Many more creations can be produced for the country if someone from the public or private sector can supports me,” said W. Visal Sri Binara from Narahenpita, Colombo 5, who won first place in the Lake House Poson Lantern competition said yesterday.
A large number of lanterns were submitted for the lantern competition sponsored by the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited and the winners were selected by the committee consisting of Prof. Mudiyanse Dissanayake, Prof. Sarath Gunasiri, Dr. Aruna Lokuliana, Ravindra Guruge, Engineer Kushan Devindra and Upali Herath. The lantern designed by W. Visal Sri Binara won first place and he received a cash prize of Rs,5,00,000.
“I was educated at Lumbini College, Colombo. I am currently studying to become a Software Engineer at London Tech.
“My father is a Graphic Designer. My father has been working on designing lanterns for about twenty years. My father plans how to create the lantern at the beginning. He is the one who does the welding work. It is my mother who decorates the lantern with carvings using shapes. I have been seeing the creation of lanterns since I was a child. The reason why I like these things as one of my favourite subjects is the technical subject. I like the electrical side a lot. I was entrusted with the work on the lanterns that my father was building when I was about 16 years. So that’s how I got interested in creating a lantern by myself.
“This is not the first time I have created a lantern. I first started creating a lantern in 2015 for the Vesak festival held in our village. I won first place in this competition. In 2016, I also created a lantern for the Vesak zone at the Bauddhaloka Mawatha. In 2018, I won first place in another competition at Bauddhaloka Mawatha. In the same year, I won first place in the competition held at the Maharagama Youth Service Council. It was after that that I started designing a lantern for the Lake House lantern competition.
It usually takes about six months to create a lantern. There are times when six months is not enough. I created this lantern by using natural and artificial materials. Around 47 lanterns were submitted to the competition. The lantern was created under the theme of “Themagula”. Because I created it not for Poson Poya but for Vesak Poya.
I should also remind that Minister Bandula Gunawardhana is a former student of my school. When he was a teacher, my father was also his student. Because of that, I got a lot of support and encouragement. I work as an IT Executive at John Keells Holdings. I was released from my duties and my company also provided a lot of support for this work. I have to say that today’s young generation is very creative. Therefore, these designs can be improved even more if the government or private sectors provide more support for these things. And I hope to continue to do such designs in the future,” he added.
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