The Purnaka Raksha breaks from the red and green of most demon masks with a face of deep blue. It sits beneath a tall, rounded crown painted red, from which a great golden bloom of flame-like petals opens upward, topped by a blue-and-yellow patterned bud and fringed around its outer edge with small flames.
The face. Round black eyes set in white stare out from under a fringe of orange and white petals, and the mouth is a wide black grin with a row of white teeth and a black tongue. On either side, round ear discs are painted as layered flowers in orange, white, red and blue around a black centre.
Materials. Carved by hand from light kaduru wood and painted in acrylics, as a decorative wall mask.
In tradition. Purnaka is one of the less often seen forms of the Raksha demon masks, whose faces have long been carried in processions and hung in homes on Sri Lanka's southern coast to keep misfortune at a distance. Read more about Raksha masks and how Sri Lankan masks are made.
Sizes. 20 cm (8 in), 25 cm (10 in), 30 cm (12 in) and 38 cm (15 in) tall. As each mask is carved and painted by hand, it will differ slightly from the photograph.
