Sri Lanka turns away British tourist for
Buddha tattoo
AFP 9:01AM BST 22 Apr 2014
Woman was arrested and threatened with
deportation after Sri Lanka authorities took offence to her
tattoo.
Sri Lanka has detained a female British
tourist for having a Buddha tattoo on her right arm and ordered her
deportation.
The unidentified woman was arrested at the
country's main international airport on Monday and appeared before
a magistrate who ordered her deportation, police said in a
statement.
The statement said she had an image of the
Buddha seated on a lotus flower tattooed on her right
arm.
"She was taken before the Negombo
magistrate who ordered her to be detained prior to deportation," it
said, adding that she was arrested shortly after her arrival on a
flight from neighbouring India.
It did not say what charges were brought
against her, but
Sri Lanka barred another British tourist
from entering the island in March last year for showing
"disrespect" to Buddhism by having a Buddha tattooed on his
arm.
Sri Lanka, a majority Buddhist nation, is
highly sensitive to perceived threats to the
religion.
In August 2012, three French tourists were
sentenced to six months in jail, which was suspended for five
years, for kissing a Buddha statue in what the authorities
considered was a sign of disrespect.
Sri Lanka prevented US rap star Akon from
visiting in 2010 over one of his music videos which featured
scantily clad women dancing in front of a Buddha
statue.
It was not immediately clear where the
detained British woman would be deported to.