Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage Sri Lanka

"Few sights in Sri Lanka are as captivating as a herd of elephants making their slow, majestic way to water. As I travelled around the island, I spent time in Rambukkana, just a short journey from the renowned Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, where Sri Lanka's deep reverence for elephants is beautifully on display. Watching these gentle giants wade and splash in the river, framed by jungle-clad hills and the shimmer of the afternoon sun, offered an unforgettable glimpse into the island's enduring connection with its wildlife."

"Elephants occupy a uniquely powerful place in Sri Lanka, straddling culture, ecology, and economy in equal measure. Revered in Buddhism as symbols of wisdom and peace, they remain central to temple rituals and grand festivals like Kandy's Esala Perahera, where a richly adorned elephant bears the Buddha's sacred tooth relic. Historically tied to royalty and prestige, their image still threads through art, architecture, and national identity."

"Founded in 1975, Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage now shelters the world's largest captive herd of Asian elephants, some seventy to ninety strong, spanning several generations. On arrival, the sense of scale is immediate: this isn't just a refuge for the orphaned and injured, but a living tableau of how humans and elephants can co-exist, however uneasily, in a country where the boundaries between the wild and the everyday are never far apart."

Rambukkana and the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage showcase Sri Lanka's close relationship with elephants, where herds bathe in rivers amid jungle hills. Founded in 1975, Pinnawala shelters the world's largest captive herd of Asian elephants, numbering seventy to ninety across generations. Elephants hold powerful cultural roles as Buddhist symbols, temple participants, and central figures in festivals like Kandy's Esala Perahera. They perform key ecological functions as seed dispersers and habitat shapers, and they sustain tourism. Simultaneously, elephants face habitat loss, poaching, and captivity-related pressures that strain both animal populations and local communities. Pinnawala provides sanctuary for elephants unable to survive independently.

Read at restlessfeet.com