Liveramentu Cemetery, also locally known as Jawatta Cemetery or the Torrington Cemetery, is a large municipal

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a bu ...

, located approximately from the

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

city centre, on Torrington Avenue. It is also the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in Sri Lanka. It is one of the six Commonwealth war cemeteries in Sri Lanka, and is maintained by the Department of National Botanical Gardens, with funding from the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations m ...

. The entrance to the cemetery incorporates a memorial wall, commemorating 346

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

servicemen and one Dutch serviceman who died while serving in

Ceylon 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 ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

(1939–1945), whose graves/bodies could not be found. In addition the cemetery contains the Liveramentu Cremation Memorial which commemorates 165 servicemen of the Hindu faith who died while serving in Ceylon, and who were accorded the last rite required by their religion – committal to fire. The memorial is in the form of a stone pylon crowned with a stone urn, with wing walls inscribed with the servicemen's names. The cemetery also has a memorial commemorating 28 Italian

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

who died and were buried in the country between 1939 and 1945. The cemetery is situated on the site of a Portuguese church, Chapel of Nossa Senhora do Livramento, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the Virgin of Good Deliverance, from which it derives its name. The church was a well known

Marian shrine A shrine to the Virgin Mary (or Marian shrine) is a shrine marking an apparition or other miracle ascribed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or a site on which is centered a historically strong Marian devotion. Such locales are often the destinatio ...

, with a well whose waters were alleged to perform miracles. The church was subsequently destroyed by the Dutch. The site was declared a protected archaeological site on 8 July 2005.

References

External links

* {{cwgc cemetery, 2000316
Index of War Dead in Liveramentu Cemetery
Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Sri Lanka Cemeteries in Sri Lanka Archaeological protected monuments in Colombo District Tourist attractions in Colombo

See also

References

External links