Trincomalee’s Foremost Stapathi Sculpts Deities To Life
The year is 1996. Sri Lanka has just won the Cricket World Cup. However, the country is in the midst of a civil conflict, and the LTTE has launched a series of attacks — violence around the country intensifies. A family of five based in Muttur, a village in the east, are among thousands of others who are caught in the crosshairs of this conflict. They are a respected family, left alone for the most part because of their close ties to the kovil: the menfolk sculpt deities and have built one of the major kovils in the area. However, with violence escalating and incidents of forced conscription on the rise, Sabapathy Sivasothilingam, the head of the family, decides to uproot and move somewhere safer. They pick Trincomalee, a quiet town a few hours north of their old home. There is enough work there — temples don’t run out of worshippers, and sculptors are always welcome. Especially sculptors whose work is inimitable, and who create each piece by hand, from scratch.
