Folk Museum Koggala
Martin Wickremasinghe the iconic connection to the Folk Museum, Koggala was born in 1890 in the village of Malalgama in Sri Lanka. This house apart from its present stature has seen many a war and the partly renovated ancestral home is said to be over 200 years old.
The Folk Museum was something that was desired over time and has a recapturing of the technological and cultural artifacts which was a part of his childhood. The Museum was inaugurated in 1981 and is home for the many objects such as photographs, awards and souvenirs of folk culture which is acquired over time. The Wickremasinghe Trust is instrumental in developing the Museum and nurturing it into a developing origin of relics which depict the history of Sri Lankan folk culture, and range from ancient to the present times. This was a move to remind Sri Lankans of their roots and how they all came to be.
The Museum has an array of fascinating collection of relics which range from Buddhist relics to rural technology artifacts pertaining to agriculture, agro industry, fishing, pottery, and religious functions. In a backdrop to the Museum a brochure says, “that Martin Wickremasinghe delved into the life and culture of our people from their early beginnings to the present day and through his writing, he identified our folk culture as a resilient bonding substances which has not only prevented our social disintegration and alienation, despite assimilation of elements from the multitude of eastern and western cultures, but also moulded our collective identity and values as people. Wickremasinghe’s uncreasing intellectural exploration and his creative and critical writings relating to the life and culture of the people of Sri Lanka continued for a period of over 70 years.”
Getting to Folk Museum in Koggala will give visitors a true account of what Wickremasinghe really was and his beautiful narration of his childhood, explorations of the marine line on the Koggala reef, playing as children do running along the beach etc. It is truly a place of actual Sir Lankan heritage depicted in various forms.
