Beruwala, West Coast

Brief Garden

A former rubber estate transformed by landscape artist Bevis Bawa into a maze of sculpture-filled garden ‘rooms,’ once a magnet for visiting film stars and writers.

🌱 Started 1929 👤 Designed by Bevis Bawa 🌲 5-acre garden 🎭 Once hosted Vivien Leigh & Laurence Olivier

Finding Brief Garden is part of the experience, a narrow, unmarked road winding through rice paddies until a small handmade signpost finally appears. What waits at the end is one of Sri Lanka’s most idiosyncratic gardens, built not by a trained horticulturist but by a soldier-turned-artist with a genuine gift for surprise.

Quick Facts

Location	Near Beruwala, Kalutara District
Creator	Bevis Bawa (1909 to 1992), landscape architect and artist
Started	1929, on a former family rubber plantation
Size	About 2 hectares (5 acres)
Name origin	The estate was purchased using funds from a successful legal ‘brief’
Notable visitors	Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and other mid-20th-century artists

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From Rubber Estate to Living Artwork

Bevis Bawa was born in 1909, the elder brother of Geoffrey Bawa, the architect who would go on to define an entire school of tropical modernism. Bevis’s own path ran through the Ceylon Light Infantry and colonial administration, serving as aide-de-camp to four successive governors of Ceylon, rather than through any formal training in landscape design. In 1929, while still in military service, he took over management of Brief, his family’s rubber estate, purchased years earlier by his lawyer father with proceeds from a successful legal brief, giving the property its distinctive name. He inherited the estate outright in 1949 and moved there permanently after finishing his military career, spending the following decades gradually reshaping the plantation into a garden unlike anything else in Sri Lanka.

Unlike his brother’s more architecturally disciplined approach at Lunuganga, Bevis worked by instinct rather than technical horticultural knowledge. He once remarked, “I don’t know the names of any trees. If I see a tree I like, I put it in,” a comment that captures his entire creative approach: intuitive, playful, and driven by visual effect rather than botanical correctness.

A Garden of Rooms and Surprises

Brief Garden is organised into a series of interconnected outdoor “rooms,” each with a distinct mood, some open and sun-drenched, others deeply shaded and mysterious, connected by moss-dappled stone paths and stairways. A waterway cascades through stepped lotus pools, a Japanese stone lantern punctuates one hillside, and ceramic vases frame a stairway leading up to a grassy plaza. The layout deliberately withholds full views, revealing the garden gradually as visitors move through it rather than presenting everything at once.

Art runs through the entire property. Bevis collaborated with the Australian artist Donald Friend on many of the garden’s sculptures, while designer Barbara Sansoni and Friend created leaf-patterned cement tiles and terracotta pieces with animal motifs found throughout the grounds. Friend’s own standout contribution sits above the entrance staircase: a large mural depicting the sweep of Sri Lankan history.

A Mid-Century Creative Hub

During its 20th-century heyday, Brief Garden attracted a genuinely glamorous circle of visitors, including film stars Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, alongside writers and artists drawn by both the garden’s beauty and Bevis’s reputation as a charismatic host and raconteur. The garden functioned as much as a creative salon as a private residence.

Visiting Today

Since Bevis Bawa’s death in 1992, Brief Garden has been maintained by Dooland de Silva, who worked as Bevis’s head gardener for decades and continues running the design practice, Brief Garden Designs, from the property. Visitors can walk the gardens on a self-guided or hosted tour and typically finish with tea at the main house, where de Silva shares stories and shows off the house’s eclectic art collection, including a Marc Chagall-style mural of Sri Lankan life.

Practical Tips

Allow around 1.5 hours for a full visit, including the house tour and tea.
The garden is better suited to adults and older children with a genuine interest in art, design, or landscaping than very young children.
Combine with a visit to Lunuganga, Geoffrey Bawa’s own garden nearby, for a fuller sense of the two brothers’ contrasting design philosophies.
The narrow approach road can be tricky to find; use GPS navigation and allow extra time.

Where It Sits on the Map

Brief Garden, near Beruwala, Kalutara District Open in Google Maps ↗

Frequently Asked Questions

Who created Brief Garden?

Bevis Bawa, a Sri Lankan artist, landscape designer and former military officer, who began developing the garden in 1929 on his family’s former rubber estate.

How is Brief Garden different from Lunuganga?

Brief Garden, created by Bevis Bawa, is wilder and more intuitively designed, while Lunuganga, created by his brother Geoffrey Bawa, reflects a more architecturally disciplined approach; the two gardens are often visited together for contrast.

Why is it called Brief Garden?

The estate’s name comes from the fact that Bevis Bawa’s father purchased the land using proceeds from a successful legal brief.

Who runs Brief Garden today?

Dooland de Silva, Bevis Bawa’s former head gardener, has maintained and run the property since Bawa’s death in 1992.

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