Saturday, 7 September 2013 00:00
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If there was one thing Martin Wickramasinghe was passionate about, it was to educate his readers about how our national identity is woven around the beautiful folk art and culture of the country. Owing to this, the Martin Wickramasinghe Trust has built a museum at his birthplace in Koggala, in a beautiful and serene plot of land that spans across several acres.
While the Martin Wickramasinghe Museum of Folk Culture hosts a collection of artefacts relating to arts and crafts, folk technology and folk life as depicted through a range of jewellery, household utensils and furniture, equipment on agri and fishery industries, modes of transportation, entertainment, etc., what is unique to the museum is the house where Wickramasinghe was born. Many of the artefacts on display have been acquired by the Trust and some donated by various members of society.
Even though the land that occupied his house along with uncle’s house were taken under British rule during World War II, his family was later handed back the keys to the property by the then Government of Sri Lanka (1962). Interestingly, while his uncle’s house was no more when the property was handed over to its rightful owners, the house in which Wickramasinghe grew up remained intact as it was supposedly used by a British lady serving the cause.
Today, the house has been restored to its former glory and visitors can walk through the narrow pathway that leads to an area that is filled with the writer’s memorabilia. A large collection of his work, books that were thumbed through by Wickramasinghe, the pens and inks he then used, along with a host of letters he wrote and the certificates and awards he received are exhibited here. A large collection of photographs and paper cuttings relating to his life and work and a caricatures of him drawn by various parties are showcased here.
Outside, in a clearing amidst the shady trees and the greenery that surrounds the area, a samadhi has been erected where Wickramasinghe’s ashes were interred in 1976 followed by those of his wife in 2001. The samadhi and the house of his birth are symbols that span over several decades of continuous intellectual exploration and creative writing.
