A Brief story

by Lakshmi de Silva

(June 10, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Far away from the hustle and bustle of the city surrounded by paddy fields and marshy land stands a hillock with tall trees interspersed with rock. Under the cover of the taller trees more small trees and flowers give different shapes and shades of beauty to the world in a 26-acre land on the border of the Kalutara District.

This beautiful manmade mini-forest can be reached by turning off the Galle Road near the bridge at Alutgama. From the Kande Viharaya shrine, which is one kilometre away from the main road, one can take a bus or three wheeler to reach Brief, which is not merely a garden, a park or a botanical garden but a profusion of plant life culled and grown with love and care by the hand of a man who is no more.

A Major in the British Army, Bevis Bawa was a Sri Lankan. "Brief" was his home, the most beautiful among his creations where he sought complete seclusion from the outside world. Giving first place to nature, trees, creepers, ponds and lawns are arranged with a rare aesthetic sense to provide shaded comfort for the visitor.

At the entrance to Brief is a door beneath luxuriant boughs of bougainvillea. The door is also a period type and above the door a brass bell complete with a string to ring it is before the visitor. From this point tickets priced at 50 rupees for locals and 350 rupees for foreigners can be obtained.

The seven ponds

Then one enters a narrow pathway lined on either side with palm trees and ferns and exotic plants growing underneath the palms. There is absolute silence, other than for the occasional singing of birds and the gentle rustle of leaves.

One pathway leads to another. More trees and more paths inter-vine and surprise the eye. The effect is totally pleasing and one feels content, as if one was in the cradle of nature. Archways laden with flowering creepers or trained branches mark the entrance more paths at different elevations.

Another main attraction is the seven ponds made like a flight of steps in the middle of a lawn leading to the main house designed by Bawa. It is a single storey house nestled among ancient trees and flowering creepers. The Araliya tree gives the fragrance of its flowers and the bougainvillea adds colour to the surroundings of the house. The house overlooks the garden and the vast stretch of land filled with greenery can be seen from the glass windows designed for the purpose of a clear view from inside.

Rows of coloured foliage are arranged to give a spectacular view but most of the plants and trees are what we see around us everywhere but fail to realise how beautiful they are.

Major Bevis Bawa built Brief in 1929. Many distinguished visitors have graced this house. One of them was Sir Lawrence Olivier, celebrated film actor who came here during the time the film Purple Plains was filmed in Sri Lanka. Olivier and the other film crew stayed here for five months enjoying its unique beauty.

Australian painter/sculptor Donald Friend spent many years at Brief, and a remarkable mural by him that represents Sri Lanka as the favoured isle of the Hindu god Skanda adorns the reception room.

Bawa was not only a nature lover but also a lover of books. His rare collection of books is still kept carefully preserved in the living room of the house.

He was an artist with a natural gift for painting. His caricatures of horses and young male nudes adorning the walls of the house are remarkable in their form, detail and rhythm. Brief also has some sculptures to add to Bawa’s distinctive taste.

Bawa was not an extraordinary man who believed in a life different from others. The legacy he left future generations is probably that we live in a country very rich in its flora and fauna that we should protect for those who come after us.

On another side of the house is a bar with 365 different varieties of liquor bottles to mark each day of the year embedded into one wall of the bar. The bar itself is like an outhouse with green creepers covering walls.

However, whether it was halls, rooms, the bar or the steps leading out of the house or into the garden, trees, flowers and greenery dominate all parts of the house and its environs. One could spend some tranquil hours at Brief and take away the most pleasant experiences of this sylvan arbour which is indeed rare and rewarding.

Bevis Bawa was a bachelor. He built homes for all those who worked for him and left most of his lands and property to them in his last will. However, Brief is maintained by a trust and the present caretaker is Dooland de Silva who is taking proper care of this invaluable manmade paradise of nature.

The name Brief comes from Major Bevis Bawa’s father, who was a lawyer prospering with briefs.
- Sri Lanka Guardian