Muslim Relationship with Sinhalese in the History of Monaragala (Wellassa) District, Sri Lanka

Abstract

The Monaragala District, which named as Wellasaa by its ancient residents, is one of 22 electoral districts of Sri Lanka.  Monaragala is located in South Eastern part of Sri Lanka and it is one which of two districts located in Uva Province, with 5639² KM terrain extension. In Monaragala, Sinhalese are the dominant group which comprises 94.5% of the total population, Tamils 3.3% and the Muslims 2.17%. Monaragala is a predominantly Buddhist district. However, the other religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Christianity are also being practiced. The members of all communities lived in peace and harmony with social integration with one another. The main objective of this paper is to explore the Muslim relationship with the Sinhalese through the history of Monaragala district. In order to carry out this research there has been used the folktales and utterances prevailed among the native public and also used published and unpublished sources.

Keywords: History, Monaragala Distrcit, Wellassa, Relationship, Sinhalese, Muslims.