{"id":96927,"date":"2019-12-26T18:26:58","date_gmt":"2019-12-27T01:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=96927"},"modified":"2019-12-26T18:26:58","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T01:26:58","slug":"kollupititya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/26\/kollupititya\/","title":{"rendered":"Kollupititya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of this information was obtained from a book titled Colonial Kollupitiya and its environs by H.M.M. Herath.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

There was a time when Kollupitiya was known as Baradeniya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a beautiful rustic village with coconut  gardens and \ncinnamon trees that grew wild and narrow cart-tracks which connected the few \nvillas and homes here with the rest of the country.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the purpose \nof postal services ‘Colombo 03’ consists of Kollupitiya.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How \nBaradeniya became Kollupitiya  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year was 1664 and the king was \nRajasinghe II whose cruel acts embittered his subjects. Three Kandyan chiefs \nsought to slay the king and place his 12-year-old son on the throne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One \nof the conspirators was Udanuwara Ambanwela Appuhamy. When the plot failed, the \nking had two of the rebel leaders beheaded. However, instead of executing \nAbanwela Appuhamy, the most feared of the rebels, he handed him over to the \nDutch to undergo what he thought would be a more brutal torture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead \nthe Dutch set him free. Ambanwela Appuhamy took the Dutch name of Van Ry-cloff \nand built up a good relationship with the Dutch who gave him a large plot of \nland by the sea where he grew a coconut plantation which soon expanded over the \nancestral farms of the natives who dared not complain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They could only \nretaliate by calling the plantation Kolla-ke-pitiya meaning ‘Plundered land’. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, there is still an area in Kollupitiya that is called Polwatte.  \n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The footprints of Galle Face    Colombo 03 begins with Galle face south \nof Colombo Fort (Colombo 01). Originally a vast swamp, the Portuguese and Dutch \nused this piece of land as a strategic defense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the British who \ndeveloped the Green into a leisure ground. The 19th century paintings of John \nDeschamps, show the Galle-Face esplanade with a high road running through the \ncentre of it. Added later was a promenade by the sea and a driveway bordering \nthe lake where the Dutch Military cemetery was. Deschamps describes it as \nforming not only the principal exercising ground of the garrison, but also the \ngeneral promenade of the inhabitants of Colombo and its vicinity. “On foot, on \nhorseback, or in carriages, people flocked to this salubrious setting to inhale \nthe delicious breeze which is almost always to be found by the sea side of this \npart of the Island”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Galle Face esplanade or Green was established \nby Governor Ward in 1859. An inscription reads “in the interest of the ladies \nand children of Colombo “.    Cricket, football and polo were played on the \nGreen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1829, horse racing was established under the auspices of Sir \nEdward Barnes. “Everyone enjoyed a day at the races: the vendors poured in from \nearly noon, servants on leave spent their day there, as well as schoolboys who \ndidn’t make it to school, palanquin carriages with shutters down and curtain \ndrawn conveying Mohammedan ladies” and of course the European community”. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A circular race stand was built by subscription. Initially it was a \nbuilding of brick, coated with a plaster of chunam. Its conical roof was covered \nwith an excellent thatch of kehjan (woven coconut leaves). From here a view of \nthe whole course could be obtained. The race-balls were held here, the upper \nroom being cool and airy for dancing; card-tables were placed in the verandahs, \nwhilst the lower portion formed a good supper-room. Subsequently the roof was \ntiled. By the 1870s it had become a more substantial building and was known as \nthe Colombo Club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This building still stands, even though maybe not in \nits original modest form, and is now the Crystal Ballroom of the Taj Samudra \nHotel Colombo.    At one end of the green was the Galle Face Boarding House, \nforerunner of the present Galle Face Hotel, which was constructed in \n1887.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today the green has lost much in its extent but after a long period \nof neglect has recently been restored back to the chief leisure ground of modern \nColombo for people of all walks of life.    A temple, a church, a school  \nKollupitiya Walukarama Buddhist Temple is said to be the oldest temple in \nColombo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was founded in the 1800s by Ven. Panditha Valane Sri \nSiddhahatta Maha Nayake Thera, who was also the founder member of the Maha \nSangha Saba of the Siyam Nikaya of the Kotte Chapter. The land for the \nconstruction of the temple was donated by a famous indigenous medicine physician \nof Kollupitiya, Arnolis Silva.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Andrew’ s Scots Kirk founded in \n1842 as a Church of Scotland by Scots living in Ceylon, has today become the \nInternational Church in Colombo welcoming into its fellowship people of all \nnations and denominations of the Christian faith.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jinaraja Kanista \nVidyalaya down Dharmakirthi Ramya Road dates back to 1898. Then named “Jinaraja \nBuddhist English School” this was the oldest Buddhist English mixed school in \nColombo. This school was established for boys and girls of Colombo managed by \nthe Buddhist Theosophical Society, Colombo under the guidance of Col. Henry \nSteele Olcott.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A jeweller, a textile dealer, a baker, a grocer, an \noptician and a private hospital    Galle Face Court 1 was the first multi storey \nblock of flats in Sri Lanka and the domed addition which followed as Galle Face \nCourt 2 were both buildings that were initiated by the Macan Markar family as \nresidential, business and real estate ventures. The dome housed an observatory. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road here was renamed Sir Macan Markar Mawatha on account of the \ncontribution of the Macan Markar family towards industry, business, trading and \npolitics in Sri Lanka.    More famous were the Macan Markar family for their gem \nand jewellery trade, which had, among its clientele, several members of the \nBritish nobility and Royalty including His Majesty King Edward VII (1875) as \nPrince of Wales and His Majesty King George V (1901) as the Duke of Cornwall and \nYork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world famous Cat’s Eye, weighing 105 Carats referred to as the \nBlue Giant of the Orient, a Blue Sapphire weighing 225 carats named the Wonder \nStar of Asia and a Star Sapphire weighing 225 carats are said to be in the \npossession of the firm.    Victory Silk Store was established in 1947 and is the \noldest Textile shop in Kollupitiya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The founder, C Parsram, was a highly \nhonored and respected Sindhi who had come to settle permanently in Ceylon from \nIndia in 1914. Parsram was the founder of member of the Sindhi Merchants \nAssociation of Ceylon and also held the prestigious position of its Presidency \nmany times. He was also responsible for the establishment of the Ceylon Sindhi \nCommunity Center at Kollupitiya.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perera & Sons originated with K. \nA. Charles Perera who came to Colombo from a village called Kodagoda near Galle. \nHe arrived in Colombo in 1888, with only 50 cents. He began his career as a cook \nin colonial mansions and then joined the Grand Oriental Hotel as a kitchen \nhelper where subsequently he took up the responsibility of the hotel’s bakery. \nPerera commenced his own bakery in 1902 by renting two houses at Steuart Place, \nKollupitiya. Today Perera & Sons, are perhaps the largest bakers in the \ncountry.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Albert Edirisinghe Opticians is the very first optical firm \ndealing in eye testing and manufacture of spectacles in Kollupitiya, established \nin 1949. Albert Edirisinghe, hailed from Galle and originally joined the \nbusiness of William Pedris & Company in 1936 where he worked in the optical \nsection of the firm gaining valuable experience. After serving for almost 13 \nyears, he started his own enterprise, which is today a very successful optical \ncompany in the country.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Durdans Hospital established in 1945 at \nAlfred Place, Kollupitiya, is one of the oldest private sector hospitals in the \ncountry. This was the home of Charles Pieris. It was begun as the Principal \nBritish Military Hospital in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Premasiri Stores originally \nlimited to groceries, was established in 1952 by Premasiri a young entrepreneur. \nWithin a short time, Premasiri Stores built up a regular clientele from among \nthe local population and a sizeable foreign community of the area. They ventured \ninto the direct imports of certain products to cater to the mixed clientele. A \n“Wine & Spirits” department was also added to the stores.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Temple \nTrees – where the rich and famous lived    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The house and premises a \nlittle over six acres named the ‘De Brandery’, meaning the Distillery, is \nbelieved by some to have housed an excellent cellar, while others say the \nbuilding was used to make spirits.    Many have been its famous occupants in the \npast. Frederick Baron Mylius (from 1805) a judge in the Ceylon Civil Service \nsocial reformer and anti-slavery activist, John Walbeoff (1830) head of the \nCinnamon Department, George Winter who was a pioneer of sugar cultivation on a \ncommercial scale and other enterprises in Ceylon like manufacturing coir rope \nand distilling arrack in Kalutara, C R Buller (1840) Government Agent of the \nWestern Province, after whom Bullers Road (now Bauddhaloka Mawatha) was named, \nthe Layard family, Dr Christopher Elliot (1848) the Principal Medical Officer in \nCeylon who was also the proprietor and editor of the ‘Ceylon Observer’ English \ndaily newspaper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was during the occupancy of J P Green (1856), that \nthe De Brandery was renamed as ‘Temple Trees’, so called after the two gnarled \nold temple trees growing in the front yard.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Temple Trees was \npurchased by the Government in November 1903, for the use of the Governor and \nother high ranking British government officials. After Independence was granted \nin 1948, it was declared the official residence of the Prime Minister. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, it is the official residence of the President of Sri Lanka.    A \nmini zoo, a cattle farm, and Weliganna watte    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mini zoo had been in \noperation at “IXORA” Green Path. This was earlier owned by Hagen Bech who was \nthe originator of the Dehiwela Zoo. The animals were later transferred to \nDehiwela.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cattle farm, referred to as ‘Kiri Pattiya’, had been in \noperation down Palm Grove Avenue. It is said that milk was distributed free to \nthe people from beneath a huge tamarind tree that stood in this area.    \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weli Ganna-watte (the garden where sand was taken from) was an area \nbetween the Kollupitiya Railway Station and Galle Face Hotel, to its North. It \nwas a highly profitable illegal business and people used to come from all parts \nof Colombo to take away sea sand, using bullock carts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There used to be \norganized gangs who demanded ‘kappan’ (protection money) from the carters in \norder to guarantee them safe passage with their sand.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus is a brief description of what was Kollupitiya or Colombo 03.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of this information was obtained from a book titled Colonial Kollupitiya and its environs by H.M.M. Herath. There was a time when Kollupitiya was known as Baradeniya. It was a beautiful rustic village with coconut  gardens and cinnamon trees that grew wild and narrow cart-tracks which connected the few villas and homes here with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}