The Local Elephant Festival.
This afternoon we visited a village where they were having a local elephant festival. I'm not sure what the reason for the festival was (as if you would need a reason) but it was very local and had "only" four elephants, all decked out in high regalia (not a technical term). I've been told that the bejeweled part over the front of the elephant's head is called a caprison although that term is also used to describe decorations on other types of live stock as well and in Hindu elephant processions the caprison is also know as nettipattam. And the piece on the back of the elephant in which people ride is called a howdah. The swaying white tufts are known as vencamaram and the peacock feather fans (and yes there are peacocks you run into in the countryside) as alavattam. All these terms will be on the midterm.
As you can see, the festival is quite informal and features the elephants with several people in the howdah carrying a very ornamental silk parasol (called a muttukuda). These people are often seated with the parasols down and then the elephants move from place to place, with a band in front (note particularly the large curved horn instrument). The group stops every so often and the band begins to play and one guy in each howdah stands up and places the parasol straight up. (Video will be posted later.)
The elephants are hobbled apparently so that no elephant would go running wild through the (sometimes quite large) crowd and injuring people.
The ultimate "destination" of the elephant procession is a large (seemingly temporary) structure with a lot of red and white lights on it.
The elephants here are probably owned by the local Hindu temple which is typical of Kerala. The mahoot (elephant keeper) is said to be paired with his elephant when the elephant is quite young and the bond lasts the lifetime of the elephant (or the mahoot since elephants typically live nearly as long as humans).
Since the festival is part of Hindu practice, there was also a Hindu shrine here. Here are pictures of the shrine overall and of a young child putting money in offering box (and soon after ringing the chime with the help of his parents).
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