Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c22.138

c22.138

The decorative principles so well understood by the old Sinhalese and Tamil jewellers are now generally abandoned, and almost all make use of European trade catalogues as the sources of their designs, to meet the demand of the ‘educated’ Sinhalese who want ‘improved jewellery,’ and the demand of tourists, whose only idea of unfacetted stones is that they are ‘uncut’ and ‘barbaric.’