Valvettithurai

Valvettithurai வல்வெட்டித்துறை වල්වෙට්ටිතුරෙයි
Town
Fishing boats at the shoreline
Valvettithurai
Coordinates: 9°49′0″N 80°10′0″E / 9.81667°N 80.16667°E / 9.81667; 80.16667
Country	Sri Lanka
Province	Northern
District	Jaffna
DS Division	Vadamarachchi South‐West
Government
• Type	Urban Council
• Chairman	Nadarajah Anantharaj (TNA)
Area
• Total	4.85 km2 (1.87 sq mi)
Population (2007)
• Total	18,000
• Density	3,711/km2 (9,474/sq mi)
Time zone	Sri Lanka Standard Time Zone (UTC+5:30)

Valvettithurai or VVT (Tamil: வல்வெட்டித்துறை Valveṭṭittuṟai; Sinhalese: වල්වෙට්ටිතුරෙයි) is a town of Jaffna District on the northeast coast of the Jaffna Peninsula in Northern Province, Sri Lanka governed by an Urban Council of the same name. The town has a population of 18,000. Valvettithurai was historically known as a seafaring town and its olden shipping trade.

The town is popularly known for being the birthplace of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or the Tamil Tigers, a Tamil nationalist militant group that waged a war for independence in the North and East. Valvettithurai is also the place of birth, of the leaders of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization, Kuttimani and Nadarajah Thangathurai.

Valvettithurai in Tamil could mean "The port of the expanse of forest land/scrub jungle" or "The port of the raised stretch of open land". The word Valvettithurai seems to have been derived from the combination of Tamil words Vallai meaning a big forest or a raised stretch of land, Vedi which means expanse or open space, and Thu’rai which refers to seaport.

Valvettithuri is a coastal town bounded by the Indian Ocean to its north. It is situated at the tip of the northern province and is considered as a place of strategic importance due to the presence of the Palk Strait and its close proximity to the coast of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The northern coast of the island was severely impacted by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami which claimed several thousand lives.