Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c13.5

c13.5

*Domestic building* We have already seen that the dwelling house was a simple framed one-storied building of timber and wattle and daub, like an English half-timbered cottage, with thatched roof and small central courtyard. Each man built his own home, except a few noblemen whose manor-houses were better and more pretentious than the wood and daub cottages of the ordinary people. Nails were not used in ordinary building, but everything was fastened with rattans and other jungle ropes. The solid timbers of royal buildings were morticed and tenoned together in a very substantial manner. The use of stone was confined to royal and religious buildings.