Thursday, February 3, 2011

Studying Sri Lanka

So I'm in Sri Lanka now. Quite different from Malaysia, but still quite fascinating. It's been raining non-stop for a week and we've hardly any dry and clean clothes left. This is the view from where I was sitting writing my blog in the town Anuradhapura.
We have now come to Unawatuna, a fairly bigger town on the coast of Sri Lanka, and I can finally post what I wrote when I didn't have internet...

Since we've been in this country, we have been looking closer at Buddhism. The first couple of days we spent by the sea, in the town Negombo. We've learned about the country's history (which is quite complex because of the war that only just ended), and we have been visiting the fourth largest architecture from the Antique period (after the pyramids).
Apparently one of Buddha's collarbones is buried deep inside this construction. We've also seen the “daughter” tree (Sri Maha Bodhi) that Buddha got his awakening underneath. And we've been to the famous Tooth Temple in Kandy, where Buddha's tooth is kept.

On our way from Negombo to Anuradhapura we went on a dolphin safari. We had to show a ticket to this man before our boat could go out to sea. And this man had to guide us through the shallow parts. We were lucky to see some of the beautiful creatures, although our stomachs almost turned inside out because of the big waves.
As we were driving in the bus again, we suddenly heard a big bang! The cows in the fields nearby ran off, and our bus came to a stop. One of our tires had punctured. Luckily there was a tire shop close by, and thanks to our clever Srilankeese friends, we were on the road again by an hour. We were lucky to find a small shop where we could by some snacks to fill our empty stomachs with. Some of us also found a small café where we could have a cold drink. The owner suddenly brought in three rabbits, and we were confused if she wanted us to eat them or what. We figured she just wanted us to pet them (or at least that's what we told ourselves).

We continued our journey and were happy to have half a banana plant with us to eat. Yummy! When we came to this sign, we didn't quite understand why it was forbidden to play the trumpet: But when we came to this sign straight after, we understood: There were wild elephants nearby, and if you honked the horn, you could frighten them. Sadly enough, we didn't see them that day. But we saw a wild elephant right by the road a few days later!

Okay, I am getting covered with mosquitoes now, so I think I have to stop writing. There's also a limp dog here trying to beg me for something. Looks like he's got flees, so I think I'll keep a distance... As you can understand, life here is quite different to Norway. In many ways Sri Lanka reminds me of Madagascar, but then again nobody understands me when I by mistake try to speak Malagasy to them!

Since I wrote this blog we have experienced even more. We visited the indigenous people, the Veddah-people. They welcomed us with flowers and we had a nice meal before we went to sleep on the brick floor.
Our teacher Trond was greeted with leaves and had to dance a traditional dance with the tribe leaders.




Here are just some photos from the last days. Yesterday we had a party (it's after all Sri Lanka's National day today!).Levi and his wife, Anne Lisbeth, who is visiting now.In front of our hotel.
Singing the Asia song we made on the bus.The view from our hotel room when the sun goes down.
Stine was 22 on the 29th of January, and we had a party for her and two others. Nearly at the top of the Sigiriya mountain/"rock", where a king built his palace and lived with his 1000 wives.

Young munks inside the Tooth Temple in Kandy.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Quick upload from Kuala Lumpur





It's 10.45 pm in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia's capitol) and I am tired. In four hours time I have to get up because we're going to Sri Lanka. Here are some photos of our four days in KL. The purple ones are from the State Mosque where we had to cover us up. The last one is from Batu Caves where they celebrate the Thaipusam in KL. Enjoy! :)

This is Inki, checking out from Malaysia. (But I'll be back for two weeks before going to Cambodia.) Thank you for following me! :)

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Thaipusam in Penang - be aware of strong pictures!

Oh, what they do to be blessed by their god. The Hindus in Malaysia have an annual festival to get blessings from their lord Murugan and to give offerings to him. They carry kavadis (=burdens)and vels (=spears) and hooks in their bodies as a promise to their god. They pray to the god Murugan (for example to get healthy, to get children, good grades at school etc), and in return they do this, as kind of a "thank you" or a "please". In Penang they walk approx. 4 km (from one temple to another) with the spears and hooks in their body (some of them dragging wagons up to 2 tons), and then they take them out. They say that they feel spiritually cleansed after this, and that it doesn't hurt. If it hurts, or if you bleed, you haven't done proper fasting. (You have to fast and be a vegetarian for 40 days before Thaipusam.) We got to see this in Penang and heard that the people attending or watching were up to 500,000 people. In Kuala Lumpur the celebration is even bigger and attracts many more people. The devotees who carry the burdens have to walk 17 km before they can take them out... This makes me happy that I'm not a Hindu.


Piercing through the skin with the hooks (in total 69 hooks - 30 on each side) The red colour is not blood, but red dust/ashes they put on before starting the piercing.
A man being pierced through his cheaks. He screamed like a posessed man and his wife and daughter were standing close to him, watching the whole procedure, looking quite anxious...


Small children were also watching the parade, and the piercing seemed so natural to everyone, even the family members who were sad to see their fathers/brothers in such a state.








We followed a family through the parade. This girl was happy to celebrate Thaipusam, and her uncle (the picture below) had MANY spears through his skin. If anyone came near his spears he got terrible pains.






This man was screaming like mad and looked like an animal. They played loud music and sang to get people in a trance.