Taprobane Island, originally called "Galduwa" ("Rock Island" in Sinhalese), is a
private island with one villa, located just off the southern coast of
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 ...
opposite the village of
Weligama
Weligama ( si, වැලිගම, ta, வெலிகாமம்) is a town on the south coast of Sri Lanka, located in Matara District, Southern Province, Sri Lanka, governed by an Urban Council. The name ''Weligama'', literally means "sandy v ...
. The island was renamed after the old Greek word for Sri Lanka, by its most famous owner,
Maurice Talvande (who styled himself as "Count de Mauny Talvande"), who sighted it around 1925 after a long search for an earthly paradise. He built its villa and replanted the island to create a private Eden. The
islet
An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanen ...
passed on to the American author and composer
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...
and then the Sri Lankan born former
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
Chief Prosecutor Sir
Desmond Lorenz de Silva
Sir George Desmond Lorenz de Silva, (13 December 1939 – 2 June 2018) was a British criminal law barrister and international lawyer who served as the United Nations Chief War Crimes Prosecutor in Sierra Leone.
Early life
Desmond de Silva was ...
before it came to the ownership of the Australian businessman
Geoffrey Dobbs Geoffrey, Geoffroy, Geoff, etc., may refer to:
People
* Geoffrey (name), including a list of people with the name
* Geoffroy (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095–c. 1155), clergyman and one of the ...
.
Notable people who stayed on Taprobane include Dutch author Peter ten Hoopen, who spent a month there in 1984 during civil unrest on the mainland, as well as
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...
, who composed a song about the island inspired by her stay titled "Taprobane (Extraordinary Day)". It inspired
Jason Kouchak to compose "Dark Island" in his 1999 album ''Watercolours''.
The author
Robin Maugham
Robert Cecil Romer Maugham, 2nd Viscount Maugham (17 May 1916 – 13 March 1981), known as Robin Maugham, was a British author.
Trained as a barrister, he served with distinction in the Second World War, and wrote a successful novella, ''The S ...
, who visited the island as a young man, and in the mid-1970s, considered the unique beauty and harmony of the villa had become compromised after de Mauny's death by partitioning and the loss of his furniture and fittings, and that the area itself had been despoiled by the construction of a new road along the mainland beach.
[Maugham, Robin ''Search For Nirvana'', WH Allen, London 1975, pp. 151–3] Since then, and particularly after the
2004 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 Su ...
, substantial further residential development on the adjoining mainland has occurred. While
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.
He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...
's novel ''
The Fountains of Paradise
''The Fountains of Paradise'' is a 1979 science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. Set in the 22nd century, it describes the construction of a space elevator. This "orbital tower" is a giant structure rising from the ground ...
'' takes place in "Taprobane", the setting is recognizably Sri Lanka, not this island.
Literature
*
*
References
External links
{{Commons category, Taprobane Island
Taprobane Island
Hotels in Matara District
Islands of Sri Lanka
Landforms of Matara District
Private islands of Asia