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Peradeniya gardens displays Sri Lanka’s botanical legacy in tribute to British founder
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Spreading across four exhibition halls, the museum traces the history of Peradeniya and the broader universal history of botanic gardens
By Nidarshani Wickramasinghe
Today will be a landmark day in Sri Lanka’s cultural and botanical history as the ‘Moon Museum’ the country’s first and only museum dedicated to the botanic garden, opens in the Royal Botanic Garden, Peradeniya. The opening is part of the bicentennial celebrations of one of Asia’s most renowned gardens.
H.C.P Jayaweera
The museum named in honour of Alexander Moon, who established the garden on the present site in 1821, takes the visitor through two centuries of botanic achievement, conservation and scientific triumph.
Mr Moon is not only remembered for having decided to place Peradeniya as the home of the Royal Botanic Garden, but also for the publication of ‘A Catalogue of the Indigenous and Exotic Plants Growing in Ceylon’ in 1824, which contained 1,127 endemic species with their scientific and local names.
“The Moon Museum is more than an homage, it is a living testament to the island’s botanical legacy and its continued contribution to science, conservation and society,’’ said H.C.P Jayaweera, director general of the Department of National Botanic Gardens. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the public can visit the museum on the garden entry ticket.
Dr Ravindra Kariyawasam
Spreading across four exhibition halls, the museum traces the history of Peradeniya and the broader universal history of botanic gardens. The inaugural hall is the history of the gardens and their role under colonial rule in spreading plantation crops such as coffee and tea. The second hall is the history of early conservation and scientific inquiry and the third is the flowering of horticulture ornamental and tourism development. The final hall looks towards the future, with an emphasis on conservation needs and the necessity for sustainable stewardship of biodiversity.
Some of the features include fossils of rare preserved plants, published antiquity items, interpretative panels and models that illustrate the gardens’ ongoing contribution to Sri Lanka’s social and economic progress. Curated exhibitions and educational programmes have been designed to enlighten school children, provide a point of reference for university students and researchers and challenge the remainder of the public with a better comprehension of environmental responsibility. 
Dr Ravindra Kariyawasam, Ministry of Environment advisor has described the project as “a timely reminder of how botanic gardens are not just landscapes of beauty, but living laboratories of conservation, knowledge and economic advance. The Moon Museum will enhance public understanding of plant science, while creating a more environmentally enlightened citizenry.
The Royal Botanic Garden is a national treasure. Covering over 147 acres (59 hectares) and attracting over 1.3 million visitors annually. The collection includes 4,000 species of plants, more than 150 endemic shrubs and trees, together with Asia’s most diverse palm assemblage, a world renowned orchid house, and living exhibits of cinnamon, pepper and other spices formerly at the centre of the island’s commerce.
For local residents and international tourists as well, the new museum has the potential for exhibitions, but also a new perspective ‘a vision of the world as seen by botany’. Merging the past, science and culture, the Moon Museum ensures that the story of plants and man’s deep reliance on them, will continues to be told.
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