Chavakkadu Pooram (Kerala - India)

( A special thanks to my dear friend Sooraj for these 2 nice pictures and informations about Chavakkadu Pooram)

The temple, PANCHAVADI, is situated in a village named CHAVAKKADU in THRISSUR district at northern side of KERALA State.

THRISSUR is known as the cultural capital of KERALA. This is the land of POORAMS (festivals). Each temple will parade beautifully caparisoned panchyderms, the tallest and well-figured available in Kerala. The elephants decorated with goldcovered ornaments, each carrying three priests, is a sight to cherish for ever.

At the temple PANCHAVADI the main god that the people worships is the god named Sri SANKARANARAYANA.
The main attraction is the procession made by two groups. Both groups contain the natives of that village.They will compete each other to make their processions better than the other one. It contains decorated elephants, traditional dancers and music with traditional musical instruments.
The two processions cover their own area and finally gather at the temple. At the vestibule of the temple they will form a row and all the cultural activities will be performed in front of the temple for about 2 hours.

• Wild life experts consider that Indian Elephants are an endangered species. The ivory trade and diminishing habitats are the greatest threats to Indian Elephants.

Just over 5 percent of the original Asian elephant habitat remains today, and its population has declined over the past half century to an estimated 30,000–50,000 animals in the wild. This is only 10-15% of the African elephant population.Once a symbol of a unique and sacred relationship between nature and man, it is now threatened with extinction according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.