Ambalangoda is the mask town. Its workshops carve kolam, sanni and raksha faces from kaduru wood, seasoned a week over a smoky hearth before a knife touches it. The Naga Raksha — the cobra demon — is the tradition's icon: a flat vermilion face, bulging eyes, bared fangs, a fan of cobras rising behind the crown.

This system takes the object literally. The vermilion lacquer is the page, not a background. Chrome yellow carries every action. Black contour separates every plane, bone white does the hatching, and nothing sits off the centre axis.