Working @Sura Medura !

Coming to such a different and diverse country as Sri Lanka, I decided to do some research on religions, as this is the meetingpoint for arts, philosophy architecture and culture in broader sense, built on traditional roots.

That explains my previous contributions, with very descriptive attitude.

This part is focused to workprocess.

During my first days I focused on maerial- search and resaerch, which could be used to make some  new instruments.

Luckily enough, I found several interesting- inspiring elements, so I could start to develop ideas around the possible solutions for the particular instruments and think about solutions of some unclear details.

Metal grill found in a storage of the place.

This luckily enabeled me to start quickly with a metal based body for kind of dulcimer- santoor derivation. I only needed to find proper pieces of wood and I assembled the instrument together. The only slowing down element being the necessity to borrow a drill machine, which belongs to carpenter, working in our place.

 

Palm leave instrument- as most of us got inspired by coconut palm leaves, I realised: it would be quite a challenge to try to turn it into a music instrument.

Unfortunatly I took  one from beach, which meant, it was pretty soaked through with salty water. After drying- some weeks sound is improoving! , but the matrial is not really strong enough to house the tuning pecks..so additional piece of wood had to be attached.

The biggest challenge is going to be the boat, turned into a music instrument.

It is a collaborative piece with Juri Cainero, swiss artist, based in Marseille.

There are several elements this work is going to deal with, and actually it already is exciting just to develop this project.

One of the points is : the boat on land, it belongs to the fishermen  and we will use it, change, or enrich the original meaning, and we will leave it for them and their kids, to play.......in the same time it is a  it could be also transformed into an object with some further meanings, helping to overcome the tragedy.

It is also fitting into our common goal to take, or borrow something from the fishermen community and give something back to them as a form of communication and exchange. 

  

Preparation for the music instruments, attached to the boat:

metalophone- fan "winfgs"

slit bamboo- different sizes

this instrument  could be also attached to the boat...

other instruments should include  stretched long piano strings, friction drum, drum set from plastic gallons. etc.

Next day I decided to walk along the beach, as some of the members of our group of artists

Meeting welcoming people, offering me a cup of tea, and other possible services ,

Meeting a local boat driver offering me a lake drive, but luckilly I asked about price and decided to visit just a temple  very close to the lake,  which has huge sitting buddha inside the shrine, and gorgeous sculptures in the corridor, depicting the scenes from the Buddha’s life. On top of all the beutifull position near the lake gives to the place  amazing atmosphere.

Morakala GangaramaTemple

jatakas

naturalistic sculptures, suprisingly powerful

As I was there alone, I felt like in a film, and enjoyed the paintings outside the temple, and later walked through kind of jungle village, just observing the quiet life of the local people and their beautiful, simple houses with colourful textiles…

Back on the main Colombo-Galle road,  just walked few hundred metres, meeting the junction, observed the shops, buses and daily life.

Just across the railway there was another Temple, and inside the resting Buddha, quite  long, an again peaceful atmosphere, It was only later- I got to know, there were some hundreds???  of people escaping the Tsunami wave, and thanks to the position of the temple on the rock, they rescued their lives.

Kumarakanda Maha Viharya- place which recued thousand people

KumarakandaMaha Viharaya-resting Buddha, 6m long

Buddha under the bodhi tree

door panel with sinhalese inscriptions

 Later I decided to explore the destination bit further  and I walked all the way till the Siri Khettarama Maha Viharaya temple, some 3km inside the jungle..

also visited amazing wood mill with really simple equipment, but beutiful colours and dimensins of the wood:

I got to know, that they are preparing the temple for a festival which is going to happen during coming week. So they painted walls shiny white, and some  sort of reparation took place.

Inside the shrine was a devotee, singing beautiful prayers, so I could not resist to record part of his singing.

 

 

AHOJ everybody!!
Ayubowan!
this is my new blog from Sri Lanka, the land of fairy tales.....
where we are the group of international artists working on our own art projects,
during the second part we will do some events together with local inhabitants.
In the meantime, everybody is recovering from the long and demanding flight...

I thing this view does not need any comments....

 as I planned, I started with the exploration of the near surroundings of the Hikaduwa,the place of surfers andbackpacker / hippie... some time ago...

anyway, I went in the morning to the south , as I was adviced by local, asking where I can find nearest buddhist temple....
so, walking on the bussy road with busses, cars  and tuk tuk, I met amazing mixture of beutifull small shops, old houses, tourist hotels and some overestimated  resorts...

this is actually side road, with tuk-tuk amotorbike taxi

Anyway, close to the junction, I found nice buddhist temple, white stupa  with garden and lantern, which I did not know about, that it is part of each temple. While taking photographs, I was watched by a priest and he invited me inside his house, showing me his office and private  shrine and collection of Buddhas , some of them interesting sculptures.
I got to know, that they are taking care about some 200 kids without parents, and that they really need the support for pencils and books and bags....

 first real stupa

surrounding garden

On my way back, I realised, I can see the  board with same colours of the buddhist temple,but as it was in sinhalese, I could not read anything except 2.1 km, o.k. and I went, crossed the railway and, first  in my life met a varan on the road, after cca 1 km I reached a temple on the hill with beautiful staircase, and first house with wooden, nicely carved window frames and door panes..
but mainly, I was there just alone, watching the shiny white stupa, rounded with painted  elephants. There was also another golden - shrine evidently under the construction, as some columns were not yet finished, and the metal rods were extended from the base. Anyway, all together, it was beutiful peaceful place in the middle of jungle, with a quiet dark cow leying near the open ceremony preparing  kitchen and some more buildings bit run down,  or unused for a time.
some pictures:

old, unused place

in the middle of jungle forest peaceful place

Continuing my way back, I met several interesting houses with  workshops and also a metal picker, who had quite nice metal panes, but unfortunately he was not willing to sell me these for my limited amount of ruppies...  so, no deal....  but later, the metal workshop appeared, with welcoming workers, who reacted to my question about leftovers with generous gesture to the box full of pieces of tubes,  and metals.... so I got my first metal material.... pitty they did not want to give me a metal pane,  which serves actually for the offering ceremony....


well but afternoon real adventure started, as I decided to visit two temples, suggested by the guide..,
the journey took roughly an hour, but probably i took the wrong way as i walked along the main road, out of Hikaduwa... just at the road junction, I asked a man, where the Kala Bongo temple is, he did not know... so I asked in a shop, and in the meantime rain started, so I had to wait a bit, later I continued, but after a while I doubted  and asked the tuk tuk drivers, and they sent me back to the shop, it was just up the hill  infront of the shop I was asking....
but really beautifull buddhist monastery with some old and also young monks, on top of the hill shiny white stupa with great golden bowl with huge, old Bodhi tree, some women beutifuly dressed  cleaning the sand and rock around. Truely sacred place, with peaceful atmosphere, although in front of the  gathering room there was the ceremony food and gifts prepared.....
On my way downstairs I was abe to hear the mantras of the monks in a monastery, mixed with the rain drops splashing on the stairs and leaves of palm, banana,papuya trees.. wonderfull
 some photos:

Kala Bongo monastry- stupa

 

Bodhi  tree in a bowl

Kala Bongo monks

The top of the day was still  to experience:.. of Asian Pearl:

the only guides around

really peaceful place in the middle of jungle

and rain poured

rice fields