Tourists roaming in Sri Lanka will find something interestingly common: temples. The temple is a keyword in Sri Lankan tourism thanks to its spiritual elegance, calm environment, eye-pleasing murals and many more.
Mural paintings in most temples have deteriorated over time. Take a while to notice the fading of colours, brittleness, and weakening of the paintings – a hallmark of a rich history in this land. Many tourists, both local and foreign, take an extra trouble to capture these diminishing murals by ultra-sophisticated Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera – sometimes even in instances where photography is not allowed whatsoever.
Photographing the murals is a child’s play today with all that sophisticated gadgetry. That was not so a few decades back. Gamini Jayasinghe took up the mission of photographing the diminishing murals, about five decades (not five years) back when ‘digital’ was not even heard of.
Those photographs have been printed in three volumes. That was a few years ago, and now Jayasinghe resurfaces with an exhibition on June 3. The exhibition will last four days showcasing the photographs that Jayasinghe has captured since 1960s.
Gamini Jayasinghe.
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In recognition of the national services rendered by Gamini Jayasinghe in photo-documenting the murals of hundreds of temples, depositing them in the Department of National Archives and completing a series of volumes on wall paintings, he was awarded the Annual National Award by the Sarvodaya Trust Fund at the National Awards Ceremony in 2006 for the Advancement of Humanity Development and Peace.
“I was initially a freelance photo-journalist and a photo-documentarist. Then I started my career in 1958 as a Film Editor in the Government Film Unit and later joined the National Film Corporation as Manager/Foreign Productions. My abiding interest in documenting rare and precious temple paintings began in 1965 and since then I hardly thought of a separate subject area,” Jayasinghe notes.
His work has been exhibited many a times in both Sri Lanka and overseas. Jayasinghe also collaborated with Prof Senaka Bandaranayake in producing the book The Rock and Wall Paintings of Sri Lanka. He offered a photographic interpretation on the life of the Buddha for Venerable Narada Maha Thera’s The Buddha and His Teachings. Yet another book titled Vision of the Buddha was also decorated with Gamini Jayasinghe’s photographs.
Photography is a subject area with a wide variety of sub-divisions. Photographing temple paintings seems to be the least interesting subject for modern photographers. Speaking of Gamini Jayasinghe, however, the photographing of Sri Lankan Buddhist art at every location and every period has been his labour of love. A widely acknowledged specialty and expertise in the field is among the rewards he treasures.
“During my school times, or even prior to that, I took a liking to photography. I had an inexpensive camera. Late Prematilaka Sakalasuriya inspired me for photographing temple paintings. My first photograph, taken at Ranwella Vihara, Kataluwa, adorned the cover of the Orientations magazine. That’s where I have literally started photo-documentation career.”
The task has been time-consuming, strenuous and, above all, demanding.
“Even now I’m quite sad to recall the pathetic plight of these temples. Many paintings of the temples are ruined because of the dilapidated roofs. There was a heavy rain, I remember, when we were photographing at Subadrarama Vihara, Balapitiya. I just could not believe my eyes, the entire temple was flooded with water.
The roof was leaking heavily and most of the paintings are obviously damaged. We were at Kumara Maha Vihara, Kumarakanda. It was also the same paintings I photographed in 1982, reduced to fractions now. This pathetic situation is there in most of the temples in the South. The deterioration is taking place so rapidly in these temples,” Jayasinghe recalls.
His description is sombre and serious. As an expert in the industry, Jayasinghe should have a solution as well.
“I planned to include the paintings of 30 to 40 temples in this volume, but unfortunately I could not do so, since the paintings have disappeared from the walls. In addition to these three volumes, I have compiled another series of books on individual temples. Dambulla Raja Maha Vihara, Bellanvila Raja Maha Vihara and Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara are already released. The advantage of this series is that more details of each temple are featured,” Jayasinghe elaborates his mission.
Gamini Jayasinghe was never to give up his manual camera. His reasoning is simple: he has nothing to do with digital camera. Jayasinghe believes that you should use a manual camera to capture the diminishing colours.
Modern photography has evolved fast, Jayasinghe notes, and there are people who like to do fashion photography.
“My area, photographing temple paintings, is an area most photographers may not like. You got to live under harsh conditions. You have to practically live in temples if you are to photograph temple paintings,”
Temple murals will gradually be a thing of the past as digitalism invades every sphere possible. Exactly why Gamini Jayasinghe’s collection counts to be minute memorabilia.
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