Figure 1.-- Here are photographs of Sri Lanka boy dancers taken in the 1930s. The photographs were taken by a passenger aboard the "S.S. Resolute" (Hamburg-American Line) on a world cruise in 1935. The boys are elaborately costumed for a Kandyan dance which is is the most popular traditional dance in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan traditional dances are influenced by Buddhist culture though it is believed originated in India. So, it is reasonable to say that Sri Lankan traditional dances are a mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism cultures. Dancing patterns are varying from region to region of Sri Lanka and they are known as Kandyan dances, Sabaragamuwa dances, low-country dances, devil dances etc. and some of these dances can be sub-categorized further. Since there is an influence of Hindu culture, some parts of dances are restricted to boys/men because according to some Hindu beliefs, some activities should not be performed by girls/women. This quality can be seen in the festival of the “Temple of Tooth” in Kandy. But nowadays girls also perform some parts in their schools as a part of their education. The costumes also vary based on the type of the dance but there are no major differences except among Kandyan and Sabaragamuwa dances. The image here is a Kandyan dance and it is the most popular traditional dance in Sri Lanka (figure 1). In devil dances, the dances are performed by the artists by putting different kind of masks and it also used as a treatment for diseases caused by “Unseen Hands”. When talking about costumes in Kandyan dances, the main part is the head-dress. The chest is covered by only decorative beaded net. For bottom part they using an elaborative piece of white cloth and this is known as “Ves” costume. Addition to that they wear different kinds of jewelery. The head-dress is only worn by qualified artists and the others only wear a cowl made by a cloth as illustrated here (figure 1). Currently traditional dancing is a very interesting subject among school children, especially among boys from ages 8-10 years of age and above. In Kandyan dances, boys are qualified to wear head-dress after they develop their skills to the satidfaction of their masters. Girls are also learning some parts of dances and they perform in some festivals for entertainment purposes. We do note some photographs of boy dancers taken in the 1930s. The photographs were taken by a passenger aboard the S.S. Resolute (Hamburg-American Line) on a world cruise in 1935. The boys are elaborately costumed, but we have no information about the costumes at this time. A reader writes, "I have a comment, although I have never been to Sri Lanka. It was still called Ceylon in the late-1950s when I was in graduate school. We had a student from Ceylon who wore a similar "skirt" for casual wear in our dorm. I never saw him wear it outside. It was blue in color, more narrow than those in your picture, and had no ornamentation. We found it strange at first, but one got used to it.

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Created: 8:50 PM 4/16/2006
Last updated: 5:12 AM 8/4/2008