Ariyapala Mask Museum

The Ariyapala Mask Museum in Ambalangoda, Sri Lanka, exhibits traditional masks and cultural artifacts, preserving the rich heritage of mask carving and dancing.

Planning your visit

Ambalangoda on Sri Lanka's southwest coast is the centre of the mask-carving tradition, and the Ariyapala museum is run by a family that has carved for generations. Sri Lankan masks fall into three groups, and the distinction matters: kolam masks for folk theatre, satirical and comic; raksha masks, elaborate demon and serpent forms worn in processions; and sanni masks, the eighteen disease demons used in healing rituals, each representing a specific affliction and exorcised through all-night ceremonies.

The museum displays all three alongside the carving process, using kaduru wood, and the dance traditions they belong to. A workshop next door has carvers working, and the shop sells pieces at every scale.

The masks are genuinely strange objects — bulging eyes, cobra hoods, protruding tongues — and understanding what each is for transforms them from souvenirs into something considerably more interesting.

Ambalangoda sits on the coast road between Colombo and Galle.

Bookable options include airport transfers incorporating a museum stop. Current availability is shown below.