31st March 1996

A lightweight BASTION

The Plantation Home By Royston Ellis & Gemunu Amarasinghe

Tea planters had the best bungalows," a planter told me. "Second were the rubber planters and third, the coconut planters."

The standard of the bungalows could reflect the importance of the three crops. According to The Handbook for the Ceylon Traveller: "Rubber comes next to tea, but before coconut, both in value as well as in its geographical distribution, following the fecund and rainy mid-country river valleys and foothills of southwestern Sri Lanka."

"Tea plantation bungalows were built under the direction of their British owners, to suit the climate. Hence the bungalows in the hill country, at altitudes of up to 6,500 feet above sea level, are solid edifices built to repel the chill of low temperatures. Windows remained tightly closed while log fires blazed in chintzy drawing-rooms.

Rubber plantation bungalows, at lower elevations, did not need the same elaborate bulwarking against the weather. They could be built to capture a waft of the breeze billowing through open doors, and with terraces where the planter could pace up and down or enjoy a sundown in the balmy evening air.

Such a bungalow is to be found on the Homadola plantation, two miles from Udugama in the southwest of the country, and 24 miles from the Galle railway station. The bungalow is lightweight compared with the gothic mansions of the hill country, being built for the humidity of 520 feet above sea level.

The bungalow has its origins in recent colonial times, not the vintage years of the 1920s and seems to reflect the late 1930s style of architecture. Before nationalisation the plantation was managed by the Beau Sejour Rubber Company Limited; now management is by the Tata group.

Homadola was originally a rubber plantation with tea being introduced about 25 years ago. The superintendent at that time was Patrick Woods, now retired and with a guest house in Bandarawela, who recalls achieving the almost impossible: planting 100 acres in tea in a year. Before nationalisation the plantation consisted of 1,858 acres of which 1,442 were planted in rubber. Now there are 964 hectares which include coconut and oil palm trees as well as 131 hectares of tea and 289 hectares of rubber.

The neighbouring estate bungalow at Homadola Upper was used in retirement by Sir John Kotelawala whose plantation included a registered tea nursery of two acres among its 748 acres. A cement garden seat from the old orchard rests now in the garden of the main Homadola bungalow.

The approach road to the bungalow is neatly maintained and well sign-posted, auguring well for a pleasant building. The first sight comes only after pulling up a short drive to mount a bluff. Like many plantation bungalows, Homadola crowns the contours of a landscaped hill. It has a small lawn beautifully bordered with flowers and bushes. The back garden is a lush wilderness as befits a bungalow so close to the rain-blessed forest of Sinharaja.

With most of the lowland plantations suffering from drought, Homadola revels in rain. Cane blinds are lowered when it rains, to protect the two open terraces that extend on both sides from the bay window front of the entrance hall. These terraces add to the charm of Homadala. One serves as the entrance from where vehicles park under the portico. The other is the setting for sundowners.

In one corner, the current occupant of the bungalow, planter Shanti Fernando, has built a bar of bamboo. His wife, Marleen, with a love of gardening, has filled a Shanghai bath with plants at one end, and placed a clay pot painted with a Sigiriya damsel at another. A traditional planter's chair with long arms which swing out to extend, has two additional short arms with holes in them to secure glasses.

While most of the furniture belongs to the bungalow, very little is of antique interest. What does remain is a cellaret, a chest for holding wine bottles in the dining room. This has not one, but two, brass British lion and unicorn crests on its front. A dinner set of delightful Staffordshire pottery over 75 years old, is a family heirloom.

The dining room has been partitioned off the main hall since the bungalow was built, but the original arch remains. The planter's den adjoins the inner terrace and contains two hat racks gaily hung with Shanti Fernando's prized collection of hats. The master bedroom is vast, with a bathroom half its size and a third room, also a bedroom leading off it. The guest room, at the other side of the dining saloon, is equally vast with its own bathroom.

Two small wings extend from the back of the bungalow, one with kitchen, pantry and an open area for woodfire cooking. Opposite is another room and a bathroom used by the resident staff. At the back is an apartment traditionally allotted to a creeper - trainee planter - with its own veranda overlooking a verdant backdrop of trees.

In some corners, traces of earlier years remain. A wind-up telephone with handle still works, and a swivelling wooden office chair still rotates, if a little shaky with age.

The huge rooms of the Homadola bungalow would look bare but for the efforts of the planter's wife who has set potted plants to soften the bleak lines of whitewashed walls. Many planters, although married, are usually obliged to lead a bachelor's life while their wives live in Colombo for the sake of their children's education. It is a contrast to the years when plantation bungalows were the long-term residences of expatriate planters and their wives, who made them resemble the homes they had left behind. Homadola, however, has the atmosphere of a home. It is a bright, although rambling, bungalow where Shanti Fernando, a planter for 30 years, manages to maintain the traditions of plantation hospitality.

Rubber may be second to tea, and rubber plantation bungalows different in design, but the bungalow is still a bastion where a planter can relax after the turmoil of the working day, whatever the plantation crop or the building's architecture.

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