THE JEWELS OF NATURE

Sri Lanka is noted for creating two distinct styles of jewellery. The southern style, originating around Galle, makes the stone central to the design, with the metal serving only to hold the gems in place. The style is more Western in origin.

More distinctive, however, is the second tradition – that of filigree jewellery, a refinement associated with the Kandyan kingdom. This places the metalwork first and foremost, with delicate patterns in gold and silver, but put together with such boldness as to make each piece utterly unmissable.

The filigree work is very intricate, much of it done by hand. The designs used blend the most traditional Sinhala designs with South Indian styles of the 16th and 17th centuries, arising from the frequent intermarriages of Kandyan kings with South Indian royal families, with the queens bringing Indian goldsmiths to the island. This migration of experts merged with the feudal caste divisions in the Kandyan kingdom, creating families that specialised in filigree work. The work is so specialised that different villages around Kandy become associated with single pieces: crowns, tiaras, bangles, necklaces, rings, anklets, and girdles.

Its motifs include flowers, leaves, and birds that give their name to the different designs - for example, a classic Kandyan necklace is called the “pol mal malaya” or coconut flower garland, created by large golden beads linked together with strands of gold.

The jewellery was much ransacked during the colonial era – but it remains precisely the sort of item that figures large at weddings and in family wills, as it is bequeathed down the generations and is a determinant of status, wealth, and prosperity.

Many of the well-known jewellers in Kandy sell newly created versions of this filigree work – Hemachandras,
Shri Nadika or Viswakula Sons, for example, and older pieces can sometimes be found in such antique shops as Warunas in Peradeniya.