Agalawatta is a town in

Kalutara District Kalutara District ( si, කළුතර දිස්ත්‍රික්කය; ta, களுத்துறை மாவட்டம் ''Kaḷuttuṟai Māvaṭṭam'') is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, and is an electoral division.

History

Agalawatta is part of the ''Pasdun Rata'' ( si, පස්දුන් රට), which is also known as ''Pasdun Korale'' ( si, පස්දුන් කෝරලේ) (meaning: country/county of five ''

yojana A yojana (Sanskrit: योजन; th, โยชน์; my, ယူဇနာ) is a measure of distance that was used in ancient India, Thailand and Myanmar. A yojana is about 12–15 km. Edicts of Ashoka (3rd century BCE) Ashoka, in his Major R ...

s''), created when King

Parakramabahu the Great Parākramabāhu I ( Sinhala: මහා පරාක්‍රමබාහු, 1123–1186), or Parakramabahu the Great, was the king of Polonnaruwa from 1153 to 1186. He oversaw the expansion and beautification of his capital, constructed extensiv ...

drained the

Kalu Ganga Kalu Ganga ( si, කළු ගඟ; literally: Black River) is a river in Sri Lanka. Measuring in length, the river originates from Sri Padhaya and reach the sea at Kalutara. The Black River flows through the Ratnapura and the Kalutara District a ...

basin. North of Agalawatta is the '

Fa Hien Cave Fa Hien Cave, also Pahiyangala Cave, is situated in the district of Kalutara, Western Province, Sri Lanka and according to a rural legend, named after an alleged resident during historical times, namely Buddhist monk Faxian (also Fa-Hien, or Fa ...

', where evidence has been found dating back to 34,000 BC of

Balangoda Balangoda is a large town in Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka, governed by an urban council located away from Colombo and from Ratnapura on Colombo - Batticaloa Highway(A4). It is one of the largest towns of the Sabaragamuw ...

people,

hunter gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

s. The Pasdun Rata was uninhabited except for hunter gatherers until the 12th century, being largely waterlogged. The town was originally known as ''Angalawatta'' (garden of one finger's length), and was historically not very important. The town of ''Pelenda'' nearby was the site of the capital of 'King'

Veediya Bandara Veediya Bandara (Sinhala: වීදිය බණ්ඩාර) was the commander-in-chief of the Kingdom of Kotte, Sri Lanka, during the reign of Bhuvanaikabahu VII of Kotte (1521–1551). He was a gifted warrior and widely regarded as one of the ...

, who rebelled against the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

in the 16th century. The town of Lathpandura was the demesne of the shrine of the God Saman. There is a legend that the

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

on which Veediya Bandara was riding knelt before this shrine and that he therefore gifted Lathpandura for the upkeep of the shrine. The constituency was originally part of electoral division

Matugama Mathugama ( si, මතුගම, ta, மத்துகம) is a semi urban town surrounded by mountains. It is an electorate of the Kalutara district, in Western Province, Sri Lanka. The town is located to the south of Colombo. Mathugama is ...

until 1947. In 1960 it was itself split into the Agalawatta and Bulathsinhala electorates. It became famous as a

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

fief, being lost to that party at only one election between 1947 and 1977. In this period it developed from being a road-less, school-less rural backwater into a relatively developed area. Since 1989 it has been an electoral division of the

, not a constituency sending a member to parliament in its own right.

Members of Parliament

The constituency has been represented in Parliament by: * Sam Silva - 1947-1952 *

C. W. W. Kannangara Dr. Cristopher William Wijekoon Kannangara ( Sinhala ආචාර්ය ක්‍රිස්ටෝෆර් විලියම් විජේකෝන් කන්නන්ගර; 18 October 1894 – 23 September 1969) was a Sri Lankan Lawye ...

- 1952-1956 *

Anil Moonesinghe Anil Moonesinghe (15 February 1927 – 8 December 2002) was a Sri Lankan Trotskyist revolutionary politician and trade unionist. He became a member of parliament, a Cabinet Minister of Transport in 1964, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament from 199 ...

- 1956-1967 * Colvin R. de Silva - 1967-1977 * Merril Kariyawasam - 1977-1989

Geography

Meegahatenna, in the south of Agalawatta, was the site of

graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...

mines which produced some of the highest quality graphite in the world. South of Meegahatenna is the Sinharaja forest, the only virgin

rain forest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest ...

in the wet zone of Sri Lanka. The town of Pelawatta, which lies in the electoral division, has the first bridge across the

Bentota Bentota is a coastal town in Sri Lanka, located in the Galle District of the Southern Province. It is approximately south of Colombo and north of Galle. Bentota is situated on the southern bank of the Bentota River mouth, at an elevati ...

River upriver from Beruwela on the coast, which became important after the

Boxing Day Tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

of 2004 made the coast road impassable. Electoral divisions in Sri Lanka Populated places in Western Province, Sri Lanka {{DEFAULTSORT:Agalawatta