Suriyakantha: An Art of Living in the Tropics Unveiled in Kandy

Publisher: Éditions Suriyakantha | Year of publication: 2026 | Price : LKR 9,950
Binding: Hardcover with dust jacket | Pages: 132 | Illustrations: Colour

With the support of

The French Embassy in Sri Lanka and the Maldives
Connaissance de Ceylan / Thema Collection

New illustrated volume celebrating the heritage and singular spirit of the Suriyakantha Centre for Art and Culture launched during a commemorative evening marking the first anniversary of the death of Dr Jacques Soulié

Chandra Wickramasinghe, founder of Connaissance de Ceylan and Thema Collection presenting the book to Rémi Lambert, Ambassador of France to Sri Lanka and the Maldives - 25 July 2026 - Suriyakantha - Kandy © Suriyakantha CAC

KANDY, SRI LANKA — Suriyakantha: An Art of Living in the Tropics, a new illustrated volume devoted to one of the Kandy region’s most distinctive cultural houses, was unveiled on 25 July 2026 during an evening commemorating the first anniversary of the death of Dr Jacques Christian Soulié, co-founder of the Suriyakantha Centre for Art and Culture.

Published by Éditions Suriyakantha, the Centre’s newly established publishing house, the book was produced with the support of the French Embassy in Sri Lanka and the Maldives and Connaissance de Ceylan / Thema Collection. The 132-page hardcover volume brings together texts by Guilhem Beugnon and Janaka Samarakoon and a rich selection of colour photographs exploring the architecture, collections, gardens and atmosphere of Suriyakantha.

The commemorative evening brought together the Venerable Rathanasiri Thero of Alapalawala Temple; the two guests of honour, His Excellency Rémi Lambert, Ambassador of France to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and Chandra Wickramasinghe, founder of Connaissance de Ceylan and Thema Collection; as well as Dr Soulié’s longstanding friends and colleagues from the Alliance Française network, universities and Sri Lanka’s Francophone community.

The evening also marked the inauguration of the new Jacques Soulié Stage, a space dedicated to the performing arts and the last project undertaken by Dr Soulié before his death — one that brought him back to a passion of his youth: theatre. The occasion was fittingly marked by the premiere of Dhanuka Bandara’s play Handunagaththoth Oba Ma, performed by his company, Parallel Stage. A screening of the documentary Jacques Soulié – In Memoriam and a closing musical performance by Dhanuka Bandara and Parallel Stage rounded off the programme, followed by a cocktail reception.

A house, a collection, an art of living

Once an aristocratic residence dating from the Kandyan Kingdom, Suriyakantha has gradually become a place where architecture, collections, landscape and memory are inseparable.

The new book invites readers to discover the house as it reveals itself to the visitor: from gardens and verandas to vast reception rooms and intimate private spaces, from shaded corridors to the spectacular inner courtyard. Light, vegetation, period furniture and whitewashed walls form part of a carefully preserved environment in which history is experienced as much through atmosphere as through objects.

Today a Centre for Art and Culture, Suriyakantha brings together material relating to many strands of Sri Lanka’s history: kings and peasants, Veddas, Sinhalese and Tamils, encounters between local communities and colonial powers, traditional craftsmanship and forms of knowledge that once shaped everyday life.

At the heart of the institution lies the vision developed by its founders, Dr Jacques Soulié (1939–2025) and Rohan de Silva (1950–2009): heritage should not merely be accumulated and preserved; its objects, memories and histories should be brought into dialogue with one another. As the book observes:

“To preserve, to exhibit, to reveal meaning: such might be the credo of this institution.”

Twenty years after the project began, Suriyakantha: An Art of Living in the Tropics offers both a record of that achievement and an invitation to experience the place itself.

Two authors, two perspectives

Guilhem Beugnon, a retired teacher and former director of the Resource Centre for Education for Sustainable Development at the Academic Directorate of Hérault in France, has devoted much of his recent work to the history and archaeological, architectural and natural heritage of central Languedoc. He is the author of Gabian, aux sources du pétrole en France and Caux, sur les chemins de la Grande Guerre.

Thirty years after a long-term mission in Sri Lanka, his return to the island and rediscovery of Suriyakantha gave rise to a sensitive account in which observation, history and personal memory constantly intersect.

Janaka Samarakoon, trained in art history at the École du Louvre in Paris, works as a literary translator and documentary filmmaker specialising in art and culture. In 2024, he published the first contemporary Sinhala novel to be translated into French.

Associated with the Suriyakantha Centre for Art and Culture as a director since its legal establishment in 2010, he now divides his time between Nice and Sri Lanka and is closely involved in carrying the institution forward in continuity with the vision of its founders.

The publication of Suriyakantha: An Art of Living in the Tropics one year after Dr Soulié’s death gives the volume particular resonance. More than a portrait of a remarkable house, it is also a testament to a cultural project built over decades — and to the determination to ensure that the place remains alive.