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After a few years, Colombo, the largest city of Sri Lanka, is launching tourists again. Shaking the political turmoil that followed the country’s economic collapse 2022, the city proves its durability and putting a more democratic and leftist person. While most visitors are aware of Colombo, with a metropolitan area of about four million, for the monumental lotus shape and the series of temples and mosques, there is now a special interest in reviving its cultural heritage. The recent arrival of new exhibitions, such as Ceylon’s Literary & Arts Festival and the Matara Festival for the Arts, brought more international focus to Colombo and Southern Fort cities of Sri Lanka. And in February, Jagath Weerasinghe, one of the country’s leading principles of art and archeology, founded a new gallery called Miac or Millennium Art Contemporary, just outside Colombo, in the suburb of Athurugiriya.
There is also more international estimation these days for the art and design that emerged from the unique conditions of Sri Lanka over time, from the style of the tropical modernism of the latest architect Geoffrey Bawa to the male Erotica of photographer Lionel Wendt. Among the many modern talents in the country is fashion designer Amesh Wijesekera, who works with craft textile products and dead stock fabrics remaining behind Sri Lanka factories to produce pieces dealing with the delimited pieces addressed to South Asia. Sri Lanka’s first international tourist campaign in more than a decade and expansion, from 2023, of the visa -free entrance program has contributed to a recovery of visitors, with over two million arrivals last year, an increase of 38 %. Many of them find Colombo’s galleries and restaurant scenes and its newer designer hotels to be a tie like Sri Lanka’s famous tea trails and the beaches of Southern Surfing.
Here, four colombo stakeholders offer a tour of the places that lead a refreshed optimism in the city. “As an archaeologist, I can tell you that this island has received international people at least from the third century BC,” says Weerasinghe. “This has been a cosmopolitan place for centuries, for millennia, so it is written in our cultural genes.”
The interior
Trained as an architect, Shayari de Silva He is the main curator of Geoffrey Bawa Trust. It also manages a ceramics practice called clay.
Born by Colombo Rishi nalendra He is the chef behind the restaurants of Singapore Cloudstreet, Kotuwa and the station by Kotuwa, the last of which he opened in the first week of March.
The artist and the archaeologist Jagath Weerasinghe He founded Colombo based at the Colombo International Artists Collective, which promotes experimental art in Sri Lanka in 2000.
Fashion designer Amesh wijesekera He moved back home to Colombo in 2024 after five years in London and three in Berlin to create his own studio.
Illustrations by Richard Pedaline
“Geoffrey Bawa Trust is a non -profit organization that creates its operating revenue through visits and stays. It is very special to stay in Lunuganga, former Bawa Country Estate [about two hours’ drive south of Colombo] and live the garden at different times of the day. It is magical at the sunrise at one point, and later you see the sunset from all over the lake. There are 14 bells on the property, each of which has a separate sound, which Bawa used to find the staff in the main house as he passed through the garden during the day. ” (Rooms from about $ 410 per night)
“There are also some really interesting homestays throughout Colombo, including number 11, the former Geoffrey Bawa house, which has a guest suite containing two bedrooms. Daswatte.” (Rooms from about $ 250 at night in Ishq, rooms of about $ 70 in Highbury Colombo, suite of about $ 350 in number 11) – Shayari de Silva
“A recently constructed hotel called Life Cinnamon in City of Dreams has more than 900 pieces of Sri Lanka art in its collection, including one of my own. It is a wonderful hotel in a building designed by Cecil Balmond, which was a member of the team that designed the Nest Bird Stadium in Beijing. (Rooms from about $ 138 per night) – Jagath Weerasinghe
“Tintagel is a boutique hotel in a historic house where many important political moments took place. The interiors are very large [and are] from the family behind the Paradise Road Gallery Café. ” (Rooms from about $ 250 per night) – Amesh wijesekera
“About a year and a half ago, three brothers opened a restaurant called Gini, [whose name] It means “fire” in Sinhalese. Most of the food is roasted or has a fire ingredient in the way it is prepared. They serve dishes such as herbal coconut oysters and infectious beef pie and sometimes there is a fancy version of a S’more menu on the dessert menu. Have the best arrack sours on colombo [arrack is a liquor made from the fermented sap of coconut flowers].
“The Gallery Café, located in a fantastic place that was the old office of Geoffrey Bawa, was a favorite of Colombo for decades, black pork curry is one of Sri Lanka’s best dishes. I think they also have the best desserts on Colombo.
“The Palmyrah restaurant is located in the basement of Renuka City Hotel, but it has amazing food, including many northern dishes such as Kool (Seafood Stew) and Jaffna Crab Curry. – SDS
“You can’t talk about colombo without talking about the Crab Ministry. [most of the catch] It gets exported to Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan. So, if you want to try the highest quality of Sri Lanka crabs here, the Crab ministry is the place to go – sometimes, if you are lucky, you will get a crab that weighs one and a half or two pounds.
“The Ceylon Club on Negombo is convenient for the airport if you catch a flight.
“In Sri Lanka we all call a divine or aunt, so it’s hard not to want to go for a drink in a bar called uncle. Drinks often change and [the bartenders] Use many local ingredients. It’s very busy a few nights, and music is always good – it’s an atmosphere.
“There is this crazy tradition we have at the Galle Face Hotel when a bagpiper, dressed in a kilt, comes to play with the flag reduction every day, when the sun goes down. They continued for over a hundred years.” – Rishi Nalendra
‘If you want good jaffna food [Jaffna is the largest city in northern Sri Lanka]Olai in Wellawatte is a small family restaurant. Many Jaffna people are vegetarians and OLAI dishes include Puttu – a cylindrical coconut cylinder from coconut steamed and rice flour – served with different curry. ” – Jw
“Barefoot [originally called Colombo Gallery] started [in the 1960s] by Barbara Sansoni, a textile designer approached by the mother’s good advice of the good shepherd’s brothers [an order of Catholic nuns] You are looking for ways to promote social empowerment projects in rural parts of the island. It is one of the most interesting places to take someone to understand Sri Lanka’s craft. There is also a gallery and a fantastic cafe. ” – SDS
“Several stores support the new designers of Sri Lanka. PR is a very high -ranking ideas store started by Annika Fernando of Paradise Road, which is the virtual store that has a bit of everything. Oh
Take home
“The country is really known for producing black tea and spices. The best cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka as well. You can get beautifully packaged in Paradise Road and Barefoot, but you can also find them in grocery stores. Tuna that has a distinct taste.” – SDS
“My wife loves tapioca chips salted with chili and roasted cashew nuts [found at supermarkets] And I always bring home lamprais-short granules cooked in stock and then added to mixed meat curry, ash Plantains, caramelized onion and cut fish. They are all wrapped in a small packet with banana leaf. The best place to get them is from the Dutch Union Burgher, [which will sell them to you] Ready frozen. Preparing in advance and will have them ready to pick up. They will last for a few months in the freezer. Every time I miss the house, I will make an atmosphere in the oven and when I open the banana sheet, it’s a stunning smell. ” – rn
‘Urban island [sells] HomeWares, organic spices and a little bit of everything, almost everything [grown or] Designed in Sri Lanka.
“Kala Pola is a great outdoor art event that happens on the road once a year [normally in February] Where all artists from all over Sri Lanka come to show their work on kiosks that settled around Viharamahadevi Park. You can find local artists and find their work at its raw source before you reach the stores. ” Oh
“The National Museum of Colombo is one of my favorite places, because you could literally be the only person in this huge building. Many national museums tend to be heavy enough in the narrative, but somehow here, you can get it more on your own terms.” – SDS
“The best places to see art are the Sapumal Foundation, which was the home of one of the members of the ’43 group, the pioneering modernists of Sri Lanka and the Saskia Fernando galleries [PRSFG] and Dominic and Nazreen Sansoni [Barefoot]. ” – jw
“The Kelaniya Temple is a beautiful Buddhist place with many 18th -century Buddhist frescoes in the early 20th century. [and] Fully painted by M. Sarlis, whose teacher, Richard Henricus, was a painter of frescoes and theaters. The results were extremely kitsch and colorful yields of ancient palaces. Also since the early 20th century is Gothami Viharaya, a 15 -minute drive north, with frescoes by George Keyt. Mendis’s work in Kelaniya, the temples in Thimbirigasyaya and Gothami Viharaya were all painted during the same period for the same audience but in three different styles, showing the cosmopolitan nature of Sri Lanka society. ” – jw
“Loss is the best way to explore the Pettah market because you never know what you will find. Oh
These interviews have been edited and concentrated.
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