Cultural misunderstanding nearly lands tourists in Sri Lankan prison

If you find yourselves visiting Sri Lanka at some point in the future and don't know much about Sri Lankan culture, be sure to not smooch any Buddha statues while you're there. Three French citizens nearly found themselves doing 6 months in prison with hard labor for taking photos of themselves posing with Buddha statues and pretending to kiss one. The images were discovered when the tourists went to have their photos developed at a local photo lab, and a lab employee then notified authorities. The tourists were given suspended sentences, so they will do no jail time.

(Photo by Tania Saiz via Flickr using a CC-BY license.)

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