Negombo Tamils

Negombo Tamils or Puttalam Tamils is a term usually used for native Sri Lankan Tamils who live in the western Gampaha and Puttalam districts of Sri Lanka. It does not apply to Tamil immigrants from other parts of Island into these districts. They are distinguished from other Tamils from the island nation by their unique dialect(s), one of which is known as Negombo Tamil dialect, facial characteristics such as their thick pouting lips and other aspects of their culture. Other sub categories of native Tamils of Sri Lanka are Jaffna Tamils or Northern Tamils and Batticalao Tamils or Eastern Tamils from the traditional Tamil dominant North and East of the Island nation. Negombo is a principal coastal city in the Gampaha District and Puttalam is also the principal city within the neighbouring Puttalam District.

The main feature of the Negombo Tamils is the continuing process of assimilation into the majority Sinhalese ethnic group known as Sinhalisation. This process is enabled via number of caste myths and legends.

In the Gampaha district ethnic Tamils have historically inhabited the coastal belt where as in the neighboring Puttalam district, until the first two decades of the twentieth century it had a substantial ethnic Tamil population of whom majority were Catholics and a minority were Hindus.

According to L.J.B.Turner, although the distinction between Sinhalese and Tamils of the present day Sri Lanka is so marked but in the past there was considerable fusion between these ethnic groups. According to him the results of this fusion are most obvious on the western coast between Negombo and Puttalam, where a large proportion of the villagers, though they call themselves Sinhalese, speak Tamil, and are, undoubtedly, of Tamil descent. According to local legends their ancestors being captives from India or imported weavers and other artisans.

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