Brass & Bronze

Sri Lanka's brass foundries are found mainly in the Central Province. The Export Development Board names Pilimathalawa, in Kandy District, as the place known for metal trays, vases, oil lamps and the spouted vessels called kendi. Its 2012 report on the craft sector lists Pilimathalawa as the cluster for the brassware industry.

A 2020 study by a University of Moratuwa researcher describes Pilimathalawa as a suburb 12 km from the city of Kandy. The craft has been kept up by a traditional community living in the Narammala, Hendessa and Kiriwawula areas, and it was first established in Kiriwawula and Handessa, part of Udunuwara in the Kandyan kingdom. Brass is now sold from points along the Gadaladeniya road and the Colombo to Kandy main road. The Udunuwara Divisional Secretariat names brass among the traditional industries for which its division is known.

The Export Development Board traces the roots of the island's foundry work to the second century BC. For the Kandyan period, the Moratuwa study records that patronage of arts and crafts lay with the King, and that skills were handed down through hereditary training within families. It describes the Pilimathalawa brass workers as descendants of the traditional artisan group known as navandanno.

The craftsmen have their own account of their beginnings. One told the researcher that the craft came from India with the groups of artisans who accompanied the sapling of the sacred Bo tree, and that the king granted them land for their service. In those times, the study adds, the raw material for the kingdom's brassware was supplied by the King. After the British took the Kandyan kingdom in 1815 and abolished the old system of service tenure, the artisans' dependence on royal patronage came to an end.

After independence the state took on part of the patron's role. Laksala, established in 1964, gave makers of brassware and other crafts a sales outlet. In 1965 the government created a village near Kandy for traditional craftsmen. It is called Kalapuraya and lies at Nattarampotha. It was later expanded in two phases and has about 100 families, a significant number of them working in brass.

Craftsmen told the Moratuwa researcher that the industry flourished in the 1960s, when the government supplied raw material twice a year at concessionary rates and held exhibitions and training programmes. They reported competition from imported goods after the economy was opened in 1977. The National Crafts Council, the Sri Lanka Handicrafts Board and the National Design Centre were provided for by an Act of 1982. In August 2020 a State Minister was appointed whose title named brass alongside rattan, pottery and furniture.

The Export Development Board reports that most foundries operating in Sri Lanka work in aluminium or brass, and that only a handful of cast iron and bronze foundries remain. Brassware itself is produced by only a few foundries. The Board gives the reason: pure copper and zinc ingots have become too costly for local foundrymen, and some turn to brass scrap, which contains other metals and gives a lower quality product.

The craft is still passed from one generation to the next in Pilimathalawa and Kalapuraya. The National Crafts Council holds provincial and national competitions with a category for brass, and its published awards list includes metal castings from Pilimathalawa. The Moratuwa study found that younger people are leaving the trade because income and raw materials are uncertain. It recommends a supply of raw brass and new designs for the craftsmen.