Sri Lanka may be a small country in size, but when it comes to its arts and culture, Sri Lanka is second to none. In fact, despite the low land area, the country demonstrates a high diversity of arts across the country. In southern Sri Lanka, there’s a unique cultural milieu including southern food, southern dancing style and arts and crafts. Among them lies the tradition of making gorgeous traditional masks out of wood. The tradition is still popular and widespread centering Ambalangoda, a town in the Galle district, famous for demon masks and demon dances.

When tracing the history of traditional masks of Sri Lanka, it runs as back as the 15th century when devil worshipping was popular. It is believed that Sri Lanka has inherited these traditions of mask-making and devil-dancing from the dancing rituals and traditions of the cities of Kerala and Malabar in India.

The traditional masks of Sri Lanka are interpreted in various ways. Indeed, they symbolise the fears, hopes and beliefs of the rural folk of ancient Sri Lanka while at the same time it hints at the sense of entertainment; in the folk theatre where the people performed wearing masks.  These masks are identified to be part of religion, ritual dramas and folk theatre with ritual overtones.

The Sri Lankan traditional masks or ‘Ves Muhunu’ in Sinhala slightly translating as ‘character faces’ are used in three distinct situations: Ritual masks are used in rituals related to god and demon worshipping, theatre masks that enhance the theatrical, visual and the symbolical effect of the character and carnival, and festive or ceremonial masks. There are several masks such as the ‘Gara’ which are used in all three situations.  It is such a vibrant mask with large protruding eyes and, gaudy colour patterns and decorations.

In Sri Lanka, the masks are used for several purposes. The most popular usage is in dances and theatre while the use of masks in rituals along with the tradition is fading away nowadays. Also, it is a common practice to hang devil masks in front of the households hoping that they could cast off the evil-eye.

Mask dances

Basically, three types of mask dances can be identified in Sri Lanka such as Raksha (Demon) dances, Kolam (Folktale) dances and Sanni (Devil Dance) dances. Kolam masks are used to represent various officers and people in the society in performing the Kolam drama with singing and jokes. Raksha masks are believed to be used to ward off evil or as an aid in festivals like Gam madu or Devol madu. The third type, Sanni masks are mostly used in Thovil and witchcraft healing ceremonies and worn by an edura (exorcist). According to the tradition, there are 18 different Sanni masks with each one assigned to heal a specific illness.

“While the production of handcrafted masks using traditional methods and the performing of devil dances to cure ailments have both greatly diminished in recent years, the making of synthetic masks and the enactment of devil dances for outsiders is still popular in the southern coastal region. Besides, it’s reassuring to know that whether you’re seeking protection from snakes or fire, or suffering from nightmares, nausea, epilepsy or blindness, there’s always a Sri Lankan mask cure for all your problems” mentions SriLanka Masks, a website.

Masks used in rituals

Since ancient times, demons and other unearthly spirits were believed to reside on trees and large rocks and worshipped those objects, the practice of performing rituals for demons was also very popular among the folks. These rituals were carried out in sickness, and bad luck. The masks used in these instances were mainly mythological, animal-spirit, demonic and human figures. Animal and demonic masks are considered to be the oldest of them.

However, in the present day, the masks have gone out from their initial purposes that were a forementioned and have largely taken a decorative purpose. The new artists who make masks have stepped forward in mixing up various masks and traditions to innovate new mask faces which are gorgeous and magnificent aiming at the tourism and interior designing industry.

This article was excerpted from a post by Induwara Athapattu on Ceylon Today.