Living in shackles, with no room to move. Help free Narikai and Aliya, two Elephants enslaved at the Kande Viharaya Buddhist Temple in Bentota, Sri Lanka

Forced to stand all day, with their front and back legs chained to a pole and no room to move. This has been the life of two beautiful elephants at the Kande Viharaya Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka for countless years.

Narikai and Aliya are two “working elephants” owned by the Kande Viharaya Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka. They are shackled using short 2-3m chains attached to their front leg and sometimes back legs too, meaning they can't move at all. Kept outside the Buddhist temple in the middle of the street, they are forced to stand on hard concrete, with no kind of stimuli, food or fresh water available. The elephants are kept apart, unable to interact with one another, whilst those passing by stop to take photos with them or pet them.

This kind of treatment is heart breaking and is nothing short of torture for such intelligent, social creatures. It goes against the Ahimsa of Buddhism to keep elephants in abusive conditions. 

The monks who work at the temple claim that the elephants are “working” elephants and are not chained up during the day. Despite this response, we have received countless reports on many separate occassions that the elephants were seen chained up, in the same spot outside of the temple, unable to move and forced to stand on the hard concrete for hours on end. Even if they are occasionally used for work, they are clearly chained up overnight and for extended periods and would be unable to sleep in any comfort.

What have we already tried?

Numerous attempts have been made to contact the monks and those running the temple, even local politicians to end these elephants torment, but all attempts have fallen on deaf ears. 

The monks were approached directly and offered to have a secure enclosure built for the elephants at no cost to them; a large enclosure which would allow Narikai and Aliya to be housed more comfortably, with the freedom to move and with fresh food and water available. This was refused.

What happened to “do no harm”? We need to turn this horrific experience for the elephants and for visitors to the temple into a positive one in the future, but all our efforts have been ignored.

So we need your help.

1.  Sign our petition to the monks at the Kande Viharaya Temple, as well as the President and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and show them that we WON'T stand for this kind of torture to elephants! 

2.  Leave a negative review for the temple on Trip Advisor-  Kande Viharaya Temple, https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/UserReviewEdit-g612384-d2713308-Kande_Viharaya-Aluthgama_Western_Province.html 

Free Narikai and Aliya, so they can live with comfort and the dignity they have been denied for years!