A morning at the National Museum

The next day we had an appointment to meet Chandramani Thenuwara, the doyen of textile technology in Sri Lanka, to see aspects of her work and to view the new Textiles Gallery at the Museum. 

The Neo Classical, Italianate building was created specifically for its purpose by the British Governor, Sir William Gregory, in 1877. It sits in expansive grounds, the impressive façade fronting a wide lawn with curved driveway leading to a porticoed entrance. At its perimeter sits a shining white Buddha statue and superb banyan tree, its trailing branches and parasitic inclusions adding dimension to its enormous girth.

Colombo Museum

Banyan tree

The museum is a vast storehouse of ancient artefacts ranging from reproductions of significant wall paintings in the pantheon of Mediaeval Sri Lankan art and immense religious stone and metal statues, to humble household tools in clay, metal and ivory. The magnificence of the throne and regalia of the Kandyan kings is one of the highlights of the collection. Seized by the British after their defeat of the last King of Kandy in 1815, these exhibits were shipped to Windsor Castle and remained there until they were returned by George V in 1934. As a child I spent much time in these rooms, dazzled by the encrustations of coloured jewels on crowns, swords and the throne itself.

We made our way to an anteroom off the front entrance to hear Chandramani speak about her work. A University lecturer for over 30 years, she is the first woman Chartered Textile Technologist and Fellow of the Textile Institute in the UK. Originally a painter whose interests turned to textile science, on her return from the UK she imparted her knowledge to women weavers at home.

She creates fine woven pieces using non traditional weavers to create complex, large scale designs that reflect her immense knowledge of colour and technique based on Itten’s colour theory. A beautiful range of cloth, now donated to the museum collection, explores the spectrum in combination with black and white outlines that cause reactions in colour intensity. Her designs have been incorporated into the clothing collections of renowned local fashion designers, and despite a somewhat recalcitrant PPT presentation we were able to view a cross section of her work.

Chandramani with her colour spectrum textiles

Her other passion has been a deep study of the traditional woven garment, the diyakacchi cloth, a garment that dates from Mediaeval times and was worn by men as a bathing garment and a loose fitting modesty cloth that allowed freedom of movement whilst running. The elaborate nature of this traditional design - woven in black and red on a white ground – honours the covering of the body from early times. Several of them are in the Museum’s textile collection, and we were able to view a contemporary reproduction, the result of Chandramani’s meticulous unpicking of its woven technique.

The diyakacchi garment

Detail of diyakacchi in museum collection utilising Sinhala script

A viewing of the new Textile Gallery followed. Situated on the upper level, it has been carefully planned to show the diverse range of historical textiles in this country, from printed kerchiefs to embroidered betel bags, delicate chintz somanas to painted temple cloths measuring in excess of 60 feet. The beautiful chintzes, known as somana tuppotiya were imported from the Coromandel Coast.

A 19th C. kerchief printed with British pound notes

A glass cabinet displays an array of betel bags of various sizes, an accessory indigenous to Sri Lanka. Designed in the shape of an oval betel leaf with a shoulder strap, they were used to carry the makings of the powerful chewing drug composed of betel leaf, areca nut and chunam (lime) which when combined in the mouth produces violently red spittle.

A corner is devoted to the costumes of the differing communities resident over the centuries – Malay, Muslim, Dutch Burgher and British outfits – a melting pot of East and West by virtue of Sri Lanka’s position at the centre of the spice and silk routes. Unfortunately they are contemporary reproductions of these garments rather than original preservations.