SLT RAINBOW PAGES

Martin Wickramasinge Museum

The Martin Wickramasinge Folk Culture Museum, which was established by the Martin Wickramasinghe Trust in 1981, contains a unique collection of artefacts depicting the history of Sri Lankan folk culture and technology. The Folk Museum Complex is surrounded by a restored ecosystem planted with hundreds of varieties of indigenous trees and shrubs in which bird life abounds, transforming the parkland into an enchanting rural landscape; a haven for quiet contemplation.

Martin Wickramasinghe is one of Sri Lanka’s most renowned authors and intellectuals. The establishment of a Folk Culture Museum was long a desire of the late author who wanted to recapture within it the cultural and technological artefacts which were a familiar part of his childhood. The various objects of folk culture acquired during his lifetime have been the starting point of the collection found in the museum. 

The Martin Wickramasinghe Trust has developed the Folk Culture Museum into a growing repository of artefacts depicting the history of Sri Lankan folk culture and technology, from ancient to modern times. The museum is housed in several large, spacious, high-roofed buildings situated close to the entrance of the complex. It currently holds over a thousand artefacts of Sri Lankan rural life (many of which are not found outside the Museum), providing a vast and unique storehouse of knowledge of local folk culture and folk technology going back several centuries. The elegantly displayed artefacts provide unique insights into the ways of life of a bygone era.

The Museum includes many sections representative of folk technology and ways of life, amongst which are:

  • Religious artefacts, including Buddhist religious artefacts and those relating to folk religious practices.
  • A unique collection of masks, musical instruments and drums.
  • Artefacts relating to folk dance and puppetry.
  • Costumes of the various ethnic groups of Sri Lanka.
  • The evolution of the Sinhala alphabet and writing utensils.
  • Village agricultural, fishing, pottery, and metallurgical technologies.
  • Folk games and artefacts associated with traditional social interaction.
  • Traditional lace making.
  • A collection of traditional jewellery.
  • Traditional modes of transportation, including some unique items such as an elephant cart and boats used for deep sea fishing.

The museum also contains a model of an ancient smelter used to produce high grade steel in the first millennium A.D. These furnaces were ingeniously designed to use the effects of the powerful monsoon winds to keep charcoal fires smelting hot. 

The 8 acre complex includes the Folk Culture Museum as well as the house in which the author was born. The house and the surroundings bring to life a little part of the Koggala which is so vividly depicted in Wickramasinghe’s writings.

Martin Wickramasinghe was born in the village of Malalgama in 1890. A section of the ancestral home in which he and his sisters grew up with their parents has survived the rigours of time. The house has been partly renovated, whilst preserving its original architecture. Part of the rear section of the house is thought to be over 250 years old. It is a typical southern abode of the period, with pleasing Dutch architectural features and cool, whitewashed walls and floors paved with square bricks. 

The house was taken over by the Royal Air Force during World War II, when all villagers in Malalgama and surrounding villages were asked to vacate their houses within 24 hours. Most homes were demolished to build a sea plane base (the airstrip of which is in use to this day.)

Wickramasinghe’s house miraculously escaped the fate of others in his village. The story goes that this simple house with its subdued architecture caught the eye of a female Air Force officer, and she made it her residence during the military occupation of the area, ensuring its preservation. 

It was a Catalina aircraft from this base which alerted the British government to the presence of a Japanese fleet, thus ensuring that adequate defensive measures were taken by the military to ward off an attack.

The Trust has recreated the rooms of the house, including the room in which he was born, with original furniture and many of the late author’s personal belongings strategically placed so as to give a visitor the impression that Wickramasinghe has left the house for a stroll along the Koggala beach, and will soon be back.

The Hall of Life is an extension of the house; in it Martin Wickramasinghe’s life and times are presented through photographs, paintings, sketches, souvenirs, awards and memorabilia. Copies of published works and several pages from hand written manuscripts are also found here.

The grass covered mound to the right of the house holds his ashes, surmounted by a wedge-shaped rock from the Koggala reef, on which he spent many hours of his day during his childhood. The ashes of his wife Prema are also buried under this mound.

Useful Information

Location: Koggala (on the Galle-Matara road, 14km from Galle; road opposite the Fortress Hotel main entrance) 

Opening Times: 9 AM to 5 PM every day except the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year day in 

April and Vesak Poya day in May

Tickets: Rs. 200 (1.75 USD)

Books authored by Martin Wickramasinghe (including translations and books written in English) can be purchased at the Museum.