No Shoes, No Shirt, Please Worship

I had a free weekend so I took a break from humid, coastal Colombo into the hills of Kandy. Moving from 90-90 weather (temp – humidity) to 80 – 80 actually feels quite refreshing. Kandy is of course Sri Lanka’s sweetest city. And also one of the most venerated by Buddhists. Situated there is the Temple of the Tooth, a famous religious landmark that houses a tooth of Buddha. Only thing is, this tooth, plucked from Buddha’s funeral pyre in India 483 BC, was spirited around South Asia for almost two millennia before alighting in Kandy’s Temple of the Tooth in the 1200s. It was stolen and recovered at least twice. And since the 1600s no one has actually seen the relic, it (theoretically) resides inside seven nested gold boxes. I participated in a brief walk-by of the outer box…along with scores of faithful pilgrims.

Sunday morning I went for a jog along Kandy’s rural winding roads. A bit different than my jogging route at home. Here I passed by an informal cricket match in a vacant lot. Serendipitously, just as I passed by, the batsman angled a ball out toward the road. Since it was coming straight at me I fielded it and threw it to the wicket keeper. Yup, I have picked up a few cricket terms while here. I did bobble the ball and drop it twice before firing it home. I suspect that would be scored as a fielding error in cricket’s American sister sport.

I also passed a lady heading down to the river with her laundry, as well as a three foot long monitor lizard. For clarification, the monitor was not with the lady. It did look a bit fearsome but a Google review afterwards revealed that it was unlikely to attack me. These reptiles have “a predominantly carnivorous diet, eating eggs, smaller reptiles, fish, birds and small mammals.” Good news for me and other large mammals.

My first week here I spent a few days in Jaffna, capital of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. This is one of the provinces targeted by the government – – and supported by USAID – – for rebuilding. In fact I was there to assess a manufacturer of pre-cast concrete blocks, the sort used for building (and rebuilding.) Most workers at this block factory are female, many are ex-combatants. They have difficulty being accepted at work and in the community. The government requires them to report for questioning. This is disruptive to their work and makes it obvious that they are under suspicion. The locals don’t want to rent rooms to them.

I have discovered that middle income countries, like Sri Lanka, while substantially advanced over developing countries, are not yet at the level of the developed world. In the block factory, as well as at a steel fabricator, and on a construction site I saw that the workers were underdressed, wearing flip flops and singlets. Fine for a hot tropical climate, but not great when moving hard, heavy objects around. No steel-toed boots in sight. Also no hard hats either. But the workers at the block factory donned surgeon’s masks when I asked to photograph them. Previously they had no nose or mouth protection against the fine factory dust.

And speaking of underdressed, while in Jaffna I visited Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, Sri Lanka’s leading Hindu temple. The entrance sign depicted the rules: no photography, no shoes, and – – for males – – no shirts. Casual is the rule of the day. You may recall the simple and insubstantial dress worn by the most famous Hindu of all, Mahatma Gandhi. I came close that day in the temple.

Moving on from Jaffna, I evaluated a rural rice mill whose owner wants to expand and provide more rice, more jobs, and more raw rice purchasing from surrounding farms. The mill has already bounced back from adversity. During the final battles of the country’s civil war, the factory was destroyed. The owner’s adjacent home was bulldozed as well. I met several of the brothers who form the factory’s management team. One brother had one leg, the result of an aerial bombing near the end of the war. After seeing photos of the destroyed factory and home, and meeting the brother, I had to take a minute to compose myself before continuing my interview with them. In all of my recent travels I have yet to find an instance of a good war.

I observed many infrastructure projects underway: roads, railways, government buildings; but the people still need private sector businesses and regular jobs. There is a lot of reconstruction but not so much reconciliation. For example, there is still a massive government military presence in the Tamil region with highway checkpoints manned by armed soldiers. No Tamil police force has been created to police the Tamil region. The government doesn’t want to give guns to any locals – – even to those who never supported the defeated Tamil rebels. Tamils complain that the government is settling Sinhalese in the Tamil areas in order to dilute the local population. This is similar to complaints from Uighurs in western China that the Chinese government in faraway Beijing is settling Han Chinese in the Uighur region.

Geez, the world is a complicated place. In the immortal words of the late Rodney King, “Can we all get along?”

6 thoughts on “No Shoes, No Shirt, Please Worship”

  1. Incredible journeys Bill…so fascinating to read your updates. Be well and travel safely. Cheers, Darby

  2. Great report, Bill. Sounds like you made the most of your assignment and travel time there. But I thought sure you’d want to climb Adam’s Peak! Barry

  3. Bill, one more in a wonderful series of stories that bring us along on the journey with you. I’ve forwarded more than a few of these splendid posts and laughed at more than a few of your comments. Incredible work you are doing. Thank you for sharing it here.

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