Karaitivu (, ) is a coastal

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

situated in the Eastern Coast of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

about 30 miles (44 km) south of

Batticaloa Batticaloa (, ''Maṭṭakkaḷappu'', ; , ''Maḍakalapuwa'', ) is a major city in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, and its former capital. It is the administrative capital of the Batticaloa District. The city is the seat of the Eastern Univers ...

and is next to

Kalmunai Kalmunai (; ) is a city located in the Ampara District of Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Etymology The name "Kalmunai" is believed to have originated from the Tamil words "Kal" and "Munai," which respectively mean "stone" and "corner." This name ...

town. This is one of the oldest surviving village settlements in the

Ampara District Ampara District (; ) is one of the 25 Districts of Sri Lanka, districts of Sri Lanka, the second-level administrative divisions of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a Government Agent (Sri Lanka), Distric ...

.Karaitivu Tsunami appeal
Karaitivu.com (English)

Landscape

The village has 9–10 square meter area with 4 km long continuous sea boundary on the East and contains paddy lands on the West. Kalmunai, a commercial town with

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

majority borders the North and Ninthavur, another Muslim dominant village is on its South. The sandy soil beach front extends to about less than 300 meters before a

creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: * Creek people, a former name of Muscogee, Native Americans * C ...

of about 20 meters running parallel to the sea and connects the sea almost at the end of the village. Land area further extends from the creek to the West border of

paddy Paddy may refer to: People *Paddy (given name), a list of people with the given name or nickname *A nickname or slur for an Irish person Birds *Paddy (pigeon), a Second World War carrier pigeon *Snowy sheathbill or paddy, a bird species *Black ...

lands for a length of one and half km. There are few smaller patches of coconut plantations and vegetable growing area in the south part of the village.

History

Significance of this village in the East is that it is the birthplace of

Swami Vipulananda Swami Vipulananda (; 27 March 1892 – 20 July 1947), also known as Vipulananda Adigal, was a Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu social reformer, literary critic, author, poet, teacher and ascetic from the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Vipulananda was an e ...

who was credited with reviving the long dormant

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

and Hindu traditions of the Tamil people throughout Sri Lanka. The continuing Sri Lankan civil war has adversely affected civilian population of this village resulting in many missing people, preponderance of widows and lack of development and employment opportunities. The village also took a direct hit from the

2004 Tsunami On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known in the scient ...

resulting in the destruction of over 50% of the village and the deaths of over 2,000 people. Most farming and fishing related families lost all the required equipment to continue on with their professions.Tsunami survivor

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

(English)

References

External links

www.karaitivu.org
(Tamil and English)

(Tamil and English)
Karaitivu map at www.karaitivu.orgKaraitivu map locationwww.karaitivu.comwww.karaitivu.lk
(Tamil ) {{Coord, 7, 22, N, 81, 50, E, display=title Villages in Ampara District Karaitivu DS Division