A Buddhist Mardi Gras?

This description of Sri Lanka's Esala Perahera festival made me laugh.

The 11-day-long celebration in the central city of Kandy shines like Mardi Gras and rocks like Carnival, but without the decadence, liquor or women in skimpy outfits.

Regarding Mardi Gras and Carnival -- what's left after decadence, liquor and women in skimpy outfits? Jazz and the samba, I suppose.

Anyway, Esala Perahera is an ancient festival honoring a tooth of the Buddha that was left over after his cremation and brought to Sri Lanka 17 centuries ago. In the past the relic was paraded through the streets once a year so people could see it. Now the tooth no longer leaves the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, but one of the elaborately costumed elephants in the Esala Perahera procession will carry a replica of its gold reliquary.