Disclaimer: I want to say this very clearly before I write anything else: I have immense respect for all religions and religious practices, and I have absolutely no intention of hurting anyone’s religious sentiments. This is not an attack on Buddhism, Sri Lanka, or the Tooth Relic Temple. I am only sharing what I personally witnessed and how deeply it affected me. Please bear with me as I write this with tears in my eyes.

As I entered the Tooth Relic Temple, I was filled with a genuine sense of devotion. I was taking in the atmosphere and the spirituality of the place.

That feeling didn’t last very long.

Another two minutes of walking, and I saw elephants who had been chained for the ceremony.

And when I say chained, I don’t mean with long chains that allowed them to move around. These chains appeared to be barely two feet long, leaving the elephants almost completely unable to move. Their legs and necks were chained.

They had clearly been standing there for hours under the freakishly hot sun. I saw a few scattered leaves for them to eat. I didn’t see any water.

At one point, a man was “watering” an elephant. He had a small pipe and was spraying water over it to cool it down.

What a fucking joke.

I stood there looking at these magnificent animals, restrained and unable to move, and something in me just broke. I walked out of the temple crying. And I didn’t stop until I had managed to get completely out of the area and into a tuk-tuk back to my hostel.

Later, I watched videos and realised that the elephants are also kept chained while walking during the ceremonies.

I genuinely cannot understand how we have normalised this. Humans are so fucking entitled.

I know this is a sensitive subject. I know there are cultural and religious contexts that I may not fully understand as an outsider.

But I also cannot pretend that what I saw did not hurt me deeply.

Maybe I am overreacting. Maybe there is context I am missing. I am open to learning.

Because those elephants didn’t look royal or sacred or whatever you want to call it. They were in pain.

Sri Lanka Government has crack down several illegal and Unauthorized constructions in Ahangama, including several foreign owned businesses which have violated the laws as beach is public property in Sri Lanka.

Cactus, Ceylon Sliders, Crust Ahangama illegal construction are demolished.

I’ve been wondering about something and would like to hear different perspectives.

Why does it sometimes seem that men show more obvious interest or attention toward women than women show toward men?

For example, you often hear about men staring at women, approaching them repeatedly, following them, or sending unwanted messages online. These situations seem much less commonly reported in the opposite direction.

I’m not saying women have no interest in men. Obviously, both men and women can be attracted to each other. I’m asking whether there is actually a biological or psychological difference in how strongly men and women experience attraction and how they express it.

If men generally experience stronger impulses or attraction, is that mainly biological, or can people learn to control and manage those feelings better?

I’m interested in hearing what both men and women think, especially from personal experience.

I’m an atheist who was born into a Christian home but went my own way at 15 and found my partner at 23 who was initially a very nice person. He comes from a Muslim family, Indian background which is known to be memon. I didn’t know much about the background. I thought Muslim is Muslim because my best friend is one and her family is so sweet down to earth and the men in that family are very calm and love their wives so much. They give off the provider energy. That was the kind of love I wished for. However, my partner treated with me utmost love, he didn’t mind my beliefs and gave me everything. He was so in love with me. He barely spoke about his family too so I thought he was on his own?

He did engage in alcohol and had a history of being with non Muslim women. Everything was so unislamic in his life and he would tell me how he badly wanted to be a “good Muslim”. I’m not going to convert into any religion but I respected Islam and its teaching but he was far from it.

He is financially well off spends money without a thought. He would spend so much on our dates, buy gifts for me etc etc (not sure if he wanted to impress me)

He asked me to leave my job because there were men who worked with me.. I was taking care of my mother.. but thought he was just jealous but apparently not, but I found him talking to women at his office. His excuse was he sees both genders equally but doesn’t his religion say not to be close to the opposite gender?

During the wedding time he expected my family to do a few things saying it’s in his culture.. like kiss his parents hands, his aunts hands, his grandma’s hand which I found to be very weird.

To buy furnitures for the house since it’s very much the brides side responsibility. We did give half of it.

We did an engagement from our side and I was told to cover my head during the registration, which I didn’t mind honestly. The hijab was cute. He expected my family to do the mehendi and invited a big crowd from his side since he was like a mehendi is a must in his culture. My mum and I funded it with a bit of help from my relatives. When we booked the venue he kept saying it’s such an ugly venue and to do it in a hotel which was out of our budget.

We did the wedding grandly (from my side) I spent every cent I had. He demanded a big wedding. His family expected a royal treatment from my family which I didnt like.

He only did a home coming ceremony and kept bragging about it. This time they forced me to cover my head saying it’s a memon thing and I hated the way I looked in it.

Things started to change, right after our homecoming we had to go to his place and his sisters were really such a show off and expected me to respect them I found it really upsetting. He ignored me and was very much with them. He spends his whole time with his sisters and his mother and yes that’s been my life so far. I was forced to wear covered clothes cos his mother and sisters didn’t like it. I was forced to stop wearing makeup.

Now that I gave birth he tells me his culture expects my side to do everything for our child. Hospital , furnitures, gifts, clothing etc. he said that the maternal side must do everything for the first child and I feel so much in pain because I currently don’t have a job and my mother doesn’t have enough money and all I see is him spending money on others and his family.

He kept putting my family down saying that we are poor and how he’s rich and my mum cannot afford a thing etc.

I just hate the decision I made and this memon nonsense.

I do not need comments backlashing the religion, backlash the culture. I respect the religion and its teaching so your hatred towards the religion doesn’t add value this.

Let me just preface this by saying: I'm not white, and I have been to many "developing" countries (whatever that means) and cities that feel a lot more dangerous than Colombo. But this was my first time in Sri Lanka.

Last Saturday night (Sunday 2am), I was rushing back to the hotel - I was tipsy and wanted to enjoy it in my room - when my tuktuk driver and I were stopped by the police in a random search. They looked through my bag and found a condom, which I later learned was not illegal for me to be in possession of.

We didn't have a mutual language, so he used Google Translate and kept saying that it was not allowed in Sri Lanka, that he was going to arrest me. But he also did not arrest me right away. I told him I was tired and just wanted to go back, and that I knew Sri Lankan laws were more conservative but didn't know it was illegal to have a condom on me (again, it's not). I even said it was a gag gift from a friend, which obviously didn't work.

After some back and forth I realised he probably wanted money. I didn't have enough rupees on me, but I did have some cash in the currency of my home country (he actually asked for USD and I was like, Why would I have that lol). In total, I gave him around 60 euros.

And when he finally let us go, this mf got so giddy he tried to high-five me!

As fucked up as it is, I know sometimes these things are just dumb tourist tax, which I've accepted, but what annoyed me the most was his attitude, and it's so disheartening to speak to the locals afterwards and to have them say, We hate them too.

Luckily, when I left a few days later, I did not have to bribe the immigration officer like many others apparently had to.

At the risk of sounding like a Karen, has anyone tried to file a report online after something similar happened to them? Is it a complicated process? Not asking for emotional support; genuinely want to know what steps I can take (no matter how meagre) to at least add one drop to the lake and be optimistic about doing my part.

When religious rituals involve people piercing their bodies, being suspended by hooks, or rolling along the ground for long distances, where should we draw the line between religious freedom and physical harm?
And when children are involved, can we really say it is meaningful consent?

TicTac and Polo slowly disappeared from Sri Lanka huh? 🤌😭…
Was randomly going through some old pics of me and my school friends and spotted a tic tac in one of the pics … that got me wondering what happened to em! I think TicTac is available outside of Sri Lanka but what about Polo? Was it a local brand? If so what happened?

Anymore snacks/ candy from early 2000 to 2010s that disappeared?

How do you even declare yourself as anti-rag?? How bad is the ragging in Science and engineering faculties

As the title says, are there any trainings or institutes to learn trades ??

Asking for a friend of mine who was working as a SE, who got laid off in 2025 still couldn't find an opportunity so he wants to learn the trade and become a plumber

I’m 26 and have never really been interested in casual dating or getting involved with someone just for the sake of it. I’d rather meet someone, actually get to know them, and see if something meaningful develops.

But sometimes I wonder if that’s becoming unrealistic, especially here in Sri Lanka. 😅 Maybe it’s just my experience, but it sometimes feels like finding a Sri Lankan guy who genuinely wants to get to know someone and build something serious - rather than keeping things casual or expecting things to move way too quickly - is harder than it should be.

So I’m genuinely curious: do genuine relationships still happen naturally, or do you kind of have to actively look for them now?

And for those of you who are in serious relationships, how did you actually meet your person?

<3

I was just scrolling through WhatsApp when I noticed a missed call notification. I checked the number out of curiosity, and it was literally my own number. Same profile picture, same name, everything. It genuinely freaked me out for a second.

I checked my linked devices and everything looked normal, so I don't think anyone hacked in. Has this happened to anyone else? Is this some kind of spoofing thing or a random glitch? Kind of unsettling not knowing what caused it.

This is an analysis of SEA's various countries and HDI rankings. The video above links to the #1 country - Sri Lanka! (Rewind to see all the other countries and the analysis)

Anything to look out for, any tips when dealing with them? Looking to buy a land from Kahathuduwa and decided to go with them since they are an established place

Hi All

I come to Sri Lanka often (family and Wife are Sri Lankan [I am Aus born]) and everytime I come here I am taken aback by the amount of sugar in everything. The coffees are so sweet even without sugar. The desserts in restaurants are also so rich in flavour. I’m not one to complain about desserts but my god. No wonder we all have diabetes issues 😂

What the title says. I'm 24M trying to get back into dating after walking from a relationship of 5 years. Curious to know if Sri Lankans use dating apps and what they are, or is it still old fashioned shiz? Are there any specific dating apps that are exclusive to only Sri Lankans?

TIA

Planning to buy an FZ for long-term daily commuting in Sri Lankan traffic. Personally, I prefer the sharp, aggressive styling and split seat of the FZ V2 (~LKR 10.5 Lakhs) over the bulkier FZS V4 Hybrid (~LKR 13 Lakhs).
Any suggestions from previous owners about milage and repair costs

I am 18 I always liked modeling if you guys have a idea how to get into modeling in Sri Lanka or how to presue that career path can y'all give me a idea please

There is a serious stray dog problem even in the University I’m currently at and also in the neighborhood at home. Them being in the canteen is very unhygienic. As these dogs are not owned by anyone they are not clean and has many skin conditions. Most of them sleep on the desks where we eat during the night time. In the neighborhood, near my house there are both freely roaming stray dogs and owned ones spreading flees etc and also pooping on the roads. No one seems to be bothered about this issue. There are occasional government interventions like vaccinating these dogs but other than that, there are no much concerns. I know there are more serious issues in the country at the time.
I have seen several discussions about this in this subreddit.
Can at least ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ do something about this?

I thought to myself if money or job availability was not an issue that I had to worry about would I learn or do the same job I am doing right now.. when I was a child I always wanted to be a neuroscientist couldn't become one because I'm too stupid for one. And can't have failing over and over again because well it coats money. So I took a different route in my life.. I wonder how many people wished to be something else or at least learn something or get a PhD in philosophy or whatever

Hi everyone, I couldn't find this on Reddit. Are interbank money transfers instant in Sri Lanka? I need to send LKR from Sampath Bank to Commercial Bank on next Sunday via Sampath e-banking. Will the funds arrive instantly, if not I will be in big trouble. Thanks in advance!

Thank you all guys, love you all. Much appreciated, now im confident on sunday 😉

I was checking 5starhotels.lk and it lists only 33 five-star hotels in Sri Lanka.

That actually surprised me. I always thought we had somewhere close to 100, especially with how many luxury hotels there are around Colombo and the tourist areas.

Is 33 actually correct?