Elephant Festival in Kerala, South India
Posted by Jackie Hewett on Sun 27th May 2007 at 09:53 AM, Filed in January
It is in the nearly unpronounceable town of Thiruvananthapuram (oitherwise known as Trivandrum) that the highlight of the annual ‘Great March of India’ takes place in January. An indeterminate number of Elephants (between 15 and 100) are walked by their Mahouts for days across the surrounding area to get to Thiruvananthapuram. The elephants are bedecked with jewels and ornamental metal plates and are paraded around the town. The mahouts riding on each elephant hold a brightly coloured silk umbrella that indicates the temple to which the elephant belongs.
Like many things in India it all seems to happen in slow motion, we weren’t even sure if we were in the right place. It all seems rather disorganised and there is quite a bit of ‘mooching about’, waiting and wondering what is going on and when it is going to ‘start’, but there did seem to be quite a buzz about the gathering crowd. Finally we spotted a couple of elephants heading towards us down the road, and after a few minutes a couple more, and so on. The elephants and mahouts gathered in a line along the side of the road. On the occasion I went there were around 50 elephants of varying sizes. We were able to get as close as we wanted to the elephants and there were many great photo opportunities. Later on there is a display of the local ‘flavour’ of martial arts, Keralan dancing and fireworks.
We went because we happened to be staying in the area in a small sea-side village called Kovalam. I wouldn’t make a special trip to India to see the Elephant great march, but if you happen to be in the area it is worth a look.
There is quite a nice beach at Kovalam with a distinctive red and white lighthouse at the end that boats many beach front restaurants – in one of them I ate some of the freshest Lobster I have ever had for around £5! It is quite a touristy little place, but pleasant enough. Lots of knick-knack shopping on the beach and a few other things to do in the area like see some of the region’s famous Kathakali dancing - but I would recommend trying to see a tourist ‘taster’ show which lasts about an hour rather than a full blown performance that goes on for hours. To a westerner the nuances of the oh-so-significant body movements and eye flickering are lost, but it is an interesting experience.
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