The Sun and Moon Disc Pendant reflects ancient art from both Irish and Sri Lankan cultures. Days spent exploring the Irish Gold collection at the archaeology museum in Dublin drew me to the forms and etchings found on golden sun discs, spools, and torcs. The conical shape at the centre of the pendant is seen in many of these designs. While its exact meaning is unclear, I like to think of it as a representation of a source; a beginning or point of energy. I carved this point in wax before casting it into silver and combining it with sheet metal and wire to create the form.
 
The engraved design depicts a lotus flower, one of Sri Lanka’s national symbols. I chose the half-moon shape to echo a Sri Lankan architectural feature called a Sandakana Pahana, or “moonstone,” found at the base of stairways leading to temples. The lotus represents Nirvana, or enlightenment, and each concentric band represents an element of the cycle of Samsāra, which in Budhissm is the beginningless cycle of repeated birth, existence and death.
 
The translation of ‘sandakada pahana’ : sanda = moon / kada = art / pahana = stone. You can see my photograph of this from my visit to the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi temple in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.