Stories from the antechamber: Settler perceptions of Indigenous presence at Kelaniya Royal Temple

Abstract

Are the modalities of asserting Sinhala cultural hegemony Lanka (Sri Lanka) settler colonial practices; and if not, how might we explain them? Using a Buddhist temple complex as a single case study, this article asks what visual representations of Sinhala pasts in Lanka’s revered Buddhist architectures reveal about settler processes. The article studies paintings in the Kelaniya Royal Temple located north of Colombo, contrasting the cartoon style artwork of the eighteenth-century image house with the more recent twentieth-century murals by acclaimed artist Solias Mendis. The article traces how Buddhist jātaka stories, founding myths, and historical narratives entwine in constructing Sinhala political authority and cultural claims on the island’s geography, and how, by doing so, these claims marginalise knowledges of prior Indigenous inhabitants. Sovereignty is imagined through both oceanic and riverine geographies to different ends.