The Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Devalaya has decided to stop releasing its tusker Wasana for small-scale peraheras, restricting the animal to major religious processions in a move it says is intended to protect his health.
The decision was taken on the instructions of the shrine’s current Basnayake Nilame, Daily Mirror reported, which named him as Arachchige Thilina Madusanka. Ada Derana gave the name as Thilina Madhusankha.
Why the restriction
The Devalaya administration said Wasana had previously been sent to numerous small processions around the country, including Kathina Pinkam ceremonies. Frequent transport over long distances, particularly to distant areas, was described as posing a serious risk to the animal’s health and safety.
Ada Derana reported that Wasana will now be released only for major historical religious processions such as the Kandy Esala Perahera. Hiru News, reporting in Sinhala a day earlier, carried the same decision.
The shrine said it has already received numerous requests for Wasana’s participation in peraheras elsewhere, and appealed to those who care about the animal to accept a decision taken for his welfare.
The tusker at the centre of it
Wasana is not an obscure animal. Twelve days before this decision, he carried the Sacred Relic Casket in the final Randoli Perahera of the 2026 Kandy Esala Perahera — the most senior role in the country’s largest procession — with Sinha Raja and Pulathisi Raja walking alongside as flanking tuskers.
He was found lost in a forest area in the Anuradhapura District and taken to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. In 1978 he was offered to the Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Devalaya by the then Minister Wimala Kannangara, and has remained in the shrine’s custody since.
Two unreconciled details
The outlets differ on the tusker’s age. Ada Derana describes Wasana as 58 years old; Hiru News put him at 55 when he led the Kandy procession in August, a figure carried in this site’s earlier reporting. Neither outlet flags the discrepancy, and no independent record of his birth year has been published.
The English spelling also splits: Ada Derana and Hiru News write Wasana, while Daily Mirror writes Vasana. Ada Derana has separately referred to him as “Kataragama Wasana” and “Kadira Pura Wasana”, Kadirapura being an alternative name for Kataragama.
None of the three reports says whether the restriction affects the Kataragama Esala Perahera itself, or who decides which processions qualify as “major”.
