Sri Lanka · Metalwork / Repoussé
පන්ඩු වේදී (Pandu Vedi)
Pandu vedi (පන්ඩු වේදී) is the Kandyan Kingdom's hereditary repoussé metalwork tradition — producing the silver and gilt-copper objects that furnished the royal court and the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Dalada Maligawa) in Kandy: offering trays (ata pattiya), betel boxes (ran peti), processional lamps (pahana), and the elaborately chased panels of the Perahera festival regalia. The defining Kandyan technical signature is the punching of negative-relief backgrounds: where most South Asian repoussé raises the figure from a flat background, Kandyan metalworkers punch the background into a dense field of tiny concave dimples using a pointed punch — creating a matte, light-scattering background against which the raised figures read as luminous and smooth. The background punch density — assessed by running the thumb across the completed surface and feeling for uniform resistance — is the primary tacit quality standard.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Sri Lanka national ICH list; Perahera festival context UNESCO-relevant
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