Photographic Essays

My Sri Lanka Experience (December 2015 to January 2016)

The most memorable impressions of a trip are those things, of course, that are different from things at home. And swimming customs in Sri Lanka (or in India as well) are distinctive, indeed. First of all there is a lot of textile involved. Women and also some men use to go into the water in full clothing. So, for the uninformed, there are questions: Is it the clothes that are worn on this day anyway? Is there special bathing suit everyday clothes, is it discarded clothes? Won’t it be cold or unpleasant, after all, when, let’s say, sitting wet in a full bus? And while on jam-packed beaches in the western world people are crowding at the beach outside the water, in Sri Lanka the space in the water itself seems to become scarce. A sporty swimming culture is rather unknown, it is about the fun of splashing, personal hygiene or even religious-ritualistic purgation.

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