The Art, Music and dances of Sri Lanka

 

Owing to its long, rich history, Sri Lanka endows exquisite arts evolving through the course of time which has refined its culture to be unique and precious heritage of the nation. Its pivotal position on the ancient Silk Route made Sri Lanka a crossroad of cultural and trade exchange of the West and the East. India and China's record has proved the cultural, political and trade exuberance of this island.

The traditional agricultural life style made people come together to help each other in work. The gatherings for work created a nice atmosphere for dance and music. The Art, Music and dances of Sri Lanka were derived from the elements of Nature. The temple paintings and carvings used birds, elephants, wild animals, flowers and trees. The colors were made of nature.

In many ways Sri Lankan arts is an inspiration of its long and lasting Buddhist tradition which in turn absorbed and adopted countless regional and local tradition for thousand of years, evolving to be a unique variant of Sri Lankan arts. Unsurprising, most of Sri Lankan arts originated religious beliefs, represented in many artistic forms such as painting, sculpture, architecture, and so on

Our ancestors developed art & sound from nature. This is why cave paintings showed animals and the environment. Music started from imitating the sounds of birds & other wild animals. The North Indian Music notes of Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da & Ni were supposed to be the imitations of the sounds of Peacock, Cow, Goat, Tern, Kowula, Horse & Elephant. Music was not only used for entertainment. They got it involved in their day to day life as well. For example, still ‘Pal Kavi’ a form of Folk poetry used in rural arrears when guarding a farmer’s crops.