Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="netlife007" data-source="post: 20597719" data-attributes="member: 79514">Ripples on the Water: A History of the Beira Lake<img src="http://exploresrilanka.lk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1-1-768x447.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />In the heart of Colombo exists a lake overflowing with history. Created by invaders from afar, it was once many times its present size, served as a defensive moat, enabled the transport of goods and became a boating centre, before taking on its contemporary urban appearance.Words Richard BoyleTravelling past, or preferably walking alongside Colombo’s Beira Lake, one cannot help but wonder how this body of water (actually in two parts connected by a canal, which spills into the sea at Galle Face), came to be in the city centre, and what historic scenes may have transpired there.Regarding its establishment, Portuguese priest Father Fernão de Queyroz writes in Conquista Temporale Espiritual de Ceylão (1687), “When Vijayabahu [ruler of the nearby Kingdom of Kotte], laid siege to Colombo in 1522, the Portuguese captain pursued the attackers, killing and wounding them, till they reached a river [the Kolon Ganga, a tributary of the Kelani Ganga], which was afterwards dammed to form a lake to improve the fortification of the city”. The dam is long gone, but today’s Dam Street reveals where it previously stood.The city was Kolontota (‘tota’ means port), initially an Arab trading post at the mouth of the Kolon Ganga, where in 1505 the Portuguese first landed on the Island. In the decades ahead, Kolontota – the name was altered to Colombo by the Portuguese – was developed in colonial fashion, including a stockade, giving the islanders a glimpse of the future.Colombo was surrounded by the artificial lake, some 18 kilometres in length, which not only served as a defensive moat but, as it was connected to a network of canals, became an efficient means of transporting goods within the city and beyond.In 1578, Mayadunne, the founder of the Kingdom of Sitawaka (the Island consisted of a handful of minor kingdoms at that time), assembled his army on the bank of the lake to cut off Portuguese food supplies and thus starve the invaders. To complete his plan, Mayadunne tried but failed to drain the lake.Mayadunne was succeeded by his son, Rajasingha I, who continued his father’s belligerency towards the Portuguese. Indeed Colombo almost fell in 1587 after Rajasingha drained the crocodile-infested lake by cutting several canals, but the Portuguese had access to the sea, and were thus able to bring supplies from India.However, in 1656 the Dutch laid siege to Colombo by land and sea, which included crossing the lake. After seven months the Portuguese surrendered. The Dutch did not repair the Portuguese fortification but instead built a stockade on higher ground, so the lake became bigger. The low-lying land outside was flooded and the water extended to the Portuguese Kayman’s Gate entrance to the town, now absorbed by today’s Pettah district.</blockquote>

Verification: Asuwa dahayen wadi kalama keeyada?

Top Bottom

Search

Latest ads

Reply to thread