Martin Wickramasinghe folk museum Koggala the museum the beach crowd drives past

Koggala host and the museum is what I send every thinking guest toward What the collection covers far more than a writers house the folk museum halls hold the material culture of southern village life assembled with love and scholarship the kolam and sanni masks with their full ritual context explained the fishing technology from stilt to madel seine nets the kitchen and agricultural implements puppetry bullock carts traditional medicine cabinets and the hall of folk religion that connects the masks you see sold in Ambalangoda to the healing rituals they actually served The writers house preserved as the modest village home where Wickramasinghe was born anchors it all his study his books the garden he wrote about Does he translate yes through one book pick up Madol Doova at the museum shop the boyhood adventure novel set on the mangrove island in this very lagoon it reads in an afternoon and suddenly the landscape around you is annotated the museum the lagoon the village all become chapters The Koggala corner day morning museum two unhurried hours entry modest then a lagoon boat to the cinnamon island and the temple island the Madol Doova island itself among them afternoon at the quiet end of Koggala beach or the Handunugoda estate inland and the evening stilt fishermen silhouettes at Ahangama The deeper gift of the museum it reorganises the souvenir stalls into meaning after the mask hall you know what you are looking at everywhere else on this coast