Dutch Museum in Colombo

Sri Lanka is and was a melting pot of ethnicities, religions and influences. For millennia Sri Lanka has being a center of trading and commerce. This brought to Sri Lankans people from the East (namely Chinese traders), from the Middle East (Arabs, Jewish and Persian traders) and from the West (traders and later invaders from Portugal, Holland and the British). Each left their mark, their culture, their genetics as well. I will do some posts on some of these stories in following articles, but today I wanted to talk about the Dutch and their governor.

The Dutch came to Lanka to corner the spice trade and this was managed by the Dutch East Indian company. The Dutch took over the Portuguese forts and made new ones. They focused their outposts in the island in Galle and Colombo. In Colombo they established a trading quarter and this is today's Pettah, a wholesale hub and warren of shops that sell just about anything you can imagine!

They established their Governor's Quarters in Pettah on what is today Prince Street. Today a street that sells mainly vinyl and leather. In the midst of all that chaos of trucks, coolies pulling hand carts and tuk-tuks is the Dutch Museum, in the former Governor's home.

Above the door is the inscription you can find above, This is in Latin and is Bible verse from Psalms 127:1 which reads in English:

"Unless Jehovah builds the house,It is in vain that its builders work hard on it."

This inscriptions attests to the religiosity of the Dutch and also underlines how in the 16th century the name of God, Jehovah was widely used.

Come and visit Sri Lanka and see for yourself.