Traditional Crafts of Sri Lanka

We start the day with our first workshop with Karin, at the hotel. Tea/coffee will be served part way through.

After some free time for lunch, we’ll explore Colombo City. Due to its large harbour and its strategic position along the East-West sea trade routes, Colombo was known to ancient traders 2,000 years ago. However, it was only made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815.

On this tour we'll visit many of the historical, religious and commercial sites of Colombo including the bustling Fort and Pettah neighbourhoods, the elite residential Cinnamon Gardens neighbourhood, Galle Face Green, an ocean-side urban park, the newly opened Lotus Tower, and Viharamahadevi Park, the oldest and largest park in Colombo. We’ll also visit the textile collection at Colombo National Museum. Our tour will end at Barefoot Gallery Café, also home to a display of fine crafts from around the island.

Dinner is included this evening.

Depart Colombo and head to Kandy, the second major city in Sri Lanka. On route we will visit the Elephant Foundation in Rambukkana, an organisation and charity set up to rescue and care for captive Asian elephants. The foundation is situated on a 15-acre estate and, since its inception, has cared for more than 80 elephants. As of 2023, there are 10 elephants that reside either permanently or temporarily at the sanctuary. The elephants are cared for by 13 local mahouts and several foreign volunteers.

We then continue to Kandy and enjoy the remainder of the day at leisure. Dinner is included this evening.

We enjoy an excursion to Matale this morning, where we’ll visit the Spice Garden, as well as a Batik factory. Matale Spice Garden has long been renowned for its spices. Since ancient times, traders from all around the world came to Sri Lanka and brought their native cuisines to the island, resulting in a rich diversity of cooking styles and techniques. Here we’ll see spices such as clove, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, mace and pepper growing, and learn how they are used in traditional medicine and local cuisine.

We will then visit the Batik factory and enjoy a hands-on experience in Batik fabric processing. Batik is a widely used craft and medium of expression in Sri Lanka, where it has a long history. This factory and showroom are great places to see the batik-making process, from the drawing of the designs and multistage dyeing of cloth to the boiling away of the wax. In Sri Lanka, batik fabric is used for many things including scarves, bags, tablecloths, bedspreads, wall hangings, dresses, sarongs, shirts and sarees.

Back in Kandy for the afternoon, we’ll visit the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and enjoy a short tour of beautiful Kandy town, including a visit to the Kandyan Art Association Cultural Centre.

The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a world-renowned place of worship, where the left canine tooth of Gautama Buddha is enshrined. The temple, which is venerated by thousands of local and foreign devotees and tourists daily, was named as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988. The temple carries a lot of value to Buddhists all over the world, but also has immense cultural value. It is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country. The temple is adorned with intricate carvings using gold, silver, bronze, and ivory.

Our walking tour of Kandy will take us through the town centre, where well-known international brands co-exist with the local market and bazaar, an arts and crafts centre and a gem museum and studio. The Kandyan Art Association Cultural Centre was formed in 1882 to revitalise traditional Kandyan arts and crafts such as weaving, wood carving, painting, jewellery making, music and dance and to support the traditional craftsmen by providing them a sales outlet. Here, we’ll also enjoy an hour long traditional Kandyan dance and music performance, performed by local families.

Dinner is included this evening.

Handloom weaving is a centuries-old craft that is now an essential part of Sri Lanka’s cultural heritage. The process involves manually interlacing thread to produce fabric, carefully controlling the threads to create intricate patterns and designs. Sri Lankan handloom fabrics are known for their higher quality, dexterous patterns and vibrant colours; it’s common to see geometric shapes, complex motifs and striking colour combinations. Designs often contain symbols from religion and the natural world. Sri Lankan handloom weavers use a diverse range of materials, including blends of natural fibres, cotton and silk. Each region of Sri Lanka has its own unique handloom weaving style. This morning we’ll travel to Kurenegala to visit a handloom factory.

We return to Kandy this afternoon and visit a Dumbara weaving workshop. Learn about Dumbara weaving, named after its place of origin near Kandy. Mats were traditionally made on home-made looms by musicians who wove when they were not required to play for state occasions. As with other weaving, the warp threads are arranged parallel to each other and held in tension. The weft threads wind under and over the warp threads to create the fabric.

Dinner is included this evening.

Our excursion this morning takes us to the Ceylon Tea Museum. The museum is located in the former Hanthana Tea Factory, originally constructed in 1925. Hanthana was one of the first successful areas to cultivate tea following the failure of coffee production on the island. The four-storey tea factory had been abandoned for more than a decade before it was refurbished in 2001. The first two floors of the museum contain exhibits on tea pioneers as well as vintage tea-processing paraphernalia. The third floor has a shop, selling a selection of Sri Lanka’s fine teas, whilst the top floor contains a restaurant and tea rooms.

Return to Kandy for a Laksha (lacquerware) painting workshop. Laksha is a traditional handicraft, originally existing in Europe and Asia, but there are now only a handful of countries where this beautiful industry has survived. The term Laksha comes from the name of the insect that secretes a resin-like substance used to create the lacquer, which is applied to wooden items. The Laksha insect is bred in suitable trees to encourage it to produce the resin, which is then collected by scraping the leaves of the tree. The resin is then washed, dried and filtered to remove the sticky consistency and to enhance its golden colour. The resin is then coloured using either natural dyes or machine-made titanium dyes.

This afternoon, return to our hotel for our second workshop with Karin. Tea/coffee will be served part way through. Dinner is included this evening.

Depart Kandy for Galle, the best example of a walled city built by the Portuguese in South Asia in the 16th century. The city was then extensively fortified by the Dutch in the 17th century. The city has a colourful history, and today has a multi-ethnic and multi-religious population and is occupied mostly by artists, writers, photographers, designers and poets of foreign origin and contains boutiques, hotels and restaurants.

On route we’ll stop to visit a cane manufacturing workshop in Weweldeniya. Transforming cane into furniture and other caneware is a skill passed down through the generations since ancient times. Cane weaving is practiced in several villages in Sri Lanka, however due to the importation of cane products from other countries and the availability of cheap plastic furniture, the cane industry is in decline.

Dinner is included this evening.

This morning we’ll enjoy a workshop with Karin at the hotel. Tea/coffee will be served part way through.

This afternoon we’ll visit Galle Dutch Fort and the walled city. The fort is the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers. The heritage value of the fort has been recognized by UNESCO and the site has been inscribed as World Heritage Site for its unique exposition of "an urban ensemble which illustrates the interaction of European architecture and South Asian traditions from the 16th to the 19th centuries."

Return to our hotel for dinner.

Sooriya Weaving Mill was established in 1976 by mother and son team Mr and Miss Sooriyaarachchi, with the intention of revitalising the Sri Lankan handloom industry. The mill is currently the largest handloom factory in the south of Sri Lanka, bringing together textile designers, artisanal communities, weavers and artists, all dedicated to ensuring the continuity of the craft. Our visit here will take us on a journey through the rich cultural heritage of Sri Lanka, as we learn about the distinctive fabrics from each region.

Dinner is included this evening.

Beralu, or lace making, is a legacy from the Portuguese and Dutch colonisations. Now, with a history of over 600 years in Sri Lanka, it can be considered one of the important aspects of the country’s heritage. Enjoy learning about the process as we participate in a workshop and understand how these intricate lace designs are created.

Dinner is included this evening.

We depart Galle and travel to Colombo. On route, we’ll stop at Ambalangoda and Apey Game.

Ambalangoda is renowned for the manufacture of wooden masks and puppets. The traditional masks are carved from light wood such as Balsa. The wood is smoke dried for a week in preparation and then hand carved and hand painted before being used in traditional dance and dramas. We’ll then visit the Ariyapala Mask Museum, a cultural centre that exhibits the masks as well as other handicrafts.

In Apey Gama, we’ll watch some pottery manufacturing. The use of clay in Sri Lanka started to gain more attention with the introduction of Buddhism to the island as Buddhist stupas were built using clay. Over time, clay craftsmen travelling to Sri Lanka on various historical occasions improved the local knowledge and allowed local jobs to be created. The country has its patterns and styles when it comes to its pottery products, with each form of pottery serving a different purpose. Pottery used for domestic purposes was often not decorated whereas decorative pottery was coloured and glazed.

Dinner is included this evening.