I hope you’re enjoying the Vesak weekend, celebrating the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death. I went to a calm and beautiful temple, took one of the new city buses downtown and walked around the Beira Lake. It hasn’t been a huge Vesak thus far, but the streets are packed with cheery and friendly people, lining up for dansal (free food and drink) and piled into the back of pick-up trucks and Dimo battas, to see the lights. Sri Lankan Buddhism is fundamentally a positive and beautiful thing. It’s nice to see it in the light.

I was recently in South India, briefly. One thing I noticed (after it was pointed out) was the dominance of a particular font, or typographic style moreso. On almost every wall or poster (often above trash or urine) they’d be using the same type of lettering. Top half one color, bottom half another – often with a white stripe through the middle. I kinda like it. It’s an interesting and striking style, and surprisingly ubiquitous.

Yesterday I wrote about the opposition JVP May Day rallies. These are some photos from marches on the other side of town, near Town Hall, led by the government and presumably paid for by you and me. They seem to bus people in (in government buses), clothe them in propaganda t-shirts and presumably feed and perhaps libate them as well. I generally enjoy the May Day floats and stuff, but I do rather dislike the use of public funds for what essentially amounts to a partisan political rally.

May Day is International Workers Day, which has taken on a distinctly commie tint. In Sri Lanka the JVP traditionally goes all out on my street, but this year I noticed that the government had also bused a lot of people in to have their own demonstrations. I assume they always do that, I just noticed it. JVPers were mocking effigies of Mahinda in Dehiwela and people were wearing ‘Mahinda: Our Hero’ t-shirts near Town Hall. May Day floats are fun and I watched them go down my street. I’m not so happy about the government spending my money to have their own demonstrations, however.

Recently, certain people protested outside a mosque in Dambulla, under the false aegis of Buddhism. They are, of course, deeper in attachment to transient identity than Buddhist practice would encourage. My friend Navin Weeraratne recently went to Dambulla to get some pics and talk to people, and he tells a great story on Facebook. I’ve included a few pics and his captions here. Each image is clickable back to the original Facebook page.

These are some random photos from around. Above is a poster on a wall in Dehiwela. It say ‘Party For Us’. I presume this is some sort of political party rather than a bouncy castle party. Though I don’t really know. I have no idea what this poster is for. Besides awesome.

This is a waterfall near Kitulgoda. I don’t remember how to get there and I’m not especially inclined to give directions. It’s a small village growing into a town and everybody seems to know where this is. On this Avurudu day, seems like everyone came. The waterfall is about 12 feet high, but what makes it notable is that it empties into what seems to be a bottomless pit. You can stand on the edges, but then it just bottoms out. I couldn’t see, feel, or even imagine bottom. There are stories of people being caught in eddies, unrecoverable bodies, etc, but everyone was jumping in anyways. Me too.

Happy Sinhala and Tamil New Year everyone. I’m going back to the village and taking a break from blogging. Everybody’s taking a break from everything really. I’ve heard Avurudu called the revenge of the rural on the city – all the domestics and laborers go home and city people have to sweep their own floors. It’s also a nice check out and refresh holiday. I’m heading out.

We climbed this thing. Almost. The last 100 meters or so is a pure vertical incline and you have to rock-climb up a crevice, then pull yourself up via a rope that someone attaches. You are hanging by your fingers and toes of a cliff face and this is slightly insane. Our rope wasn’t quite long enough and when the guide asked what religion we were we decided to turn back. When he started chanting ‘Buddham saranam gachami’ I was pretty confident that this wasn’t a good idea.

Of one person really, but there’s a shot with me. No homo. Above is Imaad painting in the room at 98 Acres, the resort we were reviewing. I am hanging somewhat precariously off the side of the balcony. The focus with reflections is wonky and this took a couple tries.