Well, I had a very interesting weekend. I met a new angampora master, and stayed with his business partner. Let me say, I'm used to censoring myself around Sri Lankans so they don't think I'm a sleazeball (because I don't always abstain from alcohol, and I have a girlfriend before I'm married). That's how conservative Sri Lankan culture is. The guy I stayed with sketched me out. Anyway, ask me about the weekend when I get home. It'll be worth your time. I don't really want to talk about it here though.

Well, this weeked will be busy busy busy. Probably the next week too. I'll probably leave for Maharagama tomorrow, stay the night, interview the master there (some angampora guy who's issued an open challenge to fight to the death with any supposed practitioner of angampora, to prove he's the genuine article). Then, I'll spend the night there, wake up for a 6 am class, then book it to Dewalegama, hopefully arriving just in time to take lessons with my regular master. After class, back to Kegalle and then to Kandy that night.
So, I'll be taking two classes Sunday, and I'm going to try not to let on to either master that I've even been meeting with the other, because I'm not really sure how they would take it. There's a lot of contention about who's got the "real" angampora.
Not really sure what to think of this master in Maharagama. He seems like a really nice guy over the phone. But newspaper articles on him and this open challenge thing make him seem like a reckless egomaniac. I guess I'll just have to meet him and see.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to hear back from the lab on whether or not I have parasites. I guess that's the third world for 'ya. I'm sure I'll be fine though. I've got pills.

Going back to the angampora thing (cause that's a happier topic), angampora is a geek's dream. I'm learning to dual wield swords, yo! Spinning, and jumping, and slashing like I'm some sort of Star Wars Kid (for those of you familiar with that video. Anyway, I'm sure you can find it online.) On the other hand, damn is it tiring! I'm getting in good shape though.

Hard to believe I'm leaving soon, eh?

On Gods

On the bus ride home from Dewalegama, I was thinking about God, and Gods. I hope I don’t offend anyone with this post, and I hope no one thinks less of me for this, but… I believe Gods to be fictions. And yet they are fictions with such a powerful hold on the human psyche, and they recur in almost every culture (albeit with different names, faces, and biographies. Why? Because every God and Goddess is the embodiment of something transcendent in the human experience. LOVE. WAR. DESTRUCTION. PROTECTION. EARTH. DEATH. These are the things that scare us, sustain us, and above all mystify and amaze us. What is Divine, what is Power, what is Transcendent if the love of a mother for her child is not? What is miraculous if not life itself? What do we fear more than the ending of that life, this turning of animate and thinking to completely and irrevocably inert? This is the thing which animates the Gods, and what gives them power (in our minds). Their divinity comes from transcendental human experience. And that, I think is why Gods have such prevalence in societies, and persistence in our minds.

Waking Life

For those of you who have a philosophical bent, but haven’t seen the movie called “Waking Life,” I highly recommend it. In any case, one part of that movie is that the main character is never really sure if he is awake or dreaming. Regardless, he often encounters a stranger quite randomly, they connect and discuss some interesting philosophical topic, and then they part ways just as suddenly. I feel like I’ve had my own Waking Life encounters here. Especially when it comes to a certain young man I met last week. Coming back from Angampora class one evening, I was waiting on the bench for the train to come. When I look up, there are these two individuals sitting there next to me, and before I know it we’re engaged in conversation. The quieter of the two is the one that interested me most. He speaks very good English (as well as Tamil and Sinhala), and he has this way of speaking: clearly, simply, and without any tension in his voice. He seems just as likely to speak about ethnic tensions and politicians as about the age of the railway system or Sri Lanka’s rural areas. When my train came, I got on but he remained sitting. When I looked for him out the window, he was gone.

Friday I had another encounter with the same person. I got off the train at Polgahawala, and he was there sitting on the bench again. Again, we met randomly and suddenly, had intermittent conversation about this and that, and parted ways just as suddenly when my train came.

Royal Botanical Gardens

I finally visited the Royal Botanical Gardens here in Kandy, and I’m totally amazed. I’ll go back soon, perhaps today, and take my camera this time!

Independant Study

My independent study is going really well! It’s just now beginning to open up for me, and it seems like a lot of things just sort of fall into my lap as far as research is concerned. At the beginning I didn’t think I could even find a teacher, and right at the beginning the librarian and my Sinhala teacher each found me one. I needed to do some interviews with my teacher as well as learning the art itself, and he spontaneously starts talking about the history of Angampora. I need a translator, and *poof*, there’s an English teacher in the room who just sort of steps in. My host family just happens to have relatives near where I have class. That family happens to have ancestors who did Angampora. My translator gets interested in Angampora and starts looking into it himself. Tons of happy coincidences that have really opened this topic up for me.

Its also really cool to gradually discover what the heck Angampora is. Right now, in Sri Lanka there seems to be a lot of different opinions about Angampora. Some say it’s very famous, others have never heard of it. Some say it was wiped out during the colonial rule, others say it continued in secret. Some say it’s 10,000 years old, others say it must be a more recent import. Is it an art practiced by soldiers? High caste people only? By monks (like kung fu in China)? There’s also a lot of argument between the teachers, about who knows the “real” Angampora, and which ones are merely pretenders. Some have even issued open challenges to deadly combat to prove that they are the REAL Angampora masters.

So, studying this has really been a blast.

Weekly Insect Update

Is a bit of a misnomer, since I don’t really give updates weekly. Regardless, if I were a biologist, I’d be sorely tempted to do my independent study on “The Bathroom Ecosystem” because it’s just fascinating.

There are the constants, like the line of small ants that is in constant motion around 3/4ths of my bathroom perimeter. Their path is reasonably constant, but small changes are made on a daily and an hourly basis. They always go past my towel rack and around the shower, but make only occasional forays across the toilet (and on these occasions I’m glad that as a man I don’t have to sit on the ant covered toilet). The other constants are tiny flies (that don’t fly around overmuch, and so aren’t a bother), and the spiders that hang out under my sink, at the base of the showerhead, and occasionally in other places around the bathroom. They have very small bodies, and long thin legs each about as long as a pinky finger. Luckily, the ants, flies, and spiders don’t bother me much at all. I usually leave them alone, and in return they usually let me use the toilet or the shower. It’s a great arrangement.

More interesting is the occasional visitors and temporary residents I get. The spider is the most infamous of these. He (or she) didn’t visit at all for the first month and a half, and then s/he decided that s/he REALLY liked my bathroom, and given the opportunity decided to make his/her self more comfortable in my room. I still haven’t seen him/her since those initial encounters, so I’ve decided to call my spider “Silence,” because as soon as I named it, it was gone. Other transient visitors include the centipede I stepped on (sorry!), the giant cockroach (which I only saw once), and the last couple of weeks I’ve had two giant slug/snails living in the bathroom (who I’ve named Chuck and Chucky). I say slug/snail because I’m not really sure which they are. They’ve certainly got something growing out of their backs, but it’s far from a fully developed shell. I think Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes once described slugs as “giant living boogers.” Well, like the ants, they don’t really bother me. They just cruise around the bathroom most of the time (ceiling, shower curtain, floor, wall, toilet bowl, etc.) Every once in awhile they shrivel up and just stick in one place for a few days. Strange, no?

The Cultist

The Cultist:

Buddhism is a strange and interesting religion, but one thing that it has going for it is that by and large there aren’t a lot of “fringe” sects (unless you count Mahayana Buddhism, but that’s being a little harsh, no?) Well, a couple of weeks ago we met a very controversial monk in Sri Lanka and his close group of followers. The man is a Buddhist faith healer, and every fortnight he and his (mostly lay) disciples have a healing session. Why only every 10 days? Sick people really get on his nerves, and he can’t bear to be around them for more than once in every 10 days. He believes that all, or at least most sicknesses (including cancer, ADHD, diabetes, etc.) are caused by personality issues, like being self absorbed, wanting attention, or just being an annoying person in general. These personality traits cause disturbances in the body’s energy and aura, which result in sickness. In any case, we had the good fortune to sit in on one of his healing sessions.

To be fair, I may be being a bit harsh in my description of this fellow. There’s a lot to be said for the mind healing the body. Belief that you’re being helped could improve your condition considerably. But this particular monk and his disciples seem to be deluding themselves, in my opinion. It’s shocking to me that an ordained monk would be so full of himself, and he told us how on one occasion he seriously considered murder as a perfectly viable option. Meeting him was an interesting experience.

Hey all,

Still just chuggin' away at the whole Angampora thing. Yesterday I met a Sri Lankan student in the Botanical Gardens (someone I'd met in the beginning, but have been too busy to get together with before now). The Gardens are simply amazing. I need to go back with a camera. With a little less than a month left, I've got mixed feelings about leaving. On one hand, I've got a lot left that I want to do. Travel, talking with people, shopping, etc. On the other hand, it's almost like I have too much free time on my hands now, and I need to learn how to structure that better.

Other random news: Visited a cancer ward with my family and brought snacks, saw a water monitor (lizard), still need to do some shopping.

More as it develops!

Hey, it's been awhile since the last post, because my internet access is uncertain and last time I got to an internet place I couldn't log onto my account.

Anyhow, I'm in to the last third of my trip here: independant study.
As I said before, I'm studying Angampora, sri lanka's martial art. Let me tell you, this month should be a blast. My job is to get in shape and learn a martial art. After that, I can cook up some 15 page paper justifying it. Yay!
Also, who knows what quacky stories will pop out of this month. My teacher...well where to begin.
He seems to have an obsession with Chuck Norris for one. During our first private lesson, Chuck Norris became a topic of conversation on two entirely separate occasions. Also, he may or may not use a frayed electrical cord for a weapon (upon second inspection, I think its either for his coffee pot or it's got a dual use.) He was also saying how Angampora has a 10,000 year history (which really has to be off by 7 or 8,000 years.

But then again, what do I know? He's my teacher, and he's teaching me something. God knows whether it's Angampora, or Karate (which he also knows), or what. Anyway, it's good exercise. Each private lesson is 3 hours, and by the end of that my clothes are literally dripping. Sometimes I think that he's just curious how many more degrees he can add to the next spinning jumping kick without me falling in a dizzy heap. No matter though, so far it's been a blast.

More later. I've got to go meet my Amma in town.