Starter Kit. Idea 200 of 500. Cluster 9
Vesak in Colombo shared with the world, with the lanterns, the dansal and the meaning explained
The mechanism, from the book
What cannot be copied. Every competitor can build a beach hotel. No competitor can offer a Buddhist tradition more than 2,000 years old, still practised at the places where it first took root on the island.
The first step
Before the next Vesak, walk the Colombo streets where dansal and lantern displays gather and ask the organising committees whether foreign visitors would be welcome at set times with an English explainer walking alongside. Put a one-evening walk on sale through hotels in Colombo 3 weeks ahead, with the meaning of the lanterns and the dansal written into it. The proof is tickets sold before the night.
- Who pays first
- A hotel in Colombo that wants something to sell its guests on Vesak night and will pay per ticket for a walk the organisers have welcomed.
- What leaves today
- Vesak is one of the most beautiful festivals on earth and most of the world does not know it happens, so it fills no flights and no rooms.
Ask first
- the local council (Municipal Council, Urban Council or Pradeshiya Sabha). Ask what permission a guided Vesak walk through the city's streets needs.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask whether they would list a Vesak programme for foreign visitors.
Check before you spend
Whether each dansal and lantern committee welcomes visitors, and what crowd, safety and permission rules apply to guided groups on Vesak night.
Find out these three numbers
- How many foreign visitors are in Colombo during Vesak week?
- How many committees welcome a small group with someone explaining?
- What would a visitor pay for an evening walk with a guide?
A comparison from the book
Zermatt. Chapter Five
"It has been famous since the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865, but fame is not an income."
A famous festival still needs someone to explain it before visitors can share in it.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.