Cotton-mix, direct-to-film printed T-shirt
 
The legend of Kuveni, the Yakkha princess who was betrayed by the husband she enthroned on this island, says that her curse followed Lanka’s line of kings. In their dreams, Kuveni’s spirit would hunt them in the form of a menacing leopard, driving the kings into fits of sleepless frenzy bordering on insanity.To break the curse, a pure and just ruler had to appease the Kuveni spirit in ritual; and the ‘Malaya king’ was called upon. The Malaya king, is portrayed in the legend as a prince found on a lotus blossom, and rose into power over time. Where ‘Malaya’ was, is disputed to be either the Malay peninsula of Southeast Asia or more likely, the Malaya region in central Sri Lanka. The Malaya king instructed his healers to create a ceremony involving costume and dance to honour Kuveni, her children from the Vanniye Atto jungle tribes, and offering a portion of local paddy, fruit and coconut harvest, among many other rites; it took three months to complete. After completing the ceremony, the Malaya King bestowed the knowledge of the rites to three young men, under a kohomba (neem) tree and appointed them its carriers into the future, to appease the Kuveni spirit on the island. This initiation under the neem tree earned the name ‘Kohomba kankariya’ for the ceremony, and the three men carried forward it s lineage of costume and dance, becoming widely known as ‘Kandyan dancers’.
 
To date, Kandyan dancers follow strict protocol in ritual and hygiene before donning the ceremonial costume and their striking headdress with shimmering brass pieces. The dance tradition has since evolved beyond the Kohoma kankariya ceremony, to become established as a national ritual marking new beginnings and blessings in Sri Lanka. Depicted here is a 1938 engraving of a traditional Kandyan dancer after donning his ceremonial headdress.
 
* These T-shirts are made from a cotton and polyester blend material and printed using direct-to-film (DTF) printing.