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Sri Lanka and the
Kandy Esala Perahera
Discovering the Spirit
of Buddha in the Land of Elephants
 In
June of 2008, in preparation for the upcoming trip to Kandy,
my assistant Trista Sample and I assembled the first copy
of the book. We learned the new Blurb book software "on
the fly" while selecting and assembling the photographs,
inserting the text and writing as many captions as we felt
the book needed. We worked feverishly right up to our deadline,
and the first hardbound book arrived the day before I was
schedule to leave for Sri Lanka. Although this volume looks
like the finished book, we have always considered it a working
manuscript that would be edited and refined until we turned
the materials over to a professional designer and publisher.
We have revised and reordered the manuscript a number of times
since then. Over a two-year period about one dozen copies
have been ordered. A few copies were presented as gifts and
a handful of manuscripts were purchased – one by the
Cornell University Library. All others have been used to promote
the project.
We are now pleased to announce that
the manuscript has been turned over to the book designer Mayapriya
Long and we anticipate that the book will be printed in the
later months of 2011. The material in pre-publication book
form consists of about 275 pages with over 300 photographs
and illustrations. It is intended to be an 11x13 inch hardbound
book.
The chapters include photographs, illustrations and accompanying
text detailing:
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•
The Life and Death of the Buddha
• The Sacred Tooth
Relic and the Temple of the Holy Tooth
• The Hindu Devales
• City Life in Kandy
• The Kandy Esala
Perahera
• The Kataragama Devale
and the Kavadi
• Pilgrims and Prayer
• The Tourists
• The Elephants |
The material is copyrighted with the publishing date of July
2011.
Please feel free to send us an email if you would like to
pre-order the book or be informed when the book is available
for purchase. Email michael@sarnacki.com.
To view a sampling of the book's photographs, please
click here.
Comments from around
the world...
"This book is a testament to our people and our culture.
Through his dedication, Mr. Sarnacki has captured our national
pageant with amazing photographs and a beautifully written
text. I support this wonderful project and urge others to
also."
Jaliya Wickramasuriya, Sri Lanka Ambassador to the United
States of America.
"Thank you for sharing your photos and text from the
Kandy Esala Perahera manuscript. I am impressed by the obvious
time and energy that you have devoted to this project. The
photos are stunning... Your work without question deserves
to be published. Even in its current state, it already appears
to be one of the finest photographic works on Sri Lanka anywhere."
Stephen C. Berkwitz, Department of Religious Studies,
Missouri State University.
"AMAZING!!!! What an incredible journey! Thanks for sharing
this."
Greg Fisher, Delta Air Lines
For more comments on the book and the project, please click
here.
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