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

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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.

SPHERES OF THE HEAVENS - Celestial Globes

Celestial Globe, Isfahan (?), Iran 1144. Shown at the Louvre Museum, this globe is the 3rd oldest surviving in the world

Giuseppe de Rossi Celestial globe, Venice, Museo Correr

Long before there were planetariums or advanced technologies available for studying the sky, people devised ways of depicting the sun, moon, planets, and stars in relation to the Earth. There was a desire to learn about astronomical history and events; people wanted to figure out how Earth fit into the grand scheme of the universe. Globes helped to put objects into perspective, and served as scientific instruments, ornamental showpieces, and physical illustrations of the astronomy beliefs of the day.

Globes have been visual representations of the physical characteristics of Earth and Sky for thousands of years

Celestial Globe at The Franklin Institute

. Generally, there are three types of globes. Terrestrial globes detail geographical features of the Earth. There are also globes that illustrate the physical features of celestial bodies, such as the moon or Mars. Celestial globes, like the one pictured here, are spherical maps of the sky—models of the visible heavens.

There is written evidence that proves that the ancient world was familiar with the scientific principles necessary for depicting the celestial and terrestrial spheres, and the oldest known surviving ancient globe is the Farnese Atlas, now at the National Museum of Naples. The Farnese Atlas is a decorative celestial globe, about 25 inches in diameter, that shows the outline of constellations against a coordinate system. The statue of Atlas is dated 73 B.C.; the position of the constellation figures to the globe's equinox date the globe itself to around 370 B.C. (Naturally, the ancient globes and models were representative of the astronomical ideas held at that period of time.)

Astronomy is one of the longest-studied sciences in history. Scientists have attempted to answer questions that seem far beyond our understanding for centuries. As long as we wonder about heavenly objects, some will try to recreate the nighttime sky with instruments such as the globe, lighting the world as the stars themselves do with their ideas, models, and theories.

Reference: Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia New York & London, 1998.

Construction of an Astrolabe

Astrolabe of Jean Fusoris (fr), made in Paris, 1400

An astrolabe consists of a disk, called the mater (mother), which is deep enough to hold one or more flat plates called tympans, or climates. A tympan is made for a specific latitude and is engraved with a stereographic projection of circles denoting azimuth and altitude and representing the portion of the celestial sphere above the local horizon. The rim of the mater is typically graduated into hours of time, degrees of arc, or both. Above the mater and tympan, the rete, a framework bearing a projection of the ecliptic plane and several pointers indicating the positions of the brightest stars, is free to rotate. These pointers are often just simple points, but depending on the skill of the craftsman can be very elaborate and artistic. There are examples of astrolabes with artistic pointers in the shape of balls, stars, snakes, hands, dogs' heads, and leaves, among others.[28] Some astrolabes have a narrow rule or label which rotates over the rete, and may be marked with a scale of declinations.

The rete, representing the sky, functions as a star chart. When it is rotated, the stars and the ecliptic move over the projection of the coordinates on the tympan. One complete rotation corresponds to the passage of a day. The astrolabe is therefore a predecessor of the modern planisphere.

On the back of the mater there is often engraved a number of scales that are useful in the astrolabe's various applications; these vary from designer to designer, but might include curves for time conversions, a calendar for converting the day of the month to the sun's position on the ecliptic, trigonometric scales, and a graduation of 360 degrees around the back edge. The alidade is attached to the back face. An alidade can be seen in the lower right illustration of the Persian astrolabe above. When the astrolabe is held vertically, the alidade can be rotated and the sun or a star sighted along its length, so that its altitude in degrees can be read ("taken") from the graduated edge of the astrolabe; hence the word's Greek roots: "astron" (ἄστρον) = star + "lab-" (λαβ-) = to take.

The Astrolabe, East and West

Astrolabes were used in cultures rooted in religious faith and they reflect the sacred character of the cosmos. Examples from Christendom may have calendars with saints' days, and times of prayer were important for Christians and Muslims, but it was in Islam that the astrolabe was particularly adapted to religious observance. It could be used to find the five times of daily prayer and the sacred direction or 'Qibla', so that the faithful could face towards Mecca in prayer. The astrolabe's traditional role in religious observance may explain why it continued to be made and used much later in Islam than in the West. 

Gift to a mosque

An inscription on the back tells us that this instrument was a gift to a mosque in Fez. Inside the mater is a perpetual calendar for the Muslim and Christian years.

Astrolabe, by Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Battuti, North African, 1733/4 (Inv. 51459)

An inscription on the back tells us that this instrument was a gift to a mosque in Fez. Inside the mater is a perpetual calendar for the Muslim and Christian years.

Times of prayer
 
Curved lines in the top right quadrant of the back of this astrolabe give the times for the beginning and end of the afternoon prayer in the Muslim observance. Inside the mater (not shown) is a gazetteer of the longitude and latitude of 77 places.

Astrolabe, by Muhammad Muqim, Lahore, c.1650 (Inv. 37530)

Astrolabe, by Muhammad Muqim, Lahore, c.1650 (Inv. 37530)

Ancient Navigation: Astrolabe, by Muhammad Mahdi al-khadim al-Yazdi

This astrolabe, by Muhammad Mahdi, is a masterpiece of Safavid metalwork. The profusion of Persian and Arabic inscriptions confer on it a unique semantic character and the dedication on the throne to an important political personality of the Safavid empire confirm its courtly origin.

Astrolabe, by Muhammad Mahdi al-khadim al-Yazdi, Persian, c.1650

The throne, cast in one piece with the mater and rim, is high and triangular in shape and has an elaborately and delicately pierced base. Both sides bear inscriptions to Safi Quli Beg, an Emir at the court of Shah 'Abbas II.

Both sides of this astrolabe have a verse from the Koran and a Shiite invocation around the edge. The inscription in the throne begins "God: there is no god but Him, the Ever Living, the Ever Watchful. Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him. All that is in the heavens and in the earth belongs to Him." Inside the mater is a table for finding the direction of Mecca. 

Astrolabe {star- taker} Elaborate inclinomer, by Muhammad Mahdi al-Yazdi, Persian, c. 1660.

The astrolabe represents a mathematical likeness of the heavens and its Greek name is - "Star Taker". This amazing sophisticated scientific instrument has been crafted by Muhammad Mahdi al-Khadim al-Yazdi in brass and was used to solve astronomical problems and to show the positions of stars and planets at different dates, times and latitudes. The Persian calligraphy engraving reads a quotation from the Koran: "The world is decorated with stars".

Ancient Navigation: Sextant

With the sextant for determining latitude and the chronometer for longitude, sailors by the 1800s were able to navigate the high seas with great precision. Photo credit: © Bruno Buongiorno Nardelli/iStockphoto.com

For millennia, as sailors from the Phoenicians to the Polynesians knew, the heavens remained the best way to find one's north-south position. Increasingly sophisticated devices were designed over the centuries to measure the height of the sun and stars over the horizon. The gnomon or sun-shadow disk operated like a sundial, enabling the user to determine his latitude by the length of the sun's shadow cast on a disk floating level in water. The Arabian kamal was a rectangular plate that one moved closer or farther from one's face until the distance between the North star and the horizon exactly corresponded to the plate's upper and lower edges. The distance the plate lay away from the face—measured by a string tied to the center of the plate and held at the other end to the tip of the nose—determined the latitude.

In the Middle Ages, sailors relied on the astrolabe, a disc of metal that one held suspended by a small ring. The disc had a scale with degrees and a ruler for measuring the height of an astronomical body. Other medieval mariners preferred the cross-staff, a T-shaped device whose base was held up to the eye. One measured the sun's height by pulling the slidable top of the T toward one's eye until the sun lay at the top and the horizon at the bottom. Since blindness resulted from frequent use, the explorer John Davis invented the back-staff in 1595, which enabled one to get the same measurement with one's back to the sun. The sextant was the most advanced of these devices, allowing users to determine their latitude to within a sea mile or two, even from a swaying deck.

In the years after the sextant was invented in 1731, many held out hope that it would aid in east-west navigation as well—that is, in finding longitude. Sailors could employ the sextant to figure longitude using the lunar-distance method, but with the astronomical tables of the 18th century, the process could take several hours to work out one's position—not remotely good enough for sea travel. In the end, it was the dogged clockmaker, John Harrison, who solved the longitude problem with his chronometers. And today, the precocious step-child of these highly accurate clocks, the Global Positioning System, has finally proved the Roman dramatist Seneca right, when he wrote in the first century:

 There will come an age in the far-off years
When Ocean shall unloose the bonds of things,
When the whole broad earth shall be revealed....

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