The Archaeological Museum of Kotte, Sri Lanka is one of the Regional Museums Administered by the Department of Archaeology. It is located at Bungalow Junction at a distance of 5 km from the Borella bus stop. The museum contains artefacts mainly discovered in Kotte and the surrounding area.
History
The museum has been established in the old mansion of the late figure Edward Walter Perera (1875-1953), a Ceylonese Barrister, politician and freedom fighter (Welandawe & Weerasinghe, 2016). Two houses named Udaha Walawwa (upper manor house) and Pahala Walawwa (lower manor house) were constructed in adjoining lands by the Perera family and of these two mansions, the Udaha Walawwa was occupied by E.W Perera who later donated it to the Department of Archaeology.
In 1992, this mansion was converted to E. W. Perera Memorial Museum and declared open to the public in 1995 (Rambukwella, 2014; Welandawe & Weerasinghe, 2016).
The mansion
The mansion can be dated to the early 20th century based on its architecture. The oral history indicates that this was the location described in the Paravi Sandeshaya (Message of the Pigeon Epic poem) and Kokila Sandeshaya (Message of the Cuckoo Epic poem) as the place where the temple for God Kataragama was located during the Kingdom of Kotte.
Museum
Artefacts that are being exhibited include ancient monuments, photographs, various flags, swords, knives, guns, statues, coins, ceramic ware, clay vessels, as well as a number of antiquities discovered in excavations and during the construction of buildings in the Kotte and vicinity area. In addition to them, a collection of items used by E. W. Perera and items donated and purchased by Douglas Ranasinghe are also available in the museum.
A protected monument
The residence of E. W. Perera which presently houses the Kotte Archaeological Museum has been declared an archaeological protected monument.
Attribution
1) Kotte Museum by L Manju is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
References
1) Rambukwella, M.W.C.N.K., 2014. Heritage representation in culturally
diverse societies: a case study of the Colombo National Museum in Sri
Lanka (Doctoral dissertation, School of Museum Studies). pp.413-414.
2) Welandawe, H., Weerasinghe, J., 2016. Urban Heritage in the Western Region Megapolis Planning Project. p.122.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 12 March 2023