A day in the life of cane weaving wizard Shantha Silva

• Making an art of making a living 

57-year-old Shantha Silva is a compact and mobile cottage industry – on cycle wheels. He can be seen in remote locations in Colombo and suburbs as he travels from his hometown in Idibedda Moratuwa to carry out his art; the art of weaving traditional wood based cane chairs that is part of Sri Lankan vintage furniture culture. 

Today with people appreciating and maintaining less and less of this kind of furniture, Shantha does not have as much demand for his work as he did 20 years ago. He is one of the very few of his tribe of the comparatively younger age. Those who currently weave cane onto wooden chairs are now in their 70s and 80s. Many others who knew the craft have died. 

Shantha has cut for himself an image that is different to that of the tired out weaver we may have met earlier. 

His is neatly dressed, wears a clean cap to protect himself from the sun, rides a shiny cycle which he puts in a lot of effort to keep in good shape and has his cane as well as a notice with the contact information fixed on it. 

I first meet him in Mt. Lavinia last week amidst people readying their houses for Christmas. Hearing him verbally advertising his work, I stop him for a chat. The bane of my home and library has for long been an embarrassingly gaping cane chair – with a large hollow where the cane was.

“This is my art and I have been practicing it since age 18. I charge 3,500 as a basic cost for a small chair. I do not encourage haggling. I respect my work and I want you to do so too. I do the weaving as a painter would paint a masterpiece,” he says as a form of introduction. Promptly reaching to his purse he displays a silver cardholder from which he produces a visiting card with two phone numbers, two pictures of the chairs that he has woven and his home address. He asks me if I want to see his ID.

“I do not do drugs, I do not smoke or drink. I make my living with this work and I do not reduce my fee because I do not stint on the professionalism of how I do the weaving.”

He makes an appointment to come to my residence where the chair is at 9 a.m. and is there by 8:40, having cycled about 18 kilometres.

“I go everywhere on this cycle unless I am called for work in very far away areas such as Anuradhapura, Kandy or Nuwara Eliya. I have been to all these places and I have used the bus to get there. At rare times there are those who send their vehicles to collect me.”

About him there is no air of despondency. He does not complain. He does not waste time. Having come to the location he promptly starts his work and after five hours of weaving the chair is truly transformed.

“I use high quality plastic cane look alike that is used these days. I also source the traditional cane. To do this work you need a knife, a scissor and several sharp tools that are used for cane work. Above all you need proper concentration. There are some people who use a needle to weave the cane fast but I do not do so. I was trained in this craft from the age of 13 by my uncle and from the age of 17 I have been weaving professionally,” he explains.

Often he packs his own lunch so as not to feel obliged to those who give him the chairs to weave.

“There are all kinds of people in this world. There are people who would eat their breakfast or lunch or have their tea in front of me as I work and not offer anything. There was one case where in Anuradhapura where I had to take an assistant and go for a large scale weaving job and stay there overnight and was duly charged for food and even for using the toilet by the persons whose chairs I laboured over! I responded by giving even extra money apart from the amount they deducted from the fee and also invited them home for us to provide them the best food we could offer!”

He has not amassed riches such as land or houses but he has amassed a philosophical wisdom that is absent in persons ‘educated’ in theoretic memorisations. 

“What one has to undergo, one has to undergo. No one can change it. This is what we call Karma. It has to be borne without thinking of it as suffering. I have never been hungry except when a child after my mother passed away when I was a toddler and our father left me and my five other siblings. I was brought up by my uncle in whose weaving shop I worked. I did not get any family inheritance but I inherited the knowledge of weaving and I honed in my heart the love and respect for this craft.”

After weaving much of the chair it is lunch time and we converse as we eat. He is very attentive to the sounds of birds and squirrels in the garden. 

“See the pitch of the squirrels? They are warning each other. They sense danger as there is a cat in the vicinity. See…” He points in the direction where there is a flurry of activity. The squirrels seek higher branches and the cat sits on its haunches on the ground. It blinks with anticipation, looking quite like a politician languishing for a vote. 

Mixed with the symphony of the squirrels is a soprano from a bird I cannot place and he mentions a name I have not heard before. He goes on to explain about birds and owls and bats. I wonder at his awareness of other creatures we cohabit this planet with.

He states that he allocates Rs. 300 to feed the animals that visit his home garden and has another small additional budget for the dogs he accosts on the road.

“I buy some tasty biscuits for the street dogs when I can. The prices of the biscuits are doubled now but I cannot explain that to the dogs who come after me waiting for their treat! So I forego some small expenditure from my side and feed them that small luxury.”

He says that there are many dogs who were pets once that get abandoned after they get diseases that make them ugly.

“This is the human world. But there are also humans who are humane. There is a well- known dog carer who lives abroad and send lakhs to look after street dogs and give them food as well as medication. He employs people to do this.”

On weaving as a professional art and career – do youngsters see it this way?

“No. But we cannot generalise too much. I once tried to train several young people on the many patterns of weaving. It failed because they looked at it solely as a way to earn quick money. Many youngsters go after high technology or are obsessed with an office job.” 

“A weaver is a person whose imprint is in many homes. I can weave around any structure and there is much that you could do with this art. For me each new weaving work is an exhilaration.”

Observing the demeanour and silence he maintains during his work I ask him his spiritual tradition or religion. 

“I am a Buddhist in how I practice and live my life. Whenever I commence my work I contemplate and wish that my work be done to the best of my ability and to bring happiness to me and to the person who tasked me with the job. When I end the work I look at it with a detached joy. It is a work of art that I have been part of but which I have to give away. It becomes yet another piece of life that has been spent that has cost few hours and which has earned me my survival in this world.”

Cycling so much around Colombo, is he tired out?

“No. I am used to it. But two years ago I was identified with heart disease. I started to take medicine but I have now stopped it. I will go when my body tells me to go. I do not want to think of sickness. Gulping pills everyday I will be reminded I am sick. I have worked today. I am well today. I am alive. Tomorrow is another day. If I have to go tomorrow on that journey no one can avoid or explain – the journey of death, let it be so.”

I tell him that he may have to wait a very long time to cycle to that particular destination and he smiles. 

I pay him his fee and he reminds me to put a picture of the newly cane adorned chair on facebook. I tell him I do not maintain a facebook account and that I will put his story in the newspaper. He smiles again. A very broad smile.

“So, more people will notice, isn’t it? Thank you.”

(Shantha Silva can be reached on 078 5938767 and 078 7340138. His home address as mentioned in his visiting card is No. 6, Mendis Lane, Pahala Idibedda, Moratuwa).

In response to Shantha’s gratitude for publishing his story, we in turn can thank people like him, who we meet everyday but do not take the time to talk to, for teaching us about what work and life should be.

The Harmony page of the Weekend FT, which was created to innovate upon journalism and to give the discipline of mass communication a fresh and holistic purpose, will embark on the new year with renewed vigour and vision.