Dumbara Weaving

Dumbara Rata Kalala, or Dumbara mats, are hand-made mats woven from the fibre of the hana plant. UNESCO describes them as traditional mats used as wall hangings, tapestries or cushion covers, decorated with symbolic motifs and designs. They are made in two villages, Kalasirigama and Alokagama. UNESCO calls the mats "a traditional item of great cultural significance for Sri Lankans".

In 2021 the traditional craftsmanship of making Dumbara Rata Kalala was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The inscription covers the fibre mats. Cotton handloom cloth from Thalagune in Uda Dumbara, which the Export Development Board lists under the handloom industry, is a separate craft.

UNESCO records that the mats are made by a community called the kinnara. Between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries this community supplied ornamental mats to the royal palace as part of an obligatory service to the crown and to ruling elites.

That history still matters to the weavers. In its decision the Intergovernmental Committee noted that the inherited tradition is a source of pride among practitioners whose ancestors supplied the palace. It also noted that old restrictions on passing the craft to people outside the community have been reduced through intermarriage, which has helped the skill to continue and has allowed families to earn from it. Today, UNESCO says, artisans weave the mats for local buyers and tourists.

The work starts with the hana leaf. UNESCO describes how the fibres are separated by pressing the leaf against a log and scraping away the fleshy parts with a sharp-edged piece of wood. The fibres are then washed, dried in the sun and combed. They are coloured with traditional herbal dyes made from natural materials found in the Dumbara valley.

The mat is made on a loom. Motifs and designs are added with a lath, which is a flat, narrow strip of wood with a hole at one end. The weaver threads strands of fibre into the hole and then pulls the lath through the yarns on the loom to form the chosen motif. The Committee's decision mentions that the designs carry Buddhist or Hindu symbolic meanings.

The craft is largely carried out within family units. According to the UNESCO decision, both men and women take part in harvesting the plant, preparing the fibre and decorating the mats, with roles that are specific and sometimes overlap. Children learn from their parents by watching and practising. Knowledge is also shared between the two villages at family gatherings, weddings, craft exhibitions and fairs.

Elders have trained young people through the National Crafts Council. The decision records two forms of state support: buying the mats at higher prices so that the work remains viable for the community, and training programmes for growing the hana plant on wasteland and state-owned land to keep up the supply of fibre. Proposed measures include adding knowledge of the craft to the school curriculum.

Sri Lanka began documenting the craft in 2015. In January 2020 it was entered on the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which is administered by the National Library and Documentation Services Board and updated every four years. The UNESCO inscription followed at the Committee's sixteenth session, held online in December 2021. The Committee encouraged Sri Lanka to watch for the risk of over-commercialisation.

UNESCO's country page lists three Sri Lankan elements on the Representative List: string puppet drama (2018), Dumbara mats (2021) and kithul tapping (2025). Work from the villages still appears in national craft competitions: the National Crafts Council's published awards list includes a set of fibre table mats from Kalasirigama, Menikhinna. The Yatawatta Divisional Secretariat in Matale District describes Alokagama as known for a plant-fibre industry handed down from earlier generations.