha.

With the demise of Raja, now his successor will be chosen through a lengthy process. The essential attributes required specify that when the animal stands, its four legs, trunk, penis and tail must all touch the ground. Its back should be flat, the tusks should form the shape of a traditional winnow and its height should be 12 feet.

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