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The death of the holiest elephant in Sri Lanka… and a presidential decree issued on it

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Sri Lanka’s holiest elephant died on Monday at the age of 68, causing public grief, and a presidential order was issued over its body.
Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued a decree to stuff the carcass of the sacred elephant to be preserved for future generations, Agence France-Presse said.
The dead elephant, Nadungamwa Raja, was the most important of the 100 elephants used in the annual competition of ritual fire-eaters and drummers, with a golden coffin of Buddhist relics carried on its back.
Today, Monday, a procession of mourners, including schoolchildren, priests and elderly women, went out to the elephant’s carcass to touch its huge tusks in reverence for it.

The office of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued a statement, in which he said that the late animal was a “national treasure”, and ordered the preservation of its remains “for future generations to witness.”
The body of the elephant Raja was due to be handed over to embalming experts later on Monday for stuffing after performing Buddhist funeral rites, the elephant owner said.
It is reported that the elephant Raja was decorated with lights when carrying the Buddhist sarcophagus in the annual competition, which is a major tourist attraction in the central city of Kandy, and has been playing this role for most years from 2006 to 2021.

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The sanctity of this elephant was such that it was guarded by an elite armed squad of commandos after an incident in 2015 when a motorcyclist nearly hit him while he was out for a religious ceremony.

Sri Lanka has tightened laws in recent years to ban the hunting of wild elephants, with the death penalty for hunting, and animal rights activists say private elephants are often mistreated, a charge denied by temples and domesticated elephant owners.

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