Statues --> Sri Lanka

In South India, in a natural environment of outstanding beauty, there is an island tear shaped. Once called Ceylon by the British colonizers, the island achieved the independence from Britain in 1948 and was renamed in the local language "Sri Lanka" that means "resplendent island".

The population of Sri Lanka has always used the masks for beneficial rituals and to treat disease becuase they think masks have special healing powers.The Sinhalese create masks from a wood called "Diya Kanduru" thanks to its lightness and its durability it isn't easily attacked by insects and it is easy to carve.

The masks are divided into 3 types:
the "Sanni" masks,which name means disease, are 18 as the number of disease considered more important in Sri Lanka. These masks are used to cure people;
the "Kolam" masks are used in festivities and in theatrical or cultural performances, especially in the south;
the "Raksha" masks are used in religious ceremonies and they represent 3 mythical animals: the bird, the cobra or the peacock.

The mask chose by Fabrizio Galli to be part of the work is a wooden mask painted in polychrome that depicts the bird Garuda with a cobra coiled around the ears and as headgear. In sinhalese dances people dance wearing these masks and repeats the movements of a cobra.They seem demonds that follow the fanatic rhythm of the drums to drive away evil spirits.
Garuda, the bird creature that eats snakes, represents the ascent from the material plane to a higher spiritual awareness, protecting people from every evil thing.

This mask is housed in the Science Museum in South Kensington in London, in the section devoted to the customs and beliefs of Asia. It is dated between late 1700 and early 1900.