Traditional Gini Raksha Mask👹 | Fire Devil Zentangle | My Zentangle Drawings #8 | 10% to SL Charity

Hello Friends,
My hometown is Ambalangoda. If you are a Sri Lankan, the first thing come to your mind is Traditional masks and puppets in Ambalangoda. During our school time, we byheart things like this. What specific area is popular for what thing. Under that, Ambalangoda is popular for this.

_{How I started}

So, these traditional masks are very familiar to us. There are number of masks called Gini(fire) raksha, Naaga(Cobra) raksha, Maura raksha, Gurulu(mythical bird called Gurula) raksha and many more. Above mentioned names are demon masks and there are lot more other masks related to Kolam Dancing and others.

Making a mask is not a simple task and you need years of practice, patience and talent for this. These are wooden masks and wel kaduru(Sea Mango) trunk is used for this. Sometimes Ruk Aththana(devil tree) tree also is used.

I have heard that not having enough wel kaduru trees is a main problem for this industry. Planting required trees would be a solution for this. From that environmental damage also will be reduced.

Do you know?, during past time people used these masks during the treatments for unknown illnesses. They believed that these were happened due to non-human causes/ problems. If you are interested in this, you can check and find. I just have a general understanding on this.

This industry can be traced back to hundreds of years. Few families are engaged in this for decades and Tukkawadu generation and Ariyapala generation is come to my mind. There can be more.

There are mask museums and showrooms in the town and Ariyapala mask museum is very popular among foreigners and locals. Though I live here, I haven't been there.

Currently there is a trend of masks in the country and many masks are used to decorate clothes these days. Many wear this type of clothes. Proud moment for Ambalangoda people. 😍

Anyway, this drawing was done on request of my cousin brother Hasitha. I used the same method that I follow for my zentangle drawings. I did not mentioned it here as it is a waste to write the same thing again and again. Instead of that, I shared the background of this masks and they are correct upto my knowladge.

Thank you for your time. Have a nice day.