Zinara Rathnayake

On a hot, humid afternoon in August, I meet 75-year-old Kosala de Silva at the metal-roofed workshop beside the Ariyapala Mask Museum in Ambalangoda, a beachside town 107km south of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.

When dusk falls and street lamps begin to glow in Colombo, the city’s alleyways come alive with the clang of metal on metal. That’s how you know it’s kottu time: before you see kottu, you’ll hear it.