The Sabaragamuwa Province ( si, සබරගමුව පළාත ''Sabaragamuwa Paḷāta'', ta, சபரகமுவ மாகாணம் ''Sabaragamuwa Mākāṇam'') is one of the nine

provinces of Sri Lanka In Sri Lanka, provinces ( si, පළාත, translit=Paḷāta; ta, மாகாணம், translit=Mākāṇam) are the first level administrative division. They were first established by the British rulers of Ceylon in 1833. Over the next ...

, the first level

administrative division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

of the country. The provinces have existed since the 19th century but did not have any legal status until 1987 when the

13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka (13A) is amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, passed in 1987, which created Provincial Councils in Sri Lanka. This amendment also made Sinhala and Tamil the official languages o ...

established provincial councils. The Sabaragamuwa Province contains two districts: Ratnapura and

Kegalle Kegalle ( si, කෑගල්ල; ta, கேகாலை) is a large town in Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka. It is located on the Colombo– Kandy road, approximately from Colombo and from Kandy. It is the main town in the Kegalle Distri ...

. It is named after its former indigenous inhabitants, namely the Sabara, an indic term for

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, fung ...

tribes, a term seldom used in ancient Sri Lanka. Sabaragamuwa University is in Belihuloya.

Districts

Sabaragamuwa is divided into 2 districts: *

Kegalle District Kegalle is a district in Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka. It is one of 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a District Secretary (pr ...

Ratnapura District Ratnapura ( Sinhala: රත්නපුර දිස්ත්‍රික්කය, Tamil: இரத்தினபுரம் மாவட்டம்) is a district of Sri Lanka in the Sabaragamuwa Province. The gem-mining centre of Sri L ...

Municipal Council

* Ratnapura

Urban Council

* Balangoda * Embilipitiya *

Other Towns

* Bulathkohupitiya * Belihuloya * Eheliyagoda * Kalawana * Kuruwita * Mawanella *

Aranayaka Aranayaka ( si, අරණායක) is a town in the Kegalle District of Sabaragamuwa Province in Sri Lanka. Its agricultural economy revolves around local rubber, tea, banana and mahogany plantations. The Mawanella-Aranayaka-Horawella Road (Hi ...

* Rakwana * Imbulpe *

Deraniyagala Deraniyagala is a town in the Kegalle district in the Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka. Deraniyaga city area consists major government administrative offices, textile industries and transportation hub and the district hospital which has seve ...

Ambepussa Ambepussa is a town in the Kegalle District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka. History The Ambepussa railway station, was the terminus station for the first rail passenger service, a ten-carriage train which departed Colombo Fort railway st ...

Rambukkana Rambukkana, Pradeshiya Sabha, lies within the Kegalle district in Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka. The Council was incorporated on 7 July 1991 as Rambukkana ward and a few small towns. The constituency today has an area of 128.8 square km, with ...

* Kitulgala *

Panamure Panamure is a village located in the Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka. It is approximately from Colombo and from Ratnapura. The village is significant because it is the site of the last elephant kraal in Sri Lanka, Panamure ...

* Godakawela

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Sinhalese are the majority of Sabaragamuwa province which makes 86.4% of the province. Sinhalese who makes the majority of the Sabaragamuwa province as well as the majority of the country speak

Sinhala language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also s ...

which is an Indo-Aryan language. Indian Tamils is 5.49% of the province. Indian Tamils were brought to Sri Lanka by Britishers as workers in tea plantations and rubber plantations.

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinc ...

make 4.27% of the province. The origins of the

refer to Arab traders who landed on the island in the 8th-9th centuries.Also many Moors can speak

as their mother tongue. Moors speak

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory o ...

as their second language.

Sri Lankan Tamils Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern P ...

are 3.75% of the Sabaragamuwa province. Sri Lankan Tamils speak

which is their mother tongue.

Religion

Buddhism is 85.7% in Sabaragamuwa province. Buddhism is followed by majority Sinhalese. Also a small Tamil population follow Buddhism. Hinduism is 8.1% in Sabaragamuwa province. Indian Tamils and

follow Hinduism. Islam is 4.43% which is followed by

. And Christianity make 1.72% of the province.

References

External links

Cities in Sabaragamuwa province

Postal codes of Sabaragamuwa province
Provinces of Sri Lanka Kingdom of Kandy {{SabaragamuwaLK-geo-stub