Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c23.9

c23.9

Returning to a consideration of the ordinary niyapoten veḍa, it will be best to describe the process in its simplest and commonest form, namely, in the decoration of a staff. The stick having been shaped and smoothed, the workman squats on the ground, having before him a chatty (giṇi kabala) containing a charcoal fire. The lac-worker’s tools consist of short sticks with a lump of coloured lac at one end of each and a short strip of puskola (talipot leaf, Corypha umbraculifera). The stick is first coated with the ground colour, usually red. To effect this, the stick is warmed over the fire and lac applied, which lac is pressed and smoothed out with the piece of talipot leaf, while still kept warm over the fire; in this way the whole stick is gradually covered with a coating of red lac. It now remains to add the pattern, which may be very elaborate. For this it is needful to draw out the lac into strips of the desired thinness. To do this, the lump of lac is well warmed, and then, a small piece being held between finger and thumb, the rest is pulled away, leaving a long thin connecting thread which is wound round the bent knee, into a skein. After passing four or five times round the knee the lac becomes cold and must be warmed afresh.