Look What They’re Wearing! Textiles from Temple Murals

One lazy afternoon in a small coastal town in Sri Lanka that I was staying in for 2 weeks.

One afternoon, out of sense of ‘not much else to do’ I asked the driver to drive through the villages around.

We saw green fields and water bodies and a few old houses. Mostly like the rest of Sri Lanka.

And then suddenly we came upon this structure… it didn’t belong in this place or time.

Out of curiosity I went inside and it turned out to be a temple.

In one section a monk was giving a discourse to a group of about 30-40 men and women, all dressed in white. I avoided that building and went around the outside … did not want to disturb them or be seen at all.

As I entered the white building at the back, it was dark but there was enough dim light from the windows to see that there was much much more than I could see. The sense that I was going to need a lot of time and a lot of battery in my phone to take in everything was already upon me. My eyes began to adjust to the light … and the first glance of the treasure trove of art pre-exhausted me. The casual stroll I thought I was taking was suddenly about to become, without any warning, an intense lesson in Sinhalese art.

And so I nudged my mind into the “high alert” state, adjusted my phone camera, opened my eyes wide and began the long journey inside the small temple.

AND LOOK WHAT THEY’RE WEARING!!

Fantastic paintings right?

And to have stumbled upon these by chance makes them even more dear to me…

Imagining that I could have missed seeing these altogether and just lived my whole life oblivious to their presence had I had “something to do” that afternoon, makes me shudder!

Hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these as much!

***

jaina mishra / August 2025

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