The essence of Ena

The life and times of Ena de Silva, who celebrated her 93rd birthday on October 23:

Ena - Photo: Dominic Sansoni

Ena de Silva Aluwihare, born on October 23, 1922, was chosen to appear as the Spirit of Lanka in 1948 in the Pageant of Lanka to celebrate Independence. This foreshadowed her pioneering contribution to the revitalization of a distinctive Sri Lankan heritage with regard to architecture and related crafts in Sri Lanka.

In the early 60s, Ena de Silva requested Geoffrey Bawa to build a house for her family. Not satisfied with the conventional houses of that time, based on Western social concepts, she looked for something in line with traditional Sri Lankan dwellings. Without similar precedence, the house was inward looking and was built from wall to wall, with a large central courtyard, and six others so that indoors and out blended seamlessly throughout.

Two grinding stones support the entrance link, and led one through a belled doorway from a Hindu kovil or shrine into the central courtyard, with large circular oil presses in the corners, to sit or to dry spices. Trees grew in the courtyards which opened directly onto rooms, and even through roofs. One could sit, sleep or read a book in the trellised bay windows.

The house was full of rich textures, and innovate details. For perhaps the first time in independent Asia the dialectics of East and West, inside and outside, as well as the traditional and the modern, were truly transcended. The synthesis of Geoffrey Bawa as architect and Ena De Silva as creative client provides a unique pioneering collaboration in contemporary Asian architectural history.

Into Crafts

Ena - Photo: Stephen Champion

Ena's longstanding interest in traditional craft came to full flower after she moved into the Alfred Place house. Inspired in particular by the 'somanas' or temple banners gifted to her by her husband Osmund de Silva, she embarked on a career in design and production, working in collaboration with highly original creative artists, notably Laki Senenayake and her son Anil Gamini Jayasuriya. Her first flagship creation was batik, and her designs in this art still remain the most innovative and distinctively unique of all Sri Lankan batik. Her creations in traditional embroidery, exotic cushion covers and dramatic bedspreads, also continue to be immensely popular and unrivalled.

Her work hit Colombo through the 1963 pavement sale in which attention was focused on a variety of previously neglected arts and crafts. Returning from the British Virgin Islands as a Commonwealth Consultant in design, Ena moved to her home village of Aluwihare. Ena never fails to give credit to the thirty or so village girls, as she calls them, some of them relations, some travelling daily from fair distances, who formed the core of the Aluwihare Heritage Centre, as it is now known.

Among her most memorable productions were batik banners inspired by those in medieval temples. These first appeared at Expo '70, Japan, in the Ceylon Pavilion that Geoffrey Bawa designed. The most remarkable perhaps were those hung in 1974 in the multi-storey atrium of Hotel Lanka Oberoi in Colombo, designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill. Notable too were those she contributed to the new Parliament in Kotte designed by Geoffrey Bawa in 1982, while those in her distinctive fashion were also put up at the Lowes Anatole in Dallas, Texas in 1979. The modern interpretation of batik the firm created can still be seen at its dramatic best in the ceiling murals, from designs by Anil Gamini Jayasuriya, over the main entrance stairs of the 1969 Bentota Beach Hotel, Bawa's first major hotel in Sri Lanka.

Different in style but equally impressive are the wall and ceiling murals, and the designs for the laminated table tops, created for the Triton Hotel, Ahungalle in 1982. In contrast to the vibrant colours of these batiks, she provided a gentle range of pastel shades for the exteriors of the buildings of the University of Ruhuna, Matara that Bawa designed in 1986. The ceiling of the 'Court of Arms' bar at the Lighthouse Hotel in Galle, 1998 was one of the last commissions she did for Bawa as an architect.

The textile collages of the Aluwihare Heritage Centre have been used in many offices and buildings in Sri Lanka, including the Mobitel Office (1993), Vanik Incorporation (1993) and ANZ Grindlay's Bank (1994) designed by Nela de Soyza.

The co-operative employed young men too, during the second southern insurgency of the late eighties, to provide skilled occupation, which meant that this was one of the few villages in the country where unemployed youngsters did not fall prey to violence in one way or another. Thus began the Carpentry Training Centre in 1989, and the Brass Foundry of 1992. They provided the large village people and almost life size elephants on wheels for the Kandalama Hotel by Geoffrey Bawa in 1994. They also provided animal benches, fantasy desks and chairs for children of the SOS Children's Village in Anuradhapura in 1997.

Interior of Aluwihare Walauwe, Matale

Designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill

When in 1981 Ena de Silva returned to Aluwihare, it was to an ordinary bungalow built by her parents in 1953, its main asset a panoramic view of the Gammaduwa and Pitakanda range of hills. In the daring conversion of this house into a retreat for herself, and numerous adopted 'nephews' and 'nieces', Ena de Silva came into her own. Knocking down a few walls and opening up the previously restricted interior, she created a central living hall full of her own artifacts cheek and jowl with exotic antiques. On either side are two long bedrooms that also look out onto the magnificent view. A 'cadjan' (woven coconut palm) roofed enclosure extends this living area to the rear.

The focal point of the central hall is a circular dining table, always spectacularly laid out, usually covered with the extravagant paper flowers the Heritage Centre began producing in the early nineties. The table is placed between timber columns and brick piers that replaced the load bearing walls of the previous corridor, the upper void of which has been enhanced by a series of banners along its length.

Each room, including the previously functional toilets, now has a mood and character of its own, achieved by the juxtaposition of heirloom furniture, old and new fabrics pinned on walls and ceilings, and idiosyncratic groupings of everyday objects and trinkets, made special and connected together by the extravagant but disciplined use of paper, paste and paint. The whole interior is a testament to Ena de Silva's powerful creative potential, and projects her enjoyment and experience of life.

Guilding the Lily

Ena De Silva Aluwihare's multi faceted life was celebrated through a publication put together by her nephew Rajiva Wijesinha and funded by the Geoffrey Bawa Trust. Titled 'Guilding the Lily', it was presented to her as a surprise for her 80th birthday in 2002.

Celebrating Ena De Silva Aluwihare for her lifetime contributions to architecture and Sri Lankan traditions of related craft is tantamount to gilding the lily. One can only wish her on her 93td birthday by adding as she once memorably did "Darling, what are lilies for?"

(C. Anjalendran (June 2011, modified slightly October 2015)