An independent record,
curated with care.

The Perahera is a ceremony of considerable civic and religious importance. It has been walked, in one form or another, since the early centuries of the first millennium. It deserves a web presence that matches the care with which it is prepared each year.

This site is maintained independently of the Sri Dalada Maligawa. It is a reverent record, not an official communication. The authoritative institution is the Maligawa itself; where our account differs from theirs, theirs should be preferred. Where our account is unclear, we welcome correspondence.

Editorial approach

The English copy on this site is written in a measured, third-person register, following the style of the source institutions: the Maligawa and the Media Bureau of the Ministry of Buddhasasana. We use British English dates (18th August 2026) and 12-hour times (18.45 IST). Sinhala and Pali terms are transliterated into roman script on first use with a short gloss; thereafter they are italicised. A full glossary is maintained at /glossary.

Imagery

Photographs on this site are drawn from a mix of contributing photographers and licensed stock imagery. Where a photograph is credited, please respect the credit. If you would like to contribute to the archive, please write to the editors.

Contact

Correspondence is welcome. Please write to [email protected]. Corrections, additions to the glossary, and contributions to the gallery are especially welcomed.

The brand

The visual identity of this site — its typefaces (Playfair Display for display, Lora for body, Noto Serif Sinhala for script), its palette of lacquer red, saffron gold, parchment, and temple black, and its ornamental detailing — is drawn from the Perahera Design System, a brand kit developed to extend the visual language of the Maligawa and the existing Perahera microsite into a consistent, web-native form.