Independence Memorial Museum: Lanka’s freedom hall of fame
A walk back into our chequered past to get a glimpse of the history of Ceylon now Sri Lanka… this is what the Independence Memorial Museum offers.
Sited in the belly of the Independence Memorial Hall in Colombo 7, the compact and state-ofthe-art museum takes one into the dim and distant past and then onto more recent times, portraying the country’s freedom struggle.
While Sri Lanka’s greats look on benevolently from a ‘gallery’ of busts flanking a red carpet, more current heroes, have not been forgotten. Just as one enters the museum, on the left is the Commemoration Gallery of War Heroes where numerous pus kola (ola leaf) in glass cases list the fallen and missing security forces personnel.
A sculpture before one turns into the rectangular museum depicts all races which have contributed towards Sri Lanka gaining its freedom and also its growth.
Opened back on February 4th, 2008 by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake to mark the 60th independence commemoration, the museum portrays the early, middle and late Anuradhapura periods and follows Sri Lanka’s destiny through
Polonnaruwa, Transitional, Kotte, Kotte-Seethawaka and finally Kandy periods.
Rebellions, uprisings, the end of national kingship, the coming of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British, the first independence struggle against the British by Keppetipola Disawe and then the second by Veera Puran Appu are all there. Pride of place is given to the momentous event of the country gaining independence in 1948 and then “full” independence with the declaration of the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972.
Among the sculpted busts of more than 20 from 50 National Heroes identified are long-haired Veera Puran Appu, serene-looking Ven Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera, Anagarika Dharmapala, Arumugam Sri Navalar, Siddhi Lebbe Mohammed Cassim and Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan.