It’s one thing to stand out on holiday for visibility on your social media, but Victoria Koblenko seems to go one step further in Sri Lanka. “That woman is just hanging in front of a white stupa!”
Victoria Koblenko shares on her Instagram images (see below) of her hanging naked on a vine in Sri Lanka in front of a white stupa, a sacred Buddhist structure. Her followers don’t like this at all: they find it disrespectful and point out that you should visit such a place with your shoulders and knees covered.
In a vine
And that is something Victoria herself knows. In the stories preceding her vine video she writes: “’Mom, why are you wearing that? It’s hot.’ Because you should always visit a holy place with your shoulders and knees covered. And as proof for when people start bashing you if you climb a vine when no one is looking.”
That prediction comes true. “It might be good to realize that this is a sacred place (stupa/Buddha statue). With bare shoulders and stomach, this can seem disrespectful to many people 🙏,” says Nathaliya.
‘You are a guest’
One Ezra can’t believe it. “You are a guest in a country that welcomes you with open arms, but it would be nice to delve deeper and be aware of the local culture.”
She continues: “As many have already indicated, it is disrespectful to move so nakedly in sacred areas, regardless of whether someone saw it at the time or not. Especially given the history of Sri Lanka, this is a sensitive matter and it would behoove you to deal with this more consciously.”
Two years in prison
The juice channel Reality FBI thinks it’s stupid of Victoria. “In Sri Lanka this is no small matter. The country is largely Buddhist and temples are strictly protected. Tourists who misbehave can be arrested or deported from the country. In 2012, three French tourists received a six-month suspended prison sentence.”
For what? “Because they pretended to kiss a Buddha statue in a photo. According to Sri Lankan law, such behavior can even lead to two years in prison. For Victoria it will probably not come to that, but for her angry supporters the message is clear: she is using a holy place as a backdrop for some likes.”
Fragment
The images in question: