Bandarawela

History

History of the Bandarawela area is coming from the time of great Sinhalese King Valagamba who fell back and regrouped in the Dhowa region to fight against Chola invaders.

During the period of British colonial era, the city occurred rapid development of the infrastructures and human resources due to tea plantations and migration of the British and local people to this area. A lot of past evidences can be seen there belongs to that colonial period. There is few buildings remain which were built in the British colonial period with British architectural influences such as Bandarawela Hotel,Cargiles building, Tennis club, etc.

Bandarawela is one of the Sinhalese majority territories in Sri Lanka before the establishment of tea plantations under British administration. Nowadays there is a mix culture due to the migration of Tamils to the tea plantation sector as laborers from India under British colonial times. Those Tamil community had been got their full citizenship during the UNP Government period in 1978 to 1988 by Affidavit Act no 39 of 1988 [1]. The records of the other ethnic groups in this area are negligible.

Bandarawela famous as having been the camp in Ceylon of the Boer prisoners of war and some of the buildings erected for the temporary accommodation of the captives are now used in connection with the permanent camp health recuperation established here for the Navy , military and volunteers.
[edit] Politics

The town is ruled by a urban council headed by a mayor. The council is elected by popular vote and has 9 seats. There were 4,147 registered voters in the 2006 local authorities elections [2]. The urban council has been governed by the United National Party one of the largest political parties in Sri Lanka.

Out side the urban area is governed by the "Pradeshiya" saba which is also similar to the urban council. The pradeshiya saba is elected by popular vote as well and it has 10 seats. In the 2006 local authorities election, 37,972 voters were registered for the election.[3]
[edit] Heritage

The main heritage sites in and around Bandarawela are ancient Dhowa Buddhist rock temple,the Roman Catholic Church- St. Anthony's Church and Methodist church. Ancient dhowa rock temple was founded by the King Walagamba in the first century BC which is located 6 km away from the Bandarawela city. It has a 38 ft Buddha image sculptured from a rock and some paintings belonging to the Kandyan era, depicting various Jataka stories.
[edit] Geography and Climate

During colonial times, the picturesque town of Bandarawela was once hailed as possessing one of the healthiest climates in the world, & nothing much has happened here to change that. Therein this was the most favourable climate in the island. Geographically, the Bandarawela area is hilly and surrounded by the large number of mountains in Uva and Central Province.

According to the local climatic zone classifications, Bandarawela is classified under Up Country Intermediate Zone (UCIZ) which is spread over the Badulla and Moneragala Districts. The elevation above the sea level at Bandarawela is 1300 m, the annual average rainfall is between 1100 and 1400 mm and the monthly average temperature are between 15 °C (in February) and 27 °C (in May and June). The Bandarawela area consists mainly at Red Yellow Podzolic soil which is strongly acidic and favorable for the tea plantation.
[edit] Demography

Bandarawela is a Sinhala majority city, there are sizeable communities belonging to other ethnic groups, such as Indian Tamils, Sri Lanka Moors and Sri Lanka Tamils.
No Ethnicity Population % Of Total
1 Sinhala 46,843 72.42
2 Indian Tamils 10,521 16.26
3 Sri Lankan Tamils 3,647 5.63
4 Moors 3,127 4.83
5 Malays 267 0.41
6 Burghers 147 0.22
7 Other 123 0.19
Total 64,675 100
[edit] Religion

Bandarawela area has multi religious population. Buddhism and Hinduism constitute majority of the religious faith. There is also a minority of Islams and Catholics. Pushparama Buddhist temple, Sri Sivasubramania Swamy Kovil and Masjid Mohideen Muslim mosque are the main religious places situated in and around Bandarawela Urban area. There is also three catholic churches which has long historical background with colonial periods situated very close to the city.
Bandarawela religiosity
religion percent
Buddhism
 
70.92%
Hinduism
 
18.31%
Islam
 
5.44%
Roman catholic
 
4.13%
Other Christians
 
1.15%
other
 
0.02%
[edit] Economy

The main livelihood of the people living in this area is agriculture farming and tea plantation. Majority of the people are directly involved in vegetable cultivation and some are working as laborers in tea estates. There are large number of tea plantations which are managed by both private and government sectors and produce good quality tea for the world tea market.

Although Vegetable gardens also used to be a common sight around the town. A lot of temperate vegetables are grown in this area throughout the year such as leek, carrot, beet root, cauliflower, cabbage and more. About one tenth of the population works for government, private establishments and run their own businesses. So the majority of the people in this area fall in the low and middle income groups.

Tourism is another income generation way in bandarawela area. A lots of holiday resorts, cottages and hotels can be found in this area with better facilities.
[edit] Education

During World War II, many families moved to Bandarawela as leading schools in Colombo such as Royal College, St. Thomas' College and Visakha Vidyalaya, completely shifted to Bandarawela due to the fear caused by the Japanese bombs. This caused to improve the education background of the people in Bandarawela. Bandarawela has good education background to generate intelligent people for the country's development. It consists of many popular schools in the Badulla district with better facilities for primary and secondary education. Some of schools in the area include Bandarawela Central college, Visakha Vidyalaya, Little Flower Convent and St. Joseph college Bandarawela. These schools are governed by the central government of Sri Lanka. There are also two private schools which are popular in island wide. They are S. Thomas' College Bandarawela and S. Thomas' College,Guruthalawa.
[edit] Picturesque Places
Front view of the Adisham Bangalow

Rawana Ella (131ft in height) and Diyaluma (628ft in height) are the most beautiful waterfalls in this region. Rawana ella is situated on the Ella, Wellawaya main road and Diyaluma situated near the Koslanda village. Adisham bungalow, Bandarawela hotel and Lipton's Seats are other historic places in Bandarawela area. Bandarawela hotel is a century old British built property associated with the development of the hill-country railways.