Sanni Yaksha Mask
The sanni yaksha mask is a carved and painted wooden face of a Sinhalese disease demon, worn in the exorcism rites that Sri Lankan tradition calls shanthi karma or tovil. There are eighteen principal sanni demons, each named for a particular affliction, such as fever, madness, dropsy or jaundice, and each has its own mask with a distinctive colour, expression and headdress. The finest carving comes from Ambalangoda on the south coast, where the mask carvers cut the traditional kaduru wood and finish it with vegetable and mineral pigments. In the ritual the masked dancer enacts the demon's stor