5th to 7th May, 2023

Vesak is the most important Buddhist festival, commemorating the birth, enlightenment, and passing to Nirvana of Gautama Buddha. Always a colourful experience, this year it was especially loud and vibrant too being the first one held for four years thanks to the pandemic and then political and economic instability.

The Galle Road on which we live was jammed solid in both directions until the small hours for all three nights of celebration. Music pounding, horns blaring out of happiness, and even dancing in the back of trucks like the one I photographed. The engine heat and horrendous fumes on these already hot and humid nights didn’t dampen the enthusiasm one bit.

Steve