The Dying Tradition of Sri Lankan Stilt Fishing


At dawn, Sunil (left) and Anil Madushanka sit on stilts they both inherited from their fathers.
Big Fish, small fish - Sri Lanka´s stiltfishermen, Asia, South Asia, Sri Lanka, Ahangama; The stiltfishermen Sunil Nishanti (left) and Anil Madushanka are sitting on their stilts and wait for swarm fish that pass their stilts in the shallow water. Due to the impact of the 2004 Tsunami and the overfishing in the coastal waters there is less and less fish to catch.

Before sunrise, Sunil walks across coral and rocks in the bay of Ahangama on the way to his stilt.



For 30 kilometers along Sri Lanka’s southern coast, between the towns of Unawatuna and Weligama, fishermen such as Sunil Nishanti sit motionless on wooden stilts a few dozen meters from the shoreline.



The technique may be unique, but it is a fairly recent innovation, first adopted just after the Second World War when fishing spots on rocks and cliffs along the coast became too crowded. Men started fishing from the wrecks of boats and aircraft left behind by the war, then some of them moved to stilts erected at fixed locations, which they then passed on to their sons.


Anil Madushanka leaves his stilt without a big catch while his neighbour Kalu and his cousin Sunil still continue their work.
The practice is unlikely to last much longer other than as a tourist attraction. Local fisheries are in decline, particularly following permanent alterations to the shoreline brought about by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The returns from fishing, never good, are worsening, and few fisherman pass their stilts to their sons, instead renting them to other men who find it easier and more lucrative to pose for photographs.

For now, Sunil still earns his living from fishing. He and his family lost almost everything when the tsunami of 2004 flooded the bay where they lived. He declined a government offer to give him a new house on higher ground -– the bus 

commute would have been too expensive, and anyway, he wanted to live near the sea. For most of the year, he sells what he catches from his stilt. During the monsoon season, when fish tend to avoid shallow waters, he buys fish caught by trawlers and then resells them in his village. Other fishermen spend the period working as fruit and vegetable vendors or as seasonal agricultural workers.








Ahangama, Sri Lanka
Photographer: Florian Müller

Read more at the Huffington Post


More on Coronelli's Celestial Globe Details

The Heavens -The celestial globe is an invitation to travel through the sky amidst the constellations such as they were on the day of the birth of Louis XIV.


The Zodiac

The Sun and its planets move in the opposite direction, from West to East. This course, called the ecliptic, is materialised on the globe by a sun sliding on a large circular bronze bar. Thus, over the seasons, its trajectory crosses the various constellations of the Zodiac.

Aries

The Sun sliding on Sagittarius


Capricorn



The Figures

The very special style of the figures or the constellations, painted in different shades of blue, is attributed to Jean-Baptiste Corneille. The name of each constellation is written in four languages: French, Latin, Greek and Arabic.

An Angel
 

Le Chartier
The Arrow, the Eagle and the Dauphin
The Balance

An Unusual Placement

The unusual placement of the constellations, with the characters full-face, transforms the perspective of the observer. The heavens are seen from the outside, although the Earth is supposed to be at the centre of the globe.


The Indian, the crane and the Fish

Coronelli's Celestial Globe Details

The Heavens -The celestial globe is an invitation to travel through the sky amidst the constellations such as they were on the day of the birth of Louis XIV.

The Globe of the Sun King

The Constellations

Seventy-two constellations appear on the globe. In addition to the forty-eight constellations described by Ptolemy, there are those introduced more recently thanks to improvements in lenses or on the basis of observations made by navigators from the Southern hemisphere.

Allegories

The docker Perseus and the head of the Medusa the crown allegories animals and characters inhabit the surface of the globe. Ursa Magna (the Great Bear), Corona Borealis (the Northern Crown), Lyra (the harp), Perseus and the head of Medusa in the North, Crux (the Southern Cross), Centauras (the centaur), Hydrus (the water snake), Argo Navis (the ship Argo) and Pavo (the peacock) in the South: all the constellations are represented by the allegorical figures corresponding to their shape in the sky.

Unicorn

Ursa Magna (the Great Bear)



Hydrus (the water snake)



Perseus and the head of Medusa in the North, Crux (the Southern Cross)



Pavo (the peacock) in the South


The Crane



Coronelli's Terrestrial Globe Details

Coronelli's Terrestrial Globe presents a complete mapping of the world and its wealth such that they were open to the Sun King at the height of its glory. 



The Dedication Scene - César d’Estrées’ dedicatory text to Louis XIV extols the virtues of the sovereign. The bust of the King, crowned with laurels, dominates the gilded copper dedicatory plaque. The latter is surrounded by a series of allegorical figures, among whom Geography, of course, occupies the central position."




The Four Continents - The allegorical representation of the four continents is crowned by an architectural decor. Europe and Asia are represented by women. Africa, surrounded by unfriendly animals, is looking at Europe whose eyes are oriented toward America.


Free Trade - Evocative of the ease of trade, European store ships and long boats, like the Indian carracks or the Chinese snake boats, navigate the seas without danger.

Coronelli's Masterpiece

A Franciscan monk, cosmographer, cartographer, publisher, and encyclopedist known in particular for his atlases and globes. He spent most of his life in Venice.



He excelled in the study of both astronomy and Euclid. A little before 1678, Coronelli began working as a geographer and was commissioned to make a set of terrestrial and celestial globes for Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma. Each finely crafted globe was five feet in diameter (c. 175 cm) and so impressed the Duke that he made Coronelli his theologian.

Grand Celeste Globe Coronelli,Vincenzo-maria



Cardinal César d'Estrées, friend and adviser to Louis XIV and ambassador to Rome, saw the Duke of Parma’s globes and invited Coronelli to Paris in 1681 to construct a pair of globes for the Most Christian King. Coronelli moved to the French capital in 1681, where he lived for two years.

 Coronelli's Masterpiece

Each globe was composed of spindles of bent timber about ten feet long and four inches broad at the equator. This wood was then coated with a layer of plaster about an inch thick and covered in a layer of strong unfinished fabric. This was then wrapped in a quarter-inch layer of two very fine fabrics which provided backing for the painted information of the globes. These globes, measuring 384 cm in diameter and weighing approximately 2 tons, are displayed in the Bibliothèque nationale François Mitterrand in Paris.

The globes depicted the latest information of French explorations in North America, particularly the expeditions of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.

Coronelli is best remembered for these pair of huge terrestrial and celestial globes he made for Louis XIV in 1681 to 1683. These weighed about two tons each and could fit 30 men inside at one time (there are doors built into the globes).



Coronelli did not become rich from the commission to make the Globes. Cardinal Duke d’Estrée, the French ambassador to Rome, paid Coronelli 46,000 pounds for the Globes. It is said that Coronelli estimated their cost of production to be 100,000 pounds. However, Coronelli was able to use the new knowledge his team generated in the research and production of the great globes to produce his groundbreaking engraved world atlas which earned him enduring fame and substantial income.









Colbert, the king’s powerful advisor, devised the idea for the great Globes. Originally the Coronelli Globes were intended for installation at Versailles, but this never came to pass. Colbert died the year the Globes were completed, and instead, they were installed at the Château de Marly in Yvelines in 1704.