Located 4 miles from Kandy, the Peradeniya Botanical Garden dates to the reign of king Vikrama Bahu III in 14th century. This Botanical Garden cover 62 hectares at an elevation of 550 m. Huge tropical trees can be found here, and the orchid house is quite spectacular with more than 300 varieties of orchids. The Mahaweli River flows along the boundaries of the Garden, and, it may be best known from a scene in the film Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom, part of which was filmed the river. The photo shows the Royal Palm Avenue (the trees are Roystonania regia), at one of the park's entrances.

The Weeping Fig, Ficus benjamina ranges widely in Asia and northern Australia. It has been introduced into Hawaii and Florida, as well as other tropical and subtropical locations. While it is a potentially dangerous invasive species, it can be controlled because it has a specific pollinator, an agaonid wasp, that is needed to distribute its pollen. It is also known as the Java Fig Tree or Java Willow. Photographed at Kandy Botanical Garden.

The coco de mer, Lodoicea maldivica, (Gmelin) is a palm endemic to the Seychelles Islands, but is near extinction there due to overexploitation and fire. The species survives in the botanical gardens of the world. The palm grows to 34 m tall. Male and female trees are separate. The female trees produce the largest seeds in the Plant Kingdom, they may weigh up to 30 kg. Maturity of the seeds requires 6-7 years. Once the seeds are ready to germinate it may take an addition year or two for the seed to sprout. Photographed at the Botanical Garden at Kandy.

A sand mining operation in the Kandy Botanical Garden on the Mahaweli River. Mining sand disrupts the local ecosystem and can alter the river's course, at low elevations it may increase salt water intrusion from the sea.

Giritale Dry Forest, is a dry zone, dry evergreen forest. It supports one of Asia's largest elephant populations. The trees in Sri Lanka's Dry Evergreen Forests retain their leaves during the dry season, making food available for many herbivores throughout the year. The area receives 1.5-2.0 m of annual rainfall in the December-March northeast monsoon but is mostly dry the rest of the year. Topographically, the ecoregion is flat, with some scattered hills.

Copulating Hemiptera in the dry forest at Giritale.

Termitaria at Giritale, Sri Lanka. Termites are important recyclers in many temperate and tropical ecosystems, and they are eaten by a variety of animals. In Sri Lanka's dry forests they are an important food source for the sloth bear, Melursus ursinus.

A snake charmer's cobras. These are a pair of Naja naja used by Sri Lankan snake charmers on the south coast of the island.

Writing about snake charmers and cobras in his 1921 book Snakes of Ceylon, Frank Wall stated, "It is very curious how all absorbing movement is to the cobra. Mr. Phipson says: 'You have only to attract its attention with one hand, while you seize it in the middle of the body with the other hand and the snake is yours. It strikes in every direction, especially at any moving object, but it never seems to occur to it to turn, and bite the hand that is holding it as almost all other snakes would do at once.' I fully agree with all Mr. Phipson says on this subject, and consider this strange trait argues a very great lack of intelligence." The behavior described here is one of the traits that makes the cobra the ultimate snake for the charmer.

Girl with a star tortoise, Geochelone elegans, in central Sri Lanka. While this tortoise has been the subject of some concern in terms of its collection for the pet trade, it seems to be commonly kept under semi-wild conditions in Sri Lanka. Several hotels I visited had captive colonies of star tortoises in their gardens. And, specimens were seen crossing the road in urbanized areas. It seems likely that habitat loss and collection for food are larger threats to its survival. In the US, this turtle is captive bred, and the hatchlings seem to satisfy the demand for the pet trade.

Trap guns are used to protect crops from large animals in many parts of the world. They are potentially dangerous to humans and animals, essentially acting like a pipe bomb with a trip wire. This one was found while looking for tortoises in Sri Lanka.

Temple of the Tooth, Kandy, Sri Lanka. The relic tooth was supposedly taken from Buddha as he lay on his funeral pyre. It was smuggled to Sri Lanka in 313 AD, from India. The tooth is brought out for special occasions and paraded on the backs of elephants, which are sacred to the Buddha (see below).

In Sri Lanka Elephants were used in all important ceremonies. The annual Perahera in Kandy has been going on for about 220 years, and brings more that a hundred elephants together for a late July-early August parade through the streets of Kandy. The parade is the culmination of a ten day festival, and it is held on the Esala full moon.

The photos here were taken during the 1996 Perahera. The parade is in honor of the Sacred Tooth Relic of Kandy. The tooth, is said to belong to Buddha, and is housed in an elaborate temple, the Temple of the Tooth, in Kandy. During the parade it is placed in a jewel encrusted case on the back of an elephant and is the focus of the festival.

Elephants have a special place in the cultures of Southeast Asia. This adoration can be traced to Ganesh, the Hindu Elephant god that is considered to be gentle, friendly, and a god that loves people. He is a god of merchants and trade. Even though Ganesh is a Hindu god, he is equally revered by Buddhists, although not as a god.

The following is modified from an on-line article by Jayantha Jayewardene, Elephants in Sri Lankan History and Culture.

Ptolemy in 175 AD reported that elephants were exported from Sri Lanka, and there is evidence that elephants were being exported from the island as early as 200 BC.

Writing about Sri Lanka Emerson Tennent (1859) said that the export of elephants from Sri Lanka (Ceylon) to India had been going on without interruption from the period of the First Punic War. India used them as war elephants; Myanmar (Burma) used them for tributes to ancient kings; and Egypt probably used them for both war and ceremonies.

The elephants from Sri Lanka were considered more easily adapt for war than those from the mainland. Their excellent behavioral qualities were well known to the Greeks as far back as the 3rd Century BC, in the time of Alexander the Great. Onescritus, who was an Admiral of the Fleet for Alexander the Great (and probably the first European to describe the trained elephants of Ceylon), stated that the elephants from Taprobane (later Ceylon and then Sri Lanka) “are bigger, more fierce and furious for war service than those of India,”. Greek writers like Megasthenes (circa 300 BC) and Aelian (44AD) corroborate this. The Sixth Century writer Cosmos Indicopleustes says that the elephant from Sri Lanka was highly priced in India for its excellence in war.

The King of Kandy maintained a special unit for all matters concerning elephants, including their capture, training, conservation and export. This unit was under the chief officer known as the Gajanayake Nilame. The Gajanayake Nilame, was of a high caste and received many favors, including land, from the king. The elephant catchers and keepers were from the lower castes.

During the times of the Sinhala kings, even though there were tens of thousands of elephants in all parts of the country, this animal was afforded complete protection by royal decree. Accordingly, no elephant could be captured, killed or maimed without the king’s authority. All offenders were punished by death. Unlike today the cultivators of that time could not plead that the elephants were harmed in the protection of their crops. Any depredation or damage to crops by wild elephants had to be prevented by stout fencing together with organized and effective watching by the farmers. It is interesting to note that though there were many more elephants then than now, Sri Lanka was considered to be the granary of the East.

When the Portuguese captured the maritime provinces of Sri Lanka they found a flourishing export trade in elephants. They quickly got involved in the elephant export trade, and obtained elephants as a tribute from the Sinhala people through their leaders. Thereafter they captured animals on their own. The Portuguese also set up a revenue-gathering unit, similar to the king’s organization, known as the Elephant Hunt. The Portuguese maintained an annual demand of 37 elephants for export from two kraals.

In 1507 the Viceroy of India sent a gift of a small elephant, imported from Ceylon, to King Manuel of Portugal. After seven years in Lisbon this elephant, named Annone, was presented to Pope Leo X and moved to Rome. Annone lived in Rome for three years but died, presumably from digestive problems. Today, there is a memorial in Rome to Annone, the first elephant in the Vatican.

The Asiatic Elephant, Elephas maximus, is widespread in South Asia and Southeastern Asia. They may reach a body length of 6.4 m and 1.5 m at the shoulder and a weight of 5000 kg. This species is more closely related to the Pleistocene Mammoths, than it is to the living African Elephants. Asian Elephants usually live in herds of 15-30 individuals and the group is lead by an old female. In Asia, wild elephants are frequently caught and trained to work for humans.

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage is home to about 60 elephants, many are baby or juvenile animals found abandoned or orphaned in the wild.

The elephants are escorted to a river near by for their daily bath.

The orphanage was started in 1975 by the Department of Wildlife, and was taken over in 1978 by the National Zoological Gardens, a captive breeding program was launched in 1982. And, an attempt was made to allow the elephants to roam freely during the day to establish a herd structure.