Traditional Puppet Art Museum

Puppet art has been spread into many countries over the world, but the Sri Lankan puppet art has a Sri Lankan hereditary. The main reason for this hereditary is the social, cultural and religious correlation that exists in the Sri Lankan community.
Traditional oblations, devil dances, healing rituals, Kolam & Nadagam which were built up in the southern province of Sri Lanka have basically affected to be born inherent characters of Sri Lanka. There are evidences to prove that the Sri Lankan puppet art had received basic influence from the Rajasthan Province of Southern India.
Sri Lankan puppeteers have created a tradition inherited to Sri Lanka while having a great skill to dance the puppets dressed with garments and masks connected with strings which are used for traditional Bali, Thovil, healing rituals and folk dance characters.
18 Sanni, healing rituals like Bali & Thovil, Dikthala & Kalagola story, Widura Jathakaya, rural characters like Gamarala, Gama mahage and Gama Diyaniya, kolam dances like Jasaya & Lenchina are played by these puppeteers. These puppeteers are clever enough to make humor, fear, sympathy and satire to the audience by presenting of dialogs, poems and speeches. Rural and urban areas of Ambalangoda is world famous for puppet art of Sri Lanka. These puppeteers belong to about 25 schools and most of them are residing Ambalangoda and Mirissa in the Southern Province and Kandy in the Central Province while the rest is spread all over Sri Lanka. There are number of stories that are used for a traditional puppet show and they use puppets belongs to about 20 varieties.
Height and weight of a puppet is about 140 cm. and 5-10 kgs respectively and around 10 craftsmen participate for a puppet show. They play traditional musical instruments while doing speeches and singings.

Art Museum
This puppet art museum was established with the intention of preserving the memory of traditional arts in the mind of Sri Lankan community and also to take this art to the international level. Puppet shows, collecting data and research work, training sessions, seminars and lectures are conducted at this centre. Many projects are being organized to popularize the puppet art in Sri Lanka and abroad with the collaboration of Cultural ministry, Tourism ministry and Education Ministry. Founder of this traditional puppet art museum and present chairman and managing director, presidential award winner, world master Mr. Sarath Wijaya Abeygunawardana is directing this institute with the help of well experienced staff.

Services
Traditional puppet art museum is rendering a great service to protect the traditional puppet art in Sri Lanka. Mr. Sarath Abeygunawardhana has done an enormous job by founding this traditional puppet art museum with formal and high standard quality.
Traditional puppeteers have been assisted to present their shows in a more formal way and given opportunities to sell their creations in the local and international market by this traditional puppet art museum while collecting data of traditional puppeteers. They also have taken steps to preserve the traditional puppet arts, masks and other creations.
• Organizing of local and foreign puppet shows in Sri Lanka.
• Organizing of seminars, workshops and training programs regarding the traditional puppet art.
• Doing researches and assisting to do researches regarding traditional puppet art.
• Assisting to uplift the economy of the puppeteers and creators.
• Preserving the traditional knowledge and collecting of goods necessary for the puppet art.
• Organizing puppet show and workshops for school children in their schools or in the traditional puppet art museum.

A travellers Blog
My grandma was to me what Old Nan was to the Stark kids (Game of Thrones). They both excelled at recounting terrifying tales to young children. Her specialty was narrating (with copious embellishment of the gory details) the execution of the Ehelepola family. So it is with some residual grandma-instilled dread that I entered the Traditional Puppet Museum, whose resident puppets depict 7 well known ancient folktales (including the Ehelepolas’ fate).
The gallery is housed in an unassuming building, near the Dehiwala Zoo. I dropped by on a Saturday evening and the place was completely deserted except for one young woman who was the sole staff member present. A ticket costs just Rs 50/= (If you are taking photos: Rs 100) a nominal fee for a place that preserves the waning tradition of storytelling via puppets.
The ‘rukada’ figures have been handcrafted by traditional puppet artists with remarkable attention to detail. A king who donated his own head, a charitable prince who gave away his children, a young beautiful woman who betrays her stout, dwarf and well, ugly husband. These are just a few of the riveting characters rendered in puppet form.
Unfortunately the exhibits are labeled only in Sinhala. I was told that the museum’s founder is usually available to translate but they should really work on having Tamil/English signs at each exhibit to make the folktales more accessible to all visitors.
I haven’t witnessed their puppet shows myself but they are bound to be a treat for young and old alike. You have to call the museum in advance to arrange a puppet show. It costs Rs 100 per person for a show (Where 1 of the 7 folktales will be performed).
The last gallery displays an impressive variety of masks/ puppets available for purchase (starting at around Rs 1800/=).