Hambantota, the main city of Hambantota District is located near the 148th mile (238-km) post along the Colombo-Galle-Matara-Tissamaharama highway.
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Map of Hambantota District (Click to enlarge)
Hambantota, Sri Lanka, May 1978
Early Malay settlers
History.
About 200BC, the first Kingdom of Sri Lanka was flourishing in the north central region of Anuradhapura.
After a personal dispute with his brother, King Devanampiyathissa of Anuradhapura, King Mahanaga established the kingdom of Ruhuna in the south of the island. This region played a vital role in building the nation as well asnurturing the Sri Lankan Buddhist culture.
During the height of this vibrant period the travelers and traders from the Far East, Siam, China and Indonesia sought anchorage in the natural harbor at Hambantota. The vessels these traders traveled in were called “SAMPANS” and their anchorage came to be known as “ SAMPANTOTA” (now this particular anchorage is known as Godawaya). By and by the area came to be called “HAMBANTOTA”.
Legend has it the archaic name of Hambantota appears to have been Sampanthurai. This word Sampan is said to have been derived from the Malay word meaning navigators, as the MALAYS, in the olden days were sea-farers who had come in their sailing vessels for barter trade. The word `Thurai` means a port – a Tamil derivation.
Another version, In the legends, `Hamban` is popularly known as an ethnic group called `Malay` or `Muslims` and `thota` means where those groups were landed. The sleepy fishing village of Hambantota (this is the Sinhaleserendition of the Malay words Sampan kota Harbour of small boats the name came from groups of Malays who settled here), a good six hours drive from Colombo. This type of sailing craft was commonly used for ocean navigation. It was quite popular among the Chinese, Malays and Moors who inhabited the Asian region.
Malays are a recognised minority ethnic group in Sri Lanka. Most of them are the descendants of MALAY mercenaries who were brought to Sri Lanka in the 17th century by the Dutch.
Time was when the Hambantota District was a quiet backwater in Sri Lanka’s Deep South. In ancient times, when the Kingdom of Ruhuna was in existence, it was a highly-developed area. Extensive cultivation of rice and other crops supported by an intricate water management system was the base of a highly developed Buddhist culture and civilisation.
The high standards of the hydraulic civilisation which existed in the Raja Rata at those times would have undoubtedly spread to southern Sri Lanka. The name Wel-Laksha (Wellassa), land of one hundred thousand paddy fields, gives a clue to this economic powerhouse.
The area was also a focus for the extraction and distribution of salt to the rest of the country. The dry climate was ideal for collecting sea water in vast areas of low lying land on the coast, and letting the water evaporate under the heat of the glaring sun. The salt distribution was the monopoly of Muslim traders who took salt by pack bull to the interior hills and bartered it for spices which they brought back to Magampura and exported. Research has shown that the development of Muslim communities in the interior of the island have been on this salt route inland, roughly a day’s march apart.
Similarly, before the advent of the Europeans, the Muslims held the monopoly of the internal trade in salt and the external trade in spices. It was a fleet which set out from the Portuguese enclave of Goa on India’s west coast – to hunt down some Muslim pirates who basing themselves in the Maldives harassed Portuguese vessels competing with the Muslim traders for the spice trade – that was caught up in a South West monsoon storm, damaged its masts and had to limp into Galle harbour to effect repairs, that brought the first Portuguese to this island.
Ancient Magampura (today’s Hambantota) was a harbour on the southern sea route from the west to the east – what has today been branded as the Spice Route. Indeed some historians argue that the name Hambantota is derived from ‘Sampan Thota’ – the harbour used by Chinese sea going Sampans which traversed the southern seas in the 1400s well before the European colonisers arrived.
A stone plaque at Galle records that Admiral Cheng Ho visited the Galle Port with his fleet at that time and kidnapped the local ruler and took him and his family back to China. Some time ago the descendants of that family visited Sri Lanka as guests of the Government.
International flavour of Southern Sri Lanka
The international flavour of Southern Sri Lanka can be measured by the fact that the Galle plaque is in four languages – Chinese, Persian, Arabic and Tamil. Even at that time Sri Lanka was clearly globalised.
An ancient carved edict on a rock near the ancient port of Magampura gives specific details of the tax revenue to be collected from imports and exports moving through the port, as prescribed by the ruler’s revenue department. It was certainly an emporium for international trade.
Ruins of ancient Buddhist religious buildings, some renovated, and antiquities recovered from archaeological sites in the area, provide a backdrop to the region’s rich cultural diversity. The prominent Muslim/Malay part of the population is said to be partly descended from seafarers from the Malay Archipelago who travelled through the Magampura port, and over time settled down.
The presence of a pre-existing Malay community prompted the British colonial Government to disband and settle soldiers of a Malay Regiment which had fought with the British in the Kandyan wars at Kirinda near Hambantota. After the arrival of the European colonialists, and the focus of the Galle harbour, Hambantota went into quiet decline.
The Portuguese and the Dutch were primarily interested in the spice trade and focused on the wet zone in the western part of Sri Lanka. Hambantota was an arid zone, located within the dry zone, and the interest of the colonials was mainly due to the salt pans, from which salt was extracted and distributed to the rest of the country.
The Portuguese and the Dutch, who were challenged by Muslim traders from West Asia in this spice trade, were keen to break the monopoly the Muslim traders had in the distribution of salt locally and to the KandyanKingdom.
The Portuguese and Dutch built and garrisoned forts at Bundala to guard the salt pans and control the internal trade. The British moved the garrison to Hambantota and built a Martello tower, overlooking the bay, which stands to this date as a look out post for enemy vessels. Martello, an Italian, had built similar towers on the British coast overlooking the British Channel, as a lookout for French ships during the Napoleonic Wars.
The British established the administrative centre of the District at Hambantota, situated the Kachcheri (revenue office), the court house, the Police station and other Government establishments in the town. A Customs post was also established. The Green Line, a round island ship service during colonial times, called at the Hambantota pier.
During the colonial years, Hambantota Distort went into gradual decline and the only industries of any capacity were salt extraction and the dairy industry and due to the large quantities of milk produced which could not be stored for marketing, a curd industry developed as the main cottage industry of the district. The brand Ruhuna ‘Meekiri’ or Ruhuna Curd is even today a product for which there is excellent brand recognition.
Leonard Woolf, a young British Assistant Government Agent in Hambantota, has written extensively on the district and its poverty. This is well reflected in his masterly novel ‘Village in the Jungle,’ which was later made into an award-winning film.
Hambantota was a stopover on the way for pilgrims travelling to the jungle shrine of Kataragama. Recently Hambantota has become a mega focus of development – international harbours, international airports, international conference centre, international cricket stadia, a venue for international sports competitions and a network of highly-developed highways, among other things.
As in Admiral Cheng Ho’s time, China is playing a big role again in the Deep South of Sri Lanka. The hitherto backwater of development is getting a major push into the globalised world of international trade. There is talk of an international free trade and manufacturing zone abutting the international harbour and the international airport.