"The Esala Perahera is one of the oldest and most extraordinary festivals in the world and it takes place every year in July/August in the old royal capital of Kandy. Snaking their way around Kandy lake and the Temple of the Tooth thousands of dancers, drummers, whip-crackers and fire-eaters parade through the city accompanied by close to 100 caparisoned elephants the largest of which carries the sacred tooth relic taken from Buddha’s funeral pyre almost 2500 years ago."