Matara is a major city in Sri Lanka, on the southern coast of Southern Province. It is the second largest city in Southern Province. It is 160 km (99 mi) from Colombo. It is a major commercial hub, and it is the administrative capital and largest city of Matara District.
The Treaty of Batticaloa was signed on 14 February 1766 between Dutch Ceylon governor Wilhelm Falk and King Keerthisiri Rajasinghe of Kandy. In Colombo, Dumbararala led five emissaries to negotiate the terms of the treaty. Eventually, twenty-five clauses were established in the agreement.
Christianity is a minority religion in Sri Lanka. It was introduced to the island in first century. Traditionally, after Thomas the Apostle's visit in Kerala in AD 52, Christianity is said to have been introduced to Sri Lanka because of its close geographical and commercial ties.
The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated) (Dutch: Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (vrijgemaakt)) was an orthodox Calvinist federation of churches. This church body arose in 1944 out of the so-called Liberation (Vrijmaking) from the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, when many pastors and members refused to go along with the General Synod's demand to hold to "presumed regeneration of infants" at their baptism. Klaas Schilder played an important role in the Liberation. There are currently 270 affiliated local congregations with a total of about 120,000 members in 2016.
According to the 2012 census, 6% of the population of Sri Lanka was Christian; of these, one in ten was Protestant, showing that there were approximately six Protestants for every 1,000 Sri Lankans. Later estimates suggest that this share has doubled in less than ten years.
The American Ceylon Mission (ACM) to Jaffna, Sri Lanka started with the arrival in 1813 of missionaries sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Although they had originally planned to work in Galle, the British colonial office in Ceylon restricted the Americans to out-of-the-way Jaffna due to the security concerns of the British who were warring with France at the time. The critical period of the impact of the missionaries was from the 1820s to early 20th century. During this time, they engaged in original translations from English to Tamil, printing, and publishing, establishing primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions and providing health care for residents of the Jaffna Peninsula. These activities resulted in many social changes amongst Sri Lankan Tamils that survive even today. They also led to the attainment of a lopsided literacy level among residents in the relatively small peninsula that is cited by scholars as one of the primary factors contributing to the recently ended civil war. Many notable educational and health institutions within the Jaffna Peninsula owe their origins to the missionary activists from America. Missionaries also courted controversy by publishing negative information about local religious practices and rituals.
Forts and fortifications in Sri Lanka date back thousands of years with many being built by Sri Lankan Kings, these include several walled cities. With the out set of colonial rule in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka was occupied by several major colonial empires that from time-to-time became the dominant power in the Indian Ocean. The colonists built several western styled forts, mostly in and round the coast of the island. The first to build colonial forts in Sri Lanka were the Portuguese, these forts were captured and later expanded by the Dutch. The British occupied these Dutch forts during the Napoleonic wars.
The Church of Ceylon is the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka. It is an extraprovincial jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who serves as its Metropolitan. It was established in 1845 with the appointment of the first Anglican Bishop of Colombo, James Chapman and until 1950 it consisted of a single diocese; in that year a second diocese was established at Kurunegala.
Sri Lanka has a free and universal health care system. It scores higher than the regional average in healthcare having a high Life expectancy and a lower maternal and infant death rate than its neighbors. It is known for having one of the world's earliest known healthcare systems and has its own indigenous medicine system.
Kotahena is a suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and is known as Colombo 13.
The Gereja-Gereja Reformasi di Indonesia or the Indonesian Reformed Churches is a confessional Reformed church in the country of Indonesia established by orthodox Calvinist Dutch missionaries.
The Methodist Church of Sri Lanka is a Protestant Christian denomination in Sri Lanka. Its headquarters is in Colombo and was established on 29 June 1814. It is a member of the World Council of Churches, the Christian Conference of Asia, the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka and the World Methodist Council.
Wolvendaal Church is located in Pettah, a neighbourhood of Colombo. It is one of the most important Dutch Colonial era buildings in Sri Lanka, and is one of the oldest Protestant churches still in use in the country.
The Matara Fort was built in 1560 by the Portuguese and was substantially re-built by the Dutch in 1640, following the capture of Galle. The fort, which consists of a large stone rampart, occupies the promontory, which separates the Niwala Ganga (River) lagoon and the ocean.
The Dutch Reformed Church is located within the Matara fort in Matara and is situated near the entrance to the fort. The church was built by the Dutch in 1706 and is a smaller version of the church in Galle fort. It is one of the oldest Protestant churches still in use in the country.
The Groote Kerk or Dutch Reformed Church is located within the Galle fort in Galle, Sri Lanka and is situated near the entrance to the fort. The church was built by the Dutch in 1755 and is one of the oldest Protestant churches still in use in the country.
The Dutch Reformed Church is located between the Dutch fort and the village of Kalpitiya. The church was built by the Dutch in 1706 and is a smaller version of the church in the Matara fort. It is one of the oldest Protestant churches in the country.
Kruys Church or Kruys Kerk is located within the Jaffna fort in Jaffna, Sri Lanka and is situated near the entrance to the fort. The church was built by the Dutch in 1706 and was one of the oldest Protestant churches in the country.
