Summary
Summary of Cheers — Buddha!
Cheers — Buddha! at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 2 h 40 min2 h 5 min fast, 3 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 37,700 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
A traveller talks his way through
Sulo-Weikko Pekkola reaches the Indian coast with a knife, a camera and a typewriter, but no gun. The Finnish forester's answer to that situation is to talk his way through. His journey takes him through the colonial lands of Asia and onward to Australia.
His dry, joking voice is central to the memoir. Places matter, but so do the encounters that happen along the way: a traveller without a gun has conversation, observation and humour to draw on.
Key idea 2
India unsettles his first expectations
Pekkola expects temples, jewels and fakirs, but Karachi presents a clean, modern city shaped by railways and British rule.
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Key idea 3
The observer can misunderstand the scene
English does not carry Pekkola everywhere, despite what an American dictionary promised.
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Key idea 4
Singapore rewards asking the right person
Singapore gives Pekkola room to walk without the crowds that followed him in Calcutta, but getting things done still requires invention.
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Key idea 5
Java rewards a closer look
After so many Indian temples, Pekkola might have passed another monument without much interest.
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Key idea 6
Business reveals another struggle for power
In the Dutch East Indies, Pekkola turns from monuments to offices, shops and hotels.
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Key idea 7
Snake hunting mixes danger with farce
In Sumatra, Pekkola joins circus owner Burton and animal trainer Dannon to hunt live pythons.
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Key idea 8
The voyage south becomes another comedy
On Nieuw Zeeland, Pekkola shares a spacious third class cabin with a contractor and a gold miner.
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Key idea 9
The storyteller deserves a second look
The journey from the Persian Gulf to Queensland leaves a trail of people and places: India's trains, Java's monuments and volcanoes, merchants in competition, and python hunters in Sumatra.
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who it’s for
You will enjoy this if you love travel tales told with humour, from one honest eyewitness. It suits readers who like ships, trains, jungle trails and colonial Asia.
What this book is
What does a Finnish forester do when he reaches the Indian coast with a knife, a camera and a typewriter, and no gun? He talks his way through.
Cheers, Buddha! is the travel memoir of Sulo-Weikko Pekkola, a Finnish adventurer who died in 1931. He writes in a dry, joking voice about a trip through the colonial lands of Asia and on to Australia.
In this summary
- 1A traveller talks his way throughFree
- 2India unsettles his first expectations
- 3The observer can misunderstand the scene
- 4Singapore rewards asking the right person
- 5Java rewards a closer look
- 6Business reveals another struggle for power
- 7Snake hunting mixes danger with farce
- 8The voyage south becomes another comedy
- 9The storyteller deserves a second look
The sea route to India brings first friends
Pekkola had planned to enter India by land. But unrest in Baluchistan made that road unsafe, and officials in Iraq warned that a gun permit would probably be denied. The summer heat and the cost of an armed escort settled the matter. He took the sea route and never regretted it, since friends come quickly at sea.
In Basra he boards the mail steamer Warsaw. After a month of desert dust, a cabin and a bath of cold salt water feel like paradise. He shares the cabin with a gentle Indian major and his adjutant, who sleep through most of the voyage. The adjutant also pesters Pekkola for a photograph. To end the nagging, Pekkola clicks the shutter on an empty plate holder, and for seven days the man asks when his picture will come.
Then the monsoon swell rolls up from the south, and ninety percent of the passengers go straight to bed. The major hands Pekkola his bananas and mangoes, since he cannot face food. Pekkola, who feels fine, eats them.
Enjoy friendships at sea, but expect little from promises, since the businessmen who offer letters never reply.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why should Pekkola's observations and conclusions be considered separately?
Right. “His judgments are sharp and often unkind, but the details are vivid.”Not quite. “His judgments are sharp and often unkind, but the details are vivid.”
Who helps Pekkola find his way to the rubber plantations?
Right. “Then Pekkola calls on the editor of the Straits Times, who gives addresses, routes and letters of introduction.”Not quite. “Then Pekkola calls on the editor of the Straits Times, who gives addresses, routes and letters of introduction.”
What creates a conflict between Pekkola and Dannon during the snake hunt?
Right. “On another day he kills a python that bursts from a cage and wraps a helper, and Dannon is furious that a live animal was lost.”Not quite. “On another day he kills a python that bursts from a cage and wraps a helper, and Dannon is furious that a live animal was lost.”
Go deeper: the whole of Cheers — Buddha!
About 2 h 40 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 37,700 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h 40 min
Questions about Cheers — Buddha!
What is Cheers, Buddha! about?
It is a travel memoir by Finnish adventurer Sulo-Weikko Pekkola. He journeys from Basra to India, Singapore, Java, Sumatra and Australia in the 1920s, telling comic and sharp stories about ships, trains, hotels, jungles and the colonial world.
Who was Sulo-Weikko Pekkola?
Pekkola was a Finnish forester and traveller who died in 1931. He wrote of his own travels with humour and plain detail, and he often mentions his forestry background, his typewriter and his camera.
Is Cheers, Buddha! a true story?
Yes, it is presented as a true travel account, drawn from Pekkola's own journey and diary. It has the tone of a storyteller, with jokes and exaggeration, but names real places, prices, dates and people along the route.
Where does the journey take place?
The trip runs from Iraq by sea to Bombay, across India to Calcutta, then to Rangoon, Singapore, Java, Sumatra and Macassar, and on to Brisbane in Queensland. The narrative groups its scenes into geographical and thematic chapters.
Is the book worth reading today?
Readers who like travel writing find it lively and funny. It offers a close look at 1920s Asia and Australia through short scenes, vivid details and an outspoken narrator who tells stories against himself.
Cite this edition
Pekkola, Sulo-Weikko. Cheers — Buddha! Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/cheers-buddha.
Pekkola, S.-W. (2026). Cheers — Buddha! Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/cheers-buddha
Pekkola, Sulo-Weikko. Cheers — Buddha! Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/cheers-buddha.
@book{pekkola2026cheers,
author = {Pekkola, Sulo-Weikko},
title = {Cheers — Buddha!},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/cheers-buddha}
}
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