A monument to all things Dutch

By RANDIMA ATTYGALLE

The Dutch Museum in Colombo, located at Prince Street, Pettah, was closed for several years for renovation. It was reopened to the public early this month. The conservation project which is nearing completion hopes to restore this archaeologically protected monument to its former glory.

More than a century since the Portuguese fortified Colombo, the city was lost to the Dutch in 1656 who remodeled the Portuguese fort. A new fortress or a citadel ringed by nine bastions, ramparts and deep moats replaced the original Portuguese-built Colombo Fort. The fort or kotuwa in the local language was known as the casteel or the castle by the Dutch. High-ranking Dutch officials lived in the casteel. Outside the Fort the surroundings are today known as Pitakotuwa or Pettah (an adaptation of the Tamil pettai meaning ‘a suburb outside a fort’). It was known as Oude Stad in the Dutch days. The Dutch, planned the town on a grid pattern with five principal streets- now known as Bankshall Street, Main Street, Keyzer Street, Prince Street and Maliban Street.

Tribute to a prince

Running parallel to Pettah’s Main Street is Prince Street – what the Dutch called the ‘Prins Straat’, named in honour of the new-born son of Kandyan King Rajasinha II. Far from its royal splendour of the past, marked by villas with lush gardens and streets shaded with green trees, Prince Street is consumed by a commercial tide today. Cutting across Malwatta Rd. – Pettah’s flea-market – lies Prince Street. (The smartest way to reach it is either on foot or in a tuk-tuk.) The street is dominated by opticians, sidewalks overrun by vendors peddling from achcharu to counterfeit branded clothing and naatamis (porters) whose calls ring in the air. It is impossible for a visitor to visualize a colonial yesteryear here. You will suddenly come upon an imposing mansion with eight colonnades of striking height looking completely out of place in these surroundings.

Monument to Dutch architecture

The only vestige of the Dutch legacy in these otherwise changed surroundings, is the Dutch Museum (as it is today). It was said to be the largest building in Pettah, as documented in ‘Streets and Buildings in the Pettah,’ published in the Ceylon Literary Register of September 2, 1887.

The villa which is also believed to have been the residence of Governor Thomas van Rhee who held office from 1692 to 1697 is a living monument to Dutch colonial architecture. Some historical sources also document the place to have been the one-time residence of Count Carl van Ranzow of Colombo.

Administered by the Department of National Museums, the Dutch Museum with its seven galleries, offers the visitor a window to Sri Lanka’s Dutch heritage. From the arrival and establishment of the Dutch to their final place of resting, the museum exhibits their way of life. The galleries are dedicated to Dutch furniture and utensils, the network of forts erected across the island, artillery and jewellery, VOC coins and tombstones portray the political and socio-economic status of the maritime provinces of Sri Lanka under the Dutch and mirror diverse aspects of life and culture of the day. With its high roofs and a gallery of columns, typical of Dutch architecture, the building had been used for different purposes over the centuries before it was finally declared a museum in 1982. It was inaugurated by President J.R. Jayewardene on July 10, 1982.

A governor’s residence, seminary and more

From Governor’s residence, it became a seminary, an orphanage or weeskamer, hospital, army barrack, police training school and finally a post office in 1932. The Latin inscription above its entrance which is still visible quotes Psalm 127: ‘Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.’ Below this inscription is the date ‘1780’ which is believed to be the year in which the seminary was established. Dr. Jurrien van Goor in his article ‘The Rectors of the Dutch Seminary at Prince Street Colombo’ (published in the Netherlands Alumni Association of Sri Lanka (NAAL) Journal Special Edition of 1982) writes:

‘Not many buildings can be found in Sri Lanka or elsewhere in the former Dutch colonies to equal its very fine and imposing row of front columns of such height. During its long history the building was used for many purposes: but the reason for which it was built makes it all the more exceptional. Nowhere else in the Dutch colonies were founded during the eighteenth century seminaries or schools in which local youth received a secondary training. The few endeavours made at Batavia did not last long. Only Sri Lanka can boast of an uninterrupted educational record of such long duration under the Dutch’. The writer goes onto say that even the curricular of the early English schools followed the pattern of the Dutch seminary.

Dutch cot

A museum takes shape

The building functioned as the Pettah Post Office from 1932 until 1971 when one of the sidewalls collapsed during the monsoon rains and made it uninhabitable. The question then arose on what to do with the premises. The suggestion to demolish it was opposed by the Royal Asiatic Society and the Dutch Burgher Union- the latter then led by Dr. R.L. Brohier. In his book Changing Face of Colombo, Brohier notes that ‘there is today no better example of the more imposing and typical building the Dutch erected in the Oude Stad than this monument with its high solid and substantial pillars of brick and plaster supporting the façade.’

The writer (The first Ceylonese to become Deputy Surveyor General and a noted authority on the country’s ancient irrigation works) makes an interesting observation that his great grandfather, Peter Brohier, had lived in a villa on the Prince Street (which he had purchased in 1834) opposite the Orphan Chamber. It was here too that his son (writer’s grandfather) was born two years later. The villa which Brohier refers to opposite the present Dutch Museum is replaced by a row of opticians’ premises teeming with crowds.

In 1973, a committee was established with representatives drawn from multiple state and international agencies to restore the building and establish a museum covering the Dutch colonial period. The restoration was funded by the Netherlands-Sri Lanka Foundation, founded by the late Dr. Evert Jongens. The restoration of the building commenced in 1977 and was completed in 1981 under the supervision of architect Ashley de Vos. The plan for the museum galleries was drafted and executed with the help of the Amsterdam Historical Museum.

Gallery depicting to bacco boxes and jewellery from the Dutch era

Only green patch in Pettah

Prof K.D. Paranavitana, eminent historian and an authority on the Dutch rule in Sri Lanka who served the restoration project as a consultant, recollects procuring several pieces of Dutch furniture for the museum with the assistance of NAAL (Netherlands Alumni Association of Lanka). Among them is a cot which is one of the highlights among the collection in the ‘Bedroom Gallery’. Prof. Paranavitana who was then an archivist at the President’s Office was also responsible for the preparation of narratives for the exhibits.

Foreign visitors to the museum

“The Dutch Museum in Colombo was then a popular venue for the functions of the Dutch Embassy in Colombo and NAAL. I even had a book launch of mine in the beautiful court yard or the meda midula. This is probably the only green patch remaining in Pettah today which was once a fashionable quarter of Colombo shaded by lots of trees.”

Prof K. D. Paranavitana

The court yard with the unmistakable ‘Dutch-well’ which was once adorned with numerous flowering plants and foliage is being landscaped right now. The well too is under conservation. The massive cinnamon tree and the nutmeg tree found in the garden are symbolic of the spice trade which first brought the Dutch here. The side verandahs which open to the courtyard consist of several rooms that had originally served as servants’ quarters and storerooms. Today they are converted into administrative spaces. One of the rooms called ‘Hall of Death’ houses nearly 50 tombstones which were retrieved from a side alley of Prince Street when the Dutch cemetery of Pettah gave way to expanding trade centres.

Laborious conservation

The museum is home to nearly 300 exhibits today. A sizable number has already been conserved and others are still being done says the Dutch Museum keeper Thanuka Kumarasiri. The garden which is the highlight of the place too is to be restored to its former glory soon he assures. “We reopened the museum only in early July this year but we have a considerable number of visitors including foreigners. Once the place is fully done, we hope to attract more crowds,” he says adding that an admission ticket is still issued at a very nominal rate.

The conservation of the Dutch Museum in Colombo was among one of the most challenging tasks before her as the Director General of the Department of Museums says Sanuja Kasthuriarachchi. “The location of the museum in one of the most congested parts of Colombo, the COVID threat and the political and economic unrest in the country in the past few years, made the project an uphill task. Despite all challenges, this archaeologically protected monument which is more than three centuries old, that struggled to survive amidst unplanned structures surrounding it is once again open to the public.”

The conservation project is supported by the State Engineering Corporation and the Department of Archaeology. “We have now reached the final stages of the project and we hope to restore this iconic building into a traditional Dutch home where visitors can step into a tranquil space in the busy commercial hub of Colombo and relive a bygone era,” says Kasthuriarachchi. She invites the public to donate any memorabilia from the Dutch era to the museum which stands as an enduring monument to the Dutch legacy.

Dutch Museum at Prince Street Pettah is open from Tuesday to Sunday. Closed on Mondays and public holidays.

(Pic credit: Randima Attygalle, Department of National Museums & Prof. K.D. Paranavitana)