Ena de Silva

Ena de Silva (née Aluwihare) (22 October 1922 – 29 October 2015) was a notable Sri Lankan artist, credited with re-establishing the country's batik industry.

Family Ena Aluwihare was born on 23 October 1922 in Matale, the youngest of two daughters to Sir Richard Aluwihare (1895 – 1976), a civil servant who later served as the first Ceylonese Inspector General of Police (1947 – 1955) and Ceylon's High Commissioner in India (1957 – 1963), and Lady Aluwihare née Lucille Moonemalle. In 1941, at nineteen she eloped and married Osmund de Silva, a police officer, who was older than her, who would serve as the personal assistant to her father and eventually succeed him as Inspector General of Police

Career De Silva studied art in her youth however her artistic career began, after she and her husband approached Geoffrey Bawa in 1960 to design a house for them in Colombo. She developed a long term professional relationship with Bawa designing batik tapestries for a number of his buildings, including the Bentota Beach Hotel and the Sri Lankan Parliament Building. In 1960, she formed a firm with Laki Senanayake, Professor Reggie Siriwardena and her son.

De Silva was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Geoffrey Bawa Trust in 2011. She was also highly acclaimed and well respected in the arts fraternity for sharing her knowledge and experience with many young women with whom she worked with during her lifetime. She also devoted much of her time mentoring many young women, especially young school dropouts, in order to help them stand on their own as financially independent persons.