Negombo Tamils
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- For other usage of this term see the disambiguation page Negombo Tamil
Negombo Tamils is a term usually used for Sri Lankan Tamils who live in the western Puttalam district of Sri Lanka. It is also used to describe their Tamil dialect. Other sub categories of native Tamils of Sri Lanka are Jaffna Tamils and Batticalao Tamils.
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[edit] Position of Negombo
Negombo is a town within the Gampaha district bordering Puttalam District. This district falls outside the traditionally Tamil speaking Northeastern province. Puttalam district which until the first two decades of the last century had a substantial ethnic Tamil population of whom majority were Catholics and a minority were Hindus.
[edit] Sinhalisation
It has been observed that historically in the Sri Lankan Roman Catholic Church history that there was a process of Sinhalisation or assimilation into Sinhalese identity of these Catholics who are now mostly fishers.
| “ | L.J.B.Turner in the Ceylon Census of 1921 (p202 of Vol I): The distinction between Sinhalese and Tamils of the present day is so marked that it is not easy to realise that there has been considerable fusion between these races in the past. The results of this fusion are most obvious on the western coast between Negombo and Puttalam, where a large proportion of the villagers, though they call themselves Sinhalese, speak Tamil, and are, undoubtedly, of Tamil descent, their legendary ancestors being captives from India or imported weavers and other artisans. As in 1911, a large number of the Kandyan Sinhalese in Diddeniya palata in the Hiriyala hatpattu of the Kurunegala District are Hindus and speak Tamil, though most of them read and write Sinhalese. They are reported to have discontinued many Tamil customs, but they retain the practice of tying the Tali at weddings. Similar settlements of Sinhalese of Tamil descent are found elsewhere, being the descendants of Tamil mercenaries, captives, specially imported artisans, and others. | ” |
This historic process was embraced by the educational policies of a local Bishop Edmund Peiris who was instrumental in changing the medium of education from Tamil to Sinhalese.
[edit] Survival of Tamil identity
Today most of those who cling to their Tamil identity are Hindus. They are mostly concentrated in a single coastal village called Uddappu.
Fire-walking and Skanda cult practices have been noted for this village Udappu.
Small number of Tamil Christians are also found in the towns of Chilaw, Negambo and Puttalam and in small villages such as Mampuri.
Although more people speak Tamil than those who identify them as Tamils in this region as most identify them as Sinhalese.
[edit] See also
[edit] References and further reading
- ^ 1921 Ceylon census by L.B. Turner (p202 of Vol I)
