Taprobane Island
More to come...
Taprobane Island as we see it today was created in 1922 by Count de Mauny - Talvande, a gentlemen of leisure, furniture maker and a descendent of one of Napoleon's Generals.
Count de Mauny was to make Taprobane his home for the next 30 years and during his time played host to Kings, Statesmen, Aristocracy, Governors and Magnates; the gardens and neo paladian house becoming a drawing point to all those entranced by beauty.
In his diary, in Febuary 1932, he describes the arrival of H.E. The Governor:
"A burst of cheering rises from four thousand throats. Spectators from all the country-side have gathered along the sands in front of Taprobane; thousands of mutlicoloured stars spangle the sand.
Two thousand men, tom-toms, drums and flutes head the march; the dancers come next, wearing grotesque masks; the "fire-eaters" come next, holding their burning brands between their teeth; a hundred torch-bearers follow.
Fifty catamarans, transformed into gondolas, junks, miniature men-of-war, all garlanded with festoons of many coloured lights, furrow the Bay and skim past the Island. Songs and native music rises above the slapping clatter of paddles; rockets break the night in columns of fire; the gun booms.
The crowd scatters silently in the night, and the Temple bells, in the jungle, peal out the close of the day of full moon."
On his death in Jaffna in the late 1940s, the island became a little neglected until bought by the American writer Paul Bowles, who was equally captivated by its fantasy and who was to own it for 4 years, during this time he wrote the Spider House; it was only on the insistence of his wife that he moved back to Morocco.
And once again the island became neglected for many years until a brief period in the 1970s when the son of the painter Balthus held court there and captivated many a young visitor !
Taprobane Island is located 200 yards off the southern coast of Sri Lanka in the centre of Weligama bay, which in turn is 3 1/2 hours south of the capital of Colombo and 30 minutes south of the provincial capital of Galle, a town designated by the United Nations as a world heritage site.
Welcome to this Amazing Private Island !!!
