Mannar (Sri Lanka)

Mannar ; மன்னார் ; මන්නාරම
	Mannar ; மன்னார் ; මන්නාරම
	Mannar ; மன்னார் ; මන්නාරම
State :	Sri Lanka
Province :	Northern Province
District :	Mannar

Mannar ( Tamil : மன்னார் Maṉṉār [ ˈmanːaːr ], Sinhala : මන්නාරම Mannārama [ maˈnːaːrəmə ]) is a city in northern Sri Lanka . It is the administrative seat of the Mannar District in the Northern Province .

geography

Mannar belongs to the Tamil area in the north of Sri Lanka. The city is located at the end of Mannar Island facing the main island, 120 kilometers south of Jaffna and around 250 kilometers north of the capital Colombo . The city is connected to the main island by a 3.5 kilometer long causeway.

history

During the period of European colonial rule, Mannar came first to the Portuguese in the 16th century , then to the Dutch in 1658 and to the British in 1795 . In 1948, Ceylon, renamed Sri Lanka in 1972, was granted independence by Great Britain. Mannar is one of the areas claimed by Tamil separatists as part of an independent Tamil Eelam state and was affected by the civil war in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009 .

population

The majority of the Tamil majority in Mannar are Catholic . Before the civil war, there was a larger minority of Tamil-speaking Muslims in Mannar , the so-called Moors . In October 1990, however, the Muslims were systematically expelled from the areas of the Northern Province controlled by the LTTE. Since the end of the conflict, some of the displaced Muslims have returned to Mannar district. According to the 2012 census, of the residents of Mannar Town Division, which includes Mannar City as well as the rest of Mannar Island and an area on the mainland, 60 percent are Christians, 20 percent Hindus and 18 percent Muslim.

Baobab tree in Mannar

Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Madhu

Attractions

The only noteworthy sight in Mannar City is the colonial fort, which was built by the Portuguese in 1560 and renovated by the Dutch in 1696. The fortress is well preserved, but is used by the military and is therefore not open to the public.

A little outside the city there is a baobab tree , which according to legend was planted by Arab sailors in 1477 .

On the mainland across from Mannar is the Thiruketheeswaram sanctuary dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva . The temple of Thiruketheeswaram was built in 1903 on the site of a sanctuary destroyed by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Today it is considered one of the five most important Shivaite temples in Sri Lanka.

In the inland, 50 kilometers from Mannar, is the Madhu Church of St. Mary , the most important Christian pilgrimage site in the country, to which thousands of believers of other religions also make pilgrimages. In 2019, President Maithripala Sirisena declared the Catholic Marian Shrine of Madhu a place of pilgrimage of national importance.

traffic

The causeway to Mannar

Mannar is connected to Jaffna by the A32 and Vavuniya by the A30 . Before the outbreak of the civil war, there was a rail connection over a route that branched off from the northern line of the Sri Lanka Railways in Medawachchiya . Trains ran from Colombo via Mannar to Talaimannar at the other end of Mannar Island. A ferry ran from Talaimannar to Rameswaram, India . The ferry service was given up during the civil war, and rail traffic on the Medawachchiya-Talaimannar route had to be stopped in 1990. After the end of the civil war, the line from Medawachchiya to Madhu Road station was reopened in May 2013.