Bevis Bawa’s Brief in Bentota: a riot of colour

by ACB Pethiyagoda

With the passing of Mr. Geoffery Bawa a few weeks ago, one is reminded of the hundreds of mourners from all walks of life who paid their last respects to Mr. Bevis Bawa at Brief following his death on September 19, 1992. With the death of these two brothers Sri Lanka has lost two outstanding men, each a colossus in his own field of activity.

Bevis will be remembered by generations to come for the creation of Brief, a garden of rare beauty. This is perhaps the only collection of over hundred varieties of trees and several hundred varieties of ornamental shrubs and plants spread over an extent of about five acres, for non-commercial purposes to begin with, in this country.

Why Brief? Some say Bevis’ father who was a successful lawyer used the money charged for a very special brief he handled in the District Court of Galle to buy the rubber estate of which Brief later became a part. Others say that it was the name of a house in a novel by Evelyn Waugh which Bevis had read. Perhaps it could have been for both reasons.

Bevis obtained his mother’s (a Dutch lady) permission to uproot the rubber and build himself house improving on an existing building facing a long stretch of paddy fields and the Gurukanda hills beyond. Seated in the verandah at dawn with the mist still rising is tranquilly itself. As the sun comes up the bewitching beauty of the garden is gradually revealed – a riot of colour, mostly green, with generous splashes of yellow, mauve, blue, orange, red and so forth in all their numerous shades.

The grottoes and garden statues are the work of Bevis himself except the moonstone at one end of the lawn. That was the work of an Indian stone carver who was working in a Buddhist temple in the vicinity in the early 1930s. He is said to have charged Rs. 150/= for his efforts – not too bad as a medium level Government employee’s salary in those times would have been around Rs. 40/= a month.

Bevis lived in this house up to about 1992 since building it in 1929 when he was about 20 years and an officer in the British Army up to Independence in 1948. During those years be busied himself with various activities mainly managing and improving his plantations. He also contributed regularly to local and foreign journals and newspapers on various topics with illustrations done himself. Those articles and drawings were very amusing and looked forward to by his regular readers.

The house and garden are still maintained with great care and are open to visitors on payment of a small fee which goes towards the costs of up-keep. In the recent past there have been on average of about 1,500 foreign visitors a year and many more Sri Lankans, specially students from Universities and schools. They are shown round by one of the half dozen gardeners’ some of whom speak several foreign languages.

(First published in the Sunday Island in June 2003)