Museum Walk: Masks of Sri lanka

The more I see of Asian Art, the more I feel that it is impossible to know enough …

There are millions of ethnic groups.

Each produces at least 2-3 dozen forms of art

Each art form is associated with hundreds of cultural backstories.

So it is humanly impossible for one person to know all the hundreds of backstories of all the art forms of all the ethnic groups of any geography in general and in particular of Asia.

So on any trip, when I see new forms of art – I’m struck with delight but also a flash vision of my ignorance – that I try hard to ignore.

This happened when I saw Sri Lankan masks in real life for the first time in Galle – a pretty city in the South. But instead of spending dollars, I took pictures to study these better and went back to mull over the possible purchases (such a delay is very unusual for me – this is a sure sign that I am becoming old & wise).

Here are pictures of the ones I’d seen in a small store:

To be fair, the dealer said they were old but did not say they were antique … which in itself is a loose term in most places.

Here’s the one he said is very very old and was not for sale:

I went back from Galle with a nagging little itch to go back and buy some of these…. but the call of the ocean was strong enough to allow me to suppress the itch.

But I knew that regret is a terrible thing …so I made plans to visit the city that is known for masks in the hope of finding something old – for comparison and maybe even buying.

And so next day I went by road to Ambalangoda, the center for mask-making – that was two hours away from Mirissa where I was staying. [On a separate note: this coastal road through the village is amazing … and not a single travel site mentions it anywhere … I guess there’s no money to be made when someone just goes by road from place A to place B – but it is a MUST-SEE if you visit South Sri Lanka].

After asking around, my driver took me to this small family-run museum. It is an very good educational effort – where all the different masks are explained. The display of old photos in which these masks are seen in performances were superb … it gives us the context of actual cultural usage: