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Friday, January 21, 2011

Time Stood Still in Galle, Sri Lanka

In Galle, Sri Lanka there was a very old open shed market built in 1880 named Green Market. The building had slim rounded concrete pillars and raised cement floors with a lower passageway in the centre, separating the market into two equal parts.

I saw only local farm produce such as vegetables, chillies, carrots, pumpkins tubers, etc were sold there. Not a single item was imported. All articles were displayed for sale on the flat floor. The stallholders still used the old type of weighing scale as shown in the pictured below.

Times moved on but the Green Market did not. Business was as usual since the market first started. The only thing that changed was the stallholders. They were the new generations, probably the descendants of the old hawkers. Walking inside the market was like going back in time. It amazed me that time stood still for this 19th century market although it was within walking distance of a busy shopping street.

The hawker stalls outside the market were different. They had raised stalls and displayed their articles at eye level so that the customers did not have to look down like those inside the market.



Green Market 1880



Articles displayed on the floor


Balancing weighing scale



Metal weight in grams


Stall outside the market and busy shopping street in the background



More stalls outside the market

2 comments:

Lam Chun See said...

The weighing machines look interesting. Do they use the daching that our shop keepers used in the kampong days?

Did you see any wells? I am look for photo of kampong well for my book.

PChew said...

No, they don't. I remember in the old days only the Indian mama shophkeepers used the same type of weighing scale that I saw in the Green Market.

I did not see well in the village.
As for the kampong well photo, you might find them in the internet.