Two new-look Vesak pandols at Gangaramaya and Ambalangoda:

Refreshing approach to pandols

Professor Chandima WIJEBANDARA

Resident Professor of Buddhist Studies, BRS/BL Graduate School, Singapore

Pandols of various type (toranas as they are better known) have impressed and enthralled many generations of people. Habit of erecting pandols to celebrate and glorify great events and also to respect people of eminence has been continued in the Eastern world from the time immemorial. History and legends reveal that pandols were eloquently expressive of joy, honour and affluence.

When the Buddha Dipankara was arriving at Rammagama the people there had erected beautiful pandols as a mark of respect to the Buddha. During the carnival at the city of Udeni people had erected pandols at almost every house. Sanchi presents greatest examples of Buddhist stone toranas with fine sculpture that are of communicationally powerful and educationally effective. Moreover, the Selalihini Sandesaya tells us how the Sri Lankan people at the Sri Jayewardenepura period had beautified their city with magnificent pandols. With the introduction of electricity we have invented the new culture of erecting huge pandols for celebrating Vesak with colourful pictures and multicoloured lights.

Year by year the number of electricity bulbs and the size of the pandols kept competitively increased. However, there was an unfortunate recession to this healthy practice during the terrorist troubles but now that we have regained peace and harmony, thanks to the unparalleled leadership of Rajapaksa government and uniquely brave commitment of the army, there is a revival of the custom. Large pandols remind the Buddhists of the greatness of th Buddha and they educate the viewers of morals to live by. Pandols are the main attraction of Vesak festival.

However, there seems to be a growing monotony in structure and overwhelming domination by electronics. The important role of the pictorial art is being diminished with dazzling performance of millions of electric bulbs and the limited innovativeness in structure. It is true that a Jataka story is pictorially represented in every pandol, yet the size of the halo round and the magic of illuminations that occupy more space than the pictures that tell the story have become disturbing factor subduing educational and aesthetic spirit which should be prominent in a good Vesak torana.

“It is time we introduce some change to this monotonous form,” says Jayasiri Semage, Sri Lanka's most gifted and experienced torana artist. He has been practicing in the field for more than three decades and has been observant, with his colleagues, of course, the way the torana art has been stagnating with no significant change from the usual arrangement of fixing rows of picture frames pyramidically one over the other to a bamboo structure. “We can get much inspiration from our classical ancestors in art who created unusually rich motifs like archways, frontispieces and various other aesthetically eloquent designs,” suggests this maestro artist.

We have witnessed Jayasiri Semage very often involving in creating many Vesak toranas and other Buddhist decorative art objects. The giant Buddhist pandol that carried his paintings at the international exhibition held in Fukuoka (Japan) around 1990 was so popular that it was on display for six months. The Borobudur statue created at the Singapore Buddhist Library is also a creation of Semage. Eventhough we have often seen him mainly involving in creating Buddhist decorative art and creating Vesak toranas, he has experience in undertaking the challenging situations beyond religious themes. For instance from 1980 onwards he was erecting Gamudava pandols. And even at Mahapola exhibitions the spectators were welcomed by his beautiful pandols which symbolically presented the philosophy of the programme. All these stand to prove that this senior artist who commenced his journey to the world of aesthetics from his school days has achieved insight and mastery in his chosen field, more than sufficient to be a powerful innovator.

Convinced that Semage can translate a powerful message into dots, lines and shapes that penetrate into the hearts of the man in street, the governments of Sri Lanka continue to engage him in the important mission of creating pandols and such other decorative art pieces at state festivals, exhibitions and religious events. Thus, for instance, he is continuously engaged for decorating internationally famous Expo exhibition pavilions with traditional dragon pandols and accompanying stylized floral-faunal motifs etc.

Recently translating an idea of President Mahinda Rajapaksa into the language of pictorial art, a pandol depicting Dasa Raja Dhamma (tenfold political principles of a righteous king) was created by Semage. Moreover, he was also chosen by the present government to paint the walls of Sri Lanka Buddhist Vihara at Lumbini, Nepal.

This Vesak season will provide us two opportunities to witness how Jayasiri Semage will revolutionize the culture of making Vesak pandols. One of those will be at the famous Gangaramaya temple in Colombo. Semage will bring the story of Janapada Kalyani into life in the unusual torana he is erecting at Gangaramaya. Taking inspiration from the vibrant vision of most Venerable Galaboda Gnanissara Podihamuduruvo of Gangaramaya, he will give a new shape and life to this beautiful Buddhist story. And to his home people at Ambalangoda he will provide another feat by depicting the story of Magandi.

It will be financed by the Eksath Velanda Sangamaya of Ambalangoda, (Merchants' Association of Ambalangoda) Both of these pandols will be refreshingly new experiences to the viewers of Buddhist pandols at this Vesak season. Make a special note to visit Gangaramaya in Colombo and city esplanade, Ambalangoda to see how traditional Sinhala Buddhist art celebrates a new lease of life given by Semage.