Trincomalee District is located in the east of Sri Lanka in the Eastern Province. It has an area of 2,727 square kilometres (1,053 sq mi).[3]
Etymology
Early maps of Trincomalee
Ptolemy's map of Taprobana of 140 CE in a 1562 Ruscelli publication. From the Shiva footprint of Ulipada of Malea mountains (Sivan Oli Pada Malai) rises three rivers, including the Mavillie-Gangai (Mahavali-Ganges) whose tributary Barraces river's estuary into the Indian Ocean is just south of Bocana (Ko-Kannam bay) where the temple is illustrated. Just above, both cartographers mention Abaratha Ratchagar, another name of Lord Shiva – a temple with this name is also found in Aduthurai, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, near the early Chola capital.
Cantino map of 1502, showing three Tamil towns on east coast, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee (Traganamalee) and Pannoam.
Trincomalee
The city has developed from a village settlement on the promontory dedicated to the Hindu shrine. The origin of the term Ko, Kone and Konatha lies in the Old Tamil word for the terms "Lord", "King" or "Chief", which allude to the deity that presides here; this term appears in several Tamil Brahmi inscriptions of the 6th century BCE — 2nd century CE. Trincomalee, the coastal peninsula town where Koneswaram is located is an anglicized form of the old Tamil word "Thiru-kona-malai" (Tamil: திருகோணமலை), meaning "Lord of the Sacred Hill", its earliest reference in this form found in the Tevaram of the 7th century by Sambandhar. Thiru is a generally used epithet denoting a "sacred" temple site while Malai means mountain or hill; Middle Tamil manuscripts and inscriptions mention the monumental compound shrine as the Thirukonamalai Konesar Kovil.[4][5][6][7]Kona (Tamil: கோண) has other meanings in Old Tamil such as peak, while another origin for the term Koneswaram could come from the Tamil term Kuna (East). Therefore, other translators suggest definitions of Trincomalee such as "sacred angular/peaked hill", "sacred eastern hill" or "three peaked hill".[8][9][10] The temple was constructed atop Swami Rock, also called Swami Malai or Kona-ma-malai, a cliff on the peninsula that drops 400 feet (120 metres) directly into the sea.[4][11][12]
Administrative units
Trincomalee District is divided into 11 Divisional Secretary's Division (DS Divisions), each headed by a Divisional Secretary (previously known as an Assistant Government Agent).[13] The DS Divisions are further sub-divided into 230 Grama Niladhari Divisions (GN Divisions).[13]
Trincomalee District's population was 378,182 in 2012.[1]
The population of the district, like the rest of the east and north, has been heavily affected by the civil war. The war killed an estimated 100,000 people.[16] Several hundred thousand Sri Lankan Tamils, possibly as much as one million, emigrated to the West during the war.[17]
Ethnicity
Population of Trincomalee District by ethnic group 1827 to 2012[1][18][19]
In 2016, the district was one of the poorest in Sri Lanka and had the third-highest incidence of extreme poverty according to the World Bank.[21]
Politics and government
Local government
Trincomalee District has 13 local authorities of which two are Urban Councils and the remaining 11 are Divisional Councils (Pradesha Sabhai or Pradeshiya Sabha).[22]
^ abE Greig, Doreen (1987). "The reluctant colonists: Netherlanders abroad in the 17th and 18th centuries". U.S.A.: Assen, The Netherlands; Wolfeboro, N.H., U.S.A.: 227. OCLC14069213. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^Sivaratnam, C (1964). An outline of the cultural history and principles of Hinduism (1 ed.). Colombo: Stangard Printers. OCLC12240260. Koneswaram temple. Tiru-Kona-malai, sacred mountain of Kona or Koneser, Iswara or Siva. The date of building the original temple is given as 1580, BCE. according to a Tamil poem by Kavi Raja Virothayan translated into English in 1831 by Simon Cassie Chitty...
^Herbert Keuneman; John Gottberg; Ravindralal Anthonis; Hans Hoefer (1985). Sri Lanka (3 ed.). Hong Kong: Hong Kong : Apa Productions (HK); [Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Distributed by] Prentice Hall, 1985. p. 214. ISBN978-0-13-839944-3. OCLC13501485.
^Indrapala, Karthigesu (2007). The evolution of an ethnic identity: The Tamils in Sri Lanka C. 300 BCE to C. 1200 CE. Colombo: Vijitha Yapa. p. 324. ISBN978-955-1266-72-1.
^Ramachandran, Nirmala (2004). The Hindu legacy to Sri Lanka. Pannapitiya: Stamford Lake (Pvt.) Ltd. 2004. ISBN978-955-8733-97-4. OCLC230674424.
^Taylor, Isaac (1843). Names and Their Histories: A Handbook of Historical Geography and Topographical Nomenclature. London: BiblioBazaar, LLC. p. 308. ISBN0-559-29668-1.
^Room, Adrian (2006). Placenames of the world : origins and meanings of the names for 6,600 countries, cities, territories, natural features, and historic sites (2 ed.). London: Jefferson, N.C.; London : McFarland & Co., cop. 2006. p. 382. ISBN978-0-7864-2248-7. OCLC439732470.
