Trincomalee District ( ; ) is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a District Secretary (previously known as a Government Agent) appointed by the central government of Sri Lanka. The capital of the district is the city of Trincomalee.

Geography Trincomalee District is located in the east of Sri Lanka in the Eastern Province. It has an area of .

Etymology

Trincomalee The city has developed from a village settlement on the promontory dedicated to the Hindu shrine. The origin of the term Ko, Kone and Konatha lies in the Old Tamil word for the terms "Lord", "King" or "Chief", which allude to the deity that presides here; this term appears in several Tamil Brahmi inscriptions of the 6th century BCE — 2nd century CE. Trincomalee, the coastal peninsula town where Koneswaram is located is an anglicized form of the old Tamil word "Thiru-kona-malai" (), meaning "Lord of the Sacred Hill", its earliest reference in this form found in the Tevaram of the 7th century by Sambandhar. Thiru is a generally used epithet denoting a "sacred" temple site while Malai means mountain or hill; Middle Tamil manuscripts and inscriptions mention the monumental compound shrine as the Thirukonamalai Konesar Kovil. Kona () has other meanings in Old Tamil such as peak, while another origin for the term Koneswaram could come from the Tamil term Kuna (East). Therefore, other translators suggest definitions of Trincomalee such as "sacred angular/peaked hill", "sacred eastern hill" or "three peaked hill". The temple was constructed atop Swami Rock, also called Swami Malai or Kona-ma-malai, a cliff on the peninsula that drops 400 feet (120 metres) directly into the sea.

Administrative units Trincomalee District is divided into 11 Divisional Secretary's Division (DS Divisions), each headed by a Divisional Secretary (previously known as an Assistant Government Agent). The DS Divisions are further sub-divided into 230 Grama Niladhari Divisions (GN Divisions).

DS DivisionMain TownDivisional SecretaryGNDivisionsArea(km2)Population (2012 Census)PopulationDensity(/km2)Sri Lankan Moors Sri LankanTamil Sinhalese IndianTamil Other TotalGomarankadawala Gomarankadawala S. M. C. Samarakoon 10 288 1 25 7,313 0 0 7,339 25Kantalai Kantalai K. Premadasha 23 404 5,108 1,534 37,448 2,478 73 46,641 115Kinniya Kinniya M. A. Anas 31 165 58,447 2,522 19 3,445 18 64,451 391Kuchchaveli Kuchchaveli P. Thaneswaran 24 438 21,307 10,553 1,193 40 7 33,100 76Morawewa (Muthalikkulam) Morawewa W. M. Bathiya Vijayantha 10 329 1,300 888 5,750 3 5 7,946 24Muttur Muttur V. Yoosuf 42 195 34,984 20,935 444 4 12 56,379 289Padavi Siripura Siripura V. P. S. Jinadrasena 10 152 1 10 11,846 0 1 11,858 78Seruvila Seruvila P. R. Jayarathna 17 311 2,426 1,816 9,293 3 8 13,546 44Thampalakamam (Thambalagamuwa) Thampalakamam J. Sripathy 12 226 16,164 4,701 7,476 0 15 28,356 125Trincomalee Town & Gravets Trincomalee J.H.Arulraj 42 148 13,113 61,282 21,179 546 1,114 97,234 657Verugal & Eachchalampattu Verugal P. Thanesvaran 9 71 3 11,283 30 12 4 11,332 160Total 230 2,727 152,854 115,549 101,991 6,531 1,257 378,182 139

Demographics Population Trincomalee District's population was 378,182 in 2012.

The population of the district, like the rest of the east and north, has been heavily affected by the civil war. The war killed an estimated 100,000 people. Several hundred thousand Sri Lankan Tamils, possibly as much as one million, emigrated to the West during the war.

Ethnicity + Population of Trincomalee District by ethnic group 1827 to 2012Year MuslimTamilSinhalese Other TotalNo.No. % No. % No. % No. %1827 3,245 16.94% 15,663 81.76% 250 1.30% 0 0.00% 19,1581881 Census 5,746 25.89% 14,304 64.44% 935 4.21% 1,212 5.46% 22,1971891 Census 6,426 24.96% 17,117 66.49% 1,105 4.29% 1,097 4.26% 25,7451901 Census 8,258 29.04% 17,060 59.98% 1,203 4.23% 1,920 6.75% 28,4411911 Census 9,700 32.60% 17,233 57.92% 1,138 3.82% 1,684 5.66% 29,7551921 Census 12,846 37.66% 18,580 54.47% 1,501 4.40% 1,185 3.47% 34,1121946 Census 23,219 30.58% 33,795 44.51% 11,606 15.29% 7,306 9.62% 75,9261953 Census 28,616 34.10% 37,517 44.71% 15,296 18.23% 2,488 2.96% 83,9171963 Census 40,775 29.43% 54,452 39.30% 39,925 28.82% 3,401 2.45% 138,5531971 Census 59,924 31.83% 71,749 38.11% 54,744 29.08% 1,828 0.97% 188,2451981 Census 75,039 29.32% 93,132 36.39% 85,503 33.41% 2,274 0.89% 255,9482001 Census n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a2007 Enumeration 151,692 45.37% 96,142 28.75% 84,766 25.35% 1,763 0.53% 334,3632012 Census 152,854 40.42% 122,080 32.29% 101,991 26.97% 1,257 0.33% 378,182

Religion + Population of Trincomalee District by religion 1981 to 2012Year Islam Buddhist Hindu Christian Others TotalNo.No. % No.% No. % No. % No. %1981 Census 76,404 29.85% 82,602 32.27% 80,843 31.59% 15,583 6.09% 516 0.20% 255,9482012 Census 159,251 42.11% 98,772 26.12% 98,133 25.95% 21,892 5.79% 134 0.04% 378,182

Poverty In 2016, the district was one of the poorest in Sri Lanka and had the third-highest incidence of extreme poverty according to the World Bank.

Politics and government Local government Trincomalee District has 13 local authorities of which two are Urban Councils and the remaining 11 are Divisional Councils (Pradesha Sabhai or Pradeshiya Sabha).

Local Authority AreaPopulationRegisteredElectors(2011)Elected Members (2011)UPFA TNA UNP Other Total Gomarankadawala Divisional Council 5,831 8 0 1 0 9Kantalai Divisional Council 397.3 48,632 30,898 8 0 3 0 11Kinniya Divisional Council 16,626 5 0 2 0 7Kinniya Urban Council 9.5 44,034 21,069 5 0 1 1 7Kuchchaveli Divisional Council 333.3 29,967 20,872 6 2 1 0 9Morawewa Divisional Council 116.0 10,000 8,659 6 0 3 0 9Muttur Divisional Council 179.4 60,000 37,731 7 3 1 0 11Padavi Siripura Divisional Council 217.1 13,000 8,362 6 0 1 2 9Seruvila Divisional Council 277.0 13,886 9,130 7 1 1 0 9Thampalakamam Divisional Council 244.0 33,967 17,125 6 0 3 0 9Trincomalee Town and Gravets Divisional Council 31,791 3 5 1 0 9Trincomalee Urban Council 7.5 101,958 31,927 2 8 1 1 12Verugal Divisional Council 5,894 1 5 0 1 7Total 245,915 70 24 19 5 118

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